… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: benefits

  • Activists ask why a Labour government is ‘gleefully’ backing Tory plans to tighten work capability assessment

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    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/activists-ask-why-a-labour-government-is-gleefully-backing-tory-plans-to-tighten-work-capability-assessment/

    [dizzy: That’s Labour Socialist MP John McDonnell wearing the red tie.]

    Disabled activists have questioned why a Labour-run department was in the high court this week defending cuts proposed by the last government which would cause “human suffering” among hundreds of thousands of claimants of out-of-work disability benefits.

    They spoke during a vigil outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday (pictured) as disabled activist Ellen Clifford and her lawyers from Public Law Project were preparing to challenge the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over a “rushed and disingenuous” consultation on plans to tighten the work capability assessment (WCA).

    The plans were announced in the 2023 autumn budget, and would see more than 400,000 disabled people losing out on £416 a month by 2028-29, with many also facing strict new conditions and the risk of benefit sanctions that could see them lose even more money.

    Clifford says the changes would be “cataclysmic for Deaf and disabled people in the UK and would push many into destitution”.

    Labour’s work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, has promised to make the savings promised by the Conservatives, who pledged to cut spending by £2.8 billion in the four years to 2028-29 by tightening the WCA.

    Kendall said the government would make these savings by “bringing forward our own proposals”, but she has yet to rule out the WCA changes.

    Tracey Lazard, chief executive of Inclusion London, told Tuesday’s vigil that it was “incomprehensible that the new Labour government is picking up these plans and seemingly running ahead with them in glee”.

    …

    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/activists-ask-why-a-labour-government-is-gleefully-backing-tory-plans-to-tighten-work-capability-assessment/

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.

  • Scottish budget vows to scrap two-child benefits cap

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-budget-vows-to-scrap-two-child-benefits-cap

    Finance Secretary Shona Robison during a visit to Logan Energy Limited in Edinburgh ahead of the publication of the Scottish Budget, December 4, 2024

    SCOTTISH Finance Secretary Shona Robison announced that the two-child cap on benefits will be scrapped in Scotland as she pledged record spending for both the NHS and councils in next year’s Budget today.

    The moved to scrap the cap would lift 15,000 children out of poverty, Ms Robison said.

    She told MSPs as she outlined her draft Budget plans in Holyrood: “Be in no doubt that the cap will be scrapped.”

    Ms Robison slammed the UK Labour government’s inaction on a “pernicious” policy considered to be a key driver of child poverty by organisations such as the Poverty Alliance.

    She challenged the UK government to work with them and share the necessary information to “build a system” to mitigate it “as early as we can in 2026.”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-budget-vows-to-scrap-two-child-benefits-cap

    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
    Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

  • Labour welfare ‘reforms’ are a cruel, destructive move

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-welfare-reforms-cruel-destructive-move Many articles from Morning Star today

    WELFARE AUSTERITY: (L to R) Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall; Keir Starmer

    DIANE ABBOTT MP condemns the government’s vicious attack on benefits that callously denies the pandemic’s impact on the working class while pushing vulnerable people into unsuitable work through punitive measures

    THERE is now overwhelming evidence that the government is reimposing austerity measures. This is true in relation to income tax, public spending after next year, higher energy bills, bus fares and other prices determined by government.

    But perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspects of austerity has been the planned cuts to the welfare bill.

    Yet Keir Starmer, Liz Kendall and a host of other ministers have done their best to dispel any complacency on this issue. People who are on welfare, for whatever reason, are in the government’s firing line.

    Their attack has two prongs. The first is that there is a blanket assertion that the welfare bill is “too high” and the second is that they will crack down on benefit fraud. Deliberately or otherwise, it is clear that these two issues are closely connected.

    Promising “radical reforms to get Britain working,” in a recent article, Starmer went on to say, “In the coming months, Mail on Sunday readers will see even more sweeping changes. Because make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-welfare-reforms-cruel-destructive-move Many articles from Morning Star today

  • Cold spell ‘a threat to people’s health’ as millions struggle with bills

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cold-spell-threat-peoples-health-millions-struggle-bills

    THE government issued its first cold weather alert this year, while millions continue to ration their energy use to dangerous levels.

    …

    National Energy Action’s Peter Smith said: “With energy bills rising since October and far less support available nationally this winter, millions of people are already rationing their energy use to dangerous levels or getting deeper into debt trying to keep warm.

    “Sadly, even this brief cold spell will be a threat to people’s health and worse and will create further extreme hardship for millions of households.”

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cold-spell-threat-peoples-health-millions-struggle-bills

  • More than 250 UK unpaid carers risk prosecution over benefit overpayments

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    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/14/unpaid-carers-risk-prosecution-unwittingly-breaching-benefit-rules-dwp

    The Department for Work and Pensions has been imposing harsh penalties on carers who breach overpayment rules by as little as £1. Photograph: Jozef Polc/Alamy

    Guardian Exclusive: Campaigners urge ministers to intervene to prevent cruel punishments over carer’s allowance

    …

    A series of Guardian articles have highlighted the often cruel punishments and harsh financial penalties imposed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on carers who do part-time paid jobs, causing public outrage and leading to comparisons to the Post Office scandal.

    As many as one in five carer’s allowance claimants have been hit by “cliff-edge” punishments for breaching earnings limits, where going just £1 over the weekly limit means having to repay the entire benefit. A carer who earned £1 more than the £151 threshold for 52 weeks would pay back not £52 but £4,258.80.

    The latest figures suggest as many as 259 carers have come into scope for legal proceedings since April after unwittingly building up large overpayments. A key criterion for referring claimants to the Crown Prosecution Service for fraud is that the overpayment sum is more than £5,000.

    In two cases since April, carers have been forced to repay more than £20,000, which suggests the DWP failed to spot the allowance earnings breaches for nearly five years, even though in theory it would have been alerted electronically to the infringements early on by HMRC.

    Separate figures, obtained under freedom of information laws, show thousands more carers are unknowingly building up large debts because there is an administrative backlog of 29,000 carer’s allowance cases awaiting investigation for possible breaches of earning limits.

    The Carers Trust estimates a further 10,000 carers could be caught by the system over the next few months and it has urged ministers to write off any carer’s allowance overpayment charges while the review is under way.

    “The review is very welcome but these alarming figures show that the root cause of the problem hasn’t gone away,” said the charity’s director of policy, Dominic Carter. “The flaws with these overpayment demands are well known by now so it is staggering that many carers are still suffering the consequences.”

    …

    Read the original article at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/14/unpaid-carers-risk-prosecution-unwittingly-breaching-benefit-rules-dwp