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Work and pensions committee chair tells ministers to fix carer’s allowance issues

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/work-and-pensions-committee-chair-tells-ministers-to-fix-carers-allowance-issues

Stephen Timms says DWP letting unpaid carers incur ‘enormous accidental overpayments’

Ministers have been told to “immediately” fix the issues causing tens of thousands of unpaid carers to incur “enormous accidental overpayments” amid growing anger over the carer’s allowance scandal.

An older man waits at a pedestrian crossing pushing a person in a wheelchair

Stephen Timms, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee, said he was “very troubled” that scores of carers were being forced into financial distress as a result of the government’s mistakes.

He said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should be “helping them not harassing them” and added: “It does sound to me as though things are going quite badly wrong at the moment.”

Timms, the chair of the Commons work and pensions committee and the Labour MP for East Ham, told BBC Radio 4’s Money Box programme that the DWP seemed to “completely ignore” the notifications it received when an unpaid carer earned more than the £151-a-week limit.

Instead, he said, the department was allowing people to incur “enormous accidental overpayments”, often over several years. In dozens of cases these bills have totalled more than £20,000.

The Guardian revealed this week that 156,000 unpaid carers are now repaying severe penalties – pushing many into debt or financial distress – for often unwittingly overstepping the small earnings limit while caring for a loved one. Roughly one in five unpaid carers in part-time work breached the earnings limit last year.

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/work-and-pensions-committee-chair-tells-ministers-to-fix-carers-allowance-issues

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Politicians are blaming disabled people for the inequalities they face

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/politicians-are-blaming-disabled-people-for-the-inequalities-they-face/

It’s time the Government gives disabled jobseekers and employees the support they need – rather than demonising people who can’t work.

On Friday, Rishi Sunak pledged to tackle Britain’s so-called ‘sick note culture’. Saying that the ‘spiralling’ benefits bill was unsustainable, he promised to ‘control welfare’ if re-elected.

This rhetoric is nothing new. Disabled people have faced an ongoing onslaught of negative headlines over the past few months.

The Prime Minister has previously spoken about ‘[squeezing] benefits to fund more tax cuts for workers’, pitting disabled people against the rest of society. Commentators, too, have taken to arguing that our benefits system ‘invites abuse’.

And this harmful attitude towards welfare is not partisan; Labour too have implied that there are too many people claiming disability benefits.

But disability benefits are not a problem that needs to be ‘controlled’. At its best, our welfare system enables disabled people to lead more independent and meaningful lives, offering them vital support to overcome the barriers they face. That is something people across the political spectrum should celebrate.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/politicians-are-blaming-disabled-people-for-the-inequalities-they-face/

Continue ReadingPoliticians are blaming disabled people for the inequalities they face

The government’s plans for unlimited surveillance on benefit claimants’ bank accounts should worry us all

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/the-governments-plans-for-unlimited-surveillance-on-benefit-claimants-bank-accounts-should-worry-us-all/

Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward.

The UK government is taking statutory powers for unlimited snooping on bank and building society accounts connected with receipt of social security benefits and the state pension, even when there is no suspicion of fraud. This is the latest chapter in the right-wing coup that began in the 1980s.

Millions of individuals, landlords, charities, clubs, voluntary organisations and companies will become subject to 24/7 surveillance. No court order is needed and you won’t be told anything about the information extracted and how it is used or abused. There is no right of appeal.

The source of latest rush towards totalitarianism is the misleadingly titled Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. It has been passed by the House of Commons where the government used its big majority to stifle debate. It is now going through the House of Lords.

The attack on civil liberties is dressed up as a fraud prevention measure, but the government is unable to provide relevant data. The government claims that mass monitoring is needed to check benefit fraud, estimated to be around £6.4bn a year or 2.7% of the total benefit payments. Under the Social Security Fraud Act 2001, the government can request information from bank accounts on a case-by-case basis, if there are reasonable grounds to suspect fraud. This is being replaced by mass surveillance of bank accounts. A Minister told parliament that “proportionately fraud in the state pension is very low”, and was unable to provide any financial numbers but the government will place 12.7m retirees under surveillance.

The government claims that mass surveillance would reduce fraud by £600 million over the next five years though this somehow became  £500m during the debate in the Commons, i.e. £100m-£120m a year. To put this into context, during 2023-24, the government spent £1,189bn.

Financial institutions will be paid unspecified millions to conduct mass snooping and look for cash flow sources and patterns or the level of savings, and flag people exceeding thresholds for benefits. There is a danger that gifts to loved ones to buy clothes or a new bed could be counted as income, and result in loss of benefits. The inherent assumption in the Bill is that information generated by IT systems would be correct. The Post Office scandal shows that computer generated information isn’t necessarily correct, and can lead to injustices. Neither financial institutions nor the Department of Work and Pensions will owe a ‘duty of care’ to any injured party.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/the-governments-plans-for-unlimited-surveillance-on-benefit-claimants-bank-accounts-should-worry-us-all/

Continue ReadingThe government’s plans for unlimited surveillance on benefit claimants’ bank accounts should worry us all

Government transparency hits new low as granting FOI requests plunges

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/government-transparency-hits-new-low-as-granting-foi-requests-plunges/

One of the many occasions climate destroyer and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.
One of the many occasions climate destroyer and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.

Under Rishi Sunak, government transparency has reached an all time low with new government data revealing 2023 was the worst year for granting freedom of information (FOI) requests. 

The Prime Minister has been accused of presiding over the most secretive government ever, with only 34% of resolvable FOIs granted in full, down 5% from 2022. Investigative journalist Peter Geoghegan said this drop matched the previous largest ever drop in a single year, in 2014.

This is the lowest figure since monitoring began in 2005, the government’s own data analysis has said, and reflects a growing drop in the granting of FOIs under the Tory Party.

In comparison the figure was 41% under Boris Johnson, 46% under Theresa May, 56% under David Cameron and 60% when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/government-transparency-hits-new-low-as-granting-foi-requests-plunges/

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Stop arms race, campaigners tell politicians

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/stop-arms-race-campaigners-tell-politicians

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (right), Defence Secretary Grant Shapps (left), and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak look at weapons at the Warsaw Armoured Brigade in Warsaw, Poland, April 23, 2024

ANTI-WAR campaigners demanded a stop to the new arms race today, after Tories and Labour united in support of boosting military spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product.

The Establishment embraced a new spasm of militarisation as PM Rishi Sunak announced in Warsaw that Britain would crank up its arms bill to the new target by the end of the decade.

This would put an “additional £75 billion into defence spending over that period,” Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told MPs.

Mr Shapps claimed a “much more dangerous world” made the commitment necessary, citing alleged threats from Russia, Iran and China.

Both he and Mr Sunak spoke of the arms industry going onto a “war footing” and urged all Nato member states to match Britain’s new target.

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“Labour will always do what is required, spend what is required, on defence” shadow defence secretary John Healey assured the Commons.

Both parties are out of line with public opinion on the issue.

An Opinium poll released today revealed more military spending ranked last out of nine priorities for voters, with the NHS being first.

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German pointed out that “the UK already spends over 2 per cent of our total GDP on arms, the highest in Europe.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/stop-arms-race-campaigners-tell-politicians

Continue ReadingStop arms race, campaigners tell politicians