Cameron

Cabinet minister ‘misled’ Parliament over welfare reform

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10465480/Cabinet-minister-misled-Parliament-over-welfare-reform.html

Andrew Lansley, a Tory Cabinet minister, is facing claims that he misled Parliament after doubts were cast on his denial that ministers attempted to influence a report by MPs into the Universal Credit fiasco

Image of Andrew Lansley…

Andrew Lansley, the Leader of the House, earlier this month told the Commons that there was “no truth” to allegations that ministers had approached Tory MPs on the public accounts committee to ask that its report name and shame his department’s permanent secretary, Robert Devereux.

The PAC report said that £140million had been squandered on the flagship welfare reform and accused the Government of “alarmingly weak” management.

Mr Duncan Smith denied allegations that he had attempted to have anyone blamed in the report.

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However, Margaret Hodge, the committee’s chairman, has now cast doubt on those claims and said that senior figures in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) had sought to influence her report.

In comments to students on November 11 – four days after the publication of he committee’s report – Mrs Hodge said: “I can’t tell you how much inappropriate talking there was to me and other members of the committee, by both ministers and civil servants, either to get me to blame the permanent secretary in the DWP and therefore transfer blame away from Iain Duncan Smith or to put the blame on Mr Devereux and to ensure ministers escaped blame.”

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Iain Duncan Smith and the Tories F*Up again: Training people to use universal credit ‘could cost hundreds of millions’

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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/21/universal-credit-benefit-training-cost-millions

Research shows many benefit claimants will need extensive help to get online, open bank accounts and manage budgets

Image of Iain Duncan SmithEquipping benefit claimants with the digital and financial skills to use the government’s new universal credit welfare system is likely to cost hundreds of millions of pounds, unpublished research commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has found.

The study, carried out by three London councils using DWP data and a methodology agreed with Whitehall officials, found they would each need to spend about £6m over a two-year period to support vulnerable claimants to get online, help them open bank accounts and manage monthly budgets.

The research, seen by the Guardian, , reveals the extent to which socially excluded claimants will struggle with the huge cultural and behavioural changes demanded by universal credit, and warns that without help, those who fail to get to grips with the new welfare system will face debts, arrears and eviction, leading to a rise in homelessness.

It suggests councils, charities and private companies will be required to deliver millions of hours of specialist training and support face-to face and over the telephone to ensure claimants are confident and technically proficient enough to use the system.

Around one in 10 users of the system are likely to need intensive or ongoing support, it finds.

The scale and cost will unnerve ministers, who are struggling to roll out the beleaguered £2.4bn universal credit system, and have admitted that they have already written off at least £140m on failed IT systems for the project. Ministers are expected to decide by Christmas whether to write off universal credit altogether and start again, or reduce it in size and complexity to make it more manageable.

Those behind universal credit see it as an opportunity to tackle digital and financial exclusion for up to 8m households. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has called it a chance for claimants to “get back in to the 21st century“.

But while they anticipated that this would require some investment, they are understood to be taken aback by the potential size of the support bill – which could reach £100m for London alone – and have ordered departmental analysts to see if it can be reduced.

Under universal credit, six existing benefits will be rolled into a single monthly payment, out of which claimants will be expected to pay rent, spread living costs over a four-week period, and provide regular online updates marking changes in their income and job status. Unemployed claimants will also have to search for jobs online.

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Archbishop attacks UK food poverty

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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/19/food-poverty-archbishop-york-john-sentamu

Image of Archbishop of York, John SentamuJohn Sentamu calls for ‘more equitable, more caring world’ and questions effects of government’s welfare reforms

The archbishop of York has attacked the “new and terrible” blight of food poverty and increasing malnutrition in Britain, questioned the effects of the government’s welfare reforms and called for a renewal of the postwar spirit that hungered for “a more equitable, more caring world”.

In a long and often angry address to the Church of England general synod on Tuesday, John Sentamu said static salaries and rising prices had left nine million people living below the breadline at a time when the chief executives of the UK’s 100 biggest companies were earning on average £4.3m – 160 times the average national wage.

“We are an advanced economy, a first-world country, and we have been one for longer than most,” said the archbishop. “But we suffer from blight – increasing poverty in a land of plenty.”

Sentamu, who chairs the Living Wage Commission, said politicians needed to stop referring to “hard-working” families and recognise that they were instead “hard-pressed” families struggling to survive despite their best efforts.

“Once upon a time you couldn’t really be living in poverty if you had a regular income,” he said. “You could find yourself on a low income, yes. But that is not longer so. You can be in work and still live in poverty.”

Reports of malnutrition and food poverty in Yorkshire “disgrace us all, leaving a dark stain on our consciences”, he said. “How can it be that last year more than 27,000 people were diagnosed as suffering from malnutrition in Leeds – not Lesotho, not Liberia, not Lusaka but Leeds?”

The effects of the government’s welfare reforms, Sentamu said, were “beginning to bite – with reductions in housing benefit for so-called under-occupation of social housing, the cap on benefits for workless householders and single parents, and the gradual replacement of the disability living allowance with a personal independence payment”.

He questioned whether the bedroom tax made economic sense, as those leaving accommodation to avoid the under-occupancy charge were being rehoused in private lodgings at a greater cost. He expressed incredulity that the statutory minimum wage had been raised by just 12p last month.

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U-turn over energy efficiency rules could risk 30,000 jobs

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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/19/energy-efficiency-jobs

Scrapping programme will result in massive job losses and huge costs in lost savings, green association warns

Scrapping the government’s commitment to key measures to bring energy efficiency improvements to homes would cost tens of thousands of future UK jobs, research obtained by the Guardian has shown.

The energy companies obligation (Eco) is likely to provide 46,000 jobs within the next two years, according to the Association for the Conservation of Energy, in an analysis using the government’s own estimates of employment.

Most of those jobs – the majority of which are “blue collar” jobs in installing insulation, new boilers and construction projects – are now potentially at risk following government backtracking.

If the scheme were abandoned, as some have called for, at least 30,000 of these jobs would be at risk.

Scaling back the scheme, rather than abandoning it, would also result in significant job losses: halving the main requirements would cut employment by 10,000 people in the next year and an additional potential 7,500 future jobs would be foregone. Removing one of the main components of the scheme, which is aimed at people on low incomes, would see 28,000 jobs lost.

Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, said: “The vast majority of these jobs would be blue collared, and often semi-skilled. They would frequently be not even in SMEs, but in micro-businesses, precisely the companies that the government is relying upon to ensure economic recovery. Hammering these home improvement schemes makes no sense.”

The future of the Eco scheme – which is designed to help people on low-incomes and those with hard-to-treat homes requiring expensive measures such as solid wall insulation – has been thrown into doubt after David Cameron pledged to “roll back” the green measures that are added to consumer energy bills.

Eco was targeted after government legal experts pointed out that the UK has obligations under EU law to generate about 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020, and that any moves to scrap the current subsidy regime could lead to the coalition being sued by renewable energy companies. Eco is currently paid for out of additions to energy bills, and one of the options that some energy company bosses have espoused is to move it into general taxation.

EDF came under fire for “blackmailing” the government over the scheme when it announced it would raise its prices by 3.9% – significantly less than rivals – but saying that the rise would be increased unless Eco was scrapped.

But Eco could help hundreds of thousands of people out of fuel poverty, according to the Local Government Association. It calculates that Eco could deliver £2.5bn in savings on energy bills for low-income and vulnerable households, but at present only about £1bn is being realised, because of foot-dragging by the energy companies in carrying out Eco installations in homes.

The estimates of likely job losses follow the revelation that energy companies have netted £1bn from consumer bills to pay for Eco, while spending only about £400m on the scheme. On one of the three key components of the scheme, designed to help the most vulnerable people, Ofgem has said energy companies have delivered only 3% of what needs to be achieved by March 2015.

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UK failing on green commitments, conservation groups say

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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/19/uk-green-commitments-wildlife

The government is failing to make good progress on five in six of its promises to protect nature and wildlife, according to a report produced by every large conservation group in Britain.

While praising moves to tackling damaging fishing practices and the ash dieback epidemic, the 41 groups say the government is failing to protect the green belt, reverse declines in wildlife, and improve the welfare of farm animals.

“David Cameron promised the greenest government ever. Using the government’s own promises as a yardstick, today’s findings show he’s failed to stick to his plan,” said Dr Elaine King, director of Wildlife and Countryside Link, which represents 41 groups including the WWF, the Wildlife Trusts, the RSPCA, the RSPB, the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the Marine Conservation Society. Only one in three people polled thought the government took the natural environment or scientific advice into account when making decisions and just one in five thought the government was “the greenest ever”.

“We’re told an economy in crisis is a higher priority than nature in crisis. Yet the government is missing a huge opportunity – a healthy environment helps the economy and enhances people’s health and wellbeing,” said King.

The report says the crisis in nature “translates into a crisis for people too, because the environment is the foundation of our lives and livelihoods, and a source of great joy and fulfilment for many millions of people across the country”.

The first full assessment of the UK’s natural environment, published by the government in 2011, found that looking after green spaces better is worth at least £30bn a year in health and welfare benefits.

The Nature Check report analysed 25 promises made by the government, in its coalition agreement, mid-term review, and plans published by departments. It concluded “good progress” was being made on four: reform of EU fisheries rules, especially on the killing of seabirds; a timely ash dieback response; and international support for a ban on whaling and moves against ivory sales.

But nine promises were judged as failing, including protecting the green belt, promoting high standards of welfare for farm animals, especially in intensive dairy farming, and improving flood defences.

The failure to implement the government’s strategy to “halt the overall loss of England’s biodiversity by 2020” is said to be of extreme concern, while the badger cull is criticised as being “neither balanced nor science-led”. The creation of just 31 of the 127 recommended marine conservation zones means it is not ecologically coherent, the report said.

On the government’s support for its farmer-led review of regulations, the report says “an unrelentingly deregulatory approach to farming is damaging and will harm environmental protection and animal welfare”.

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