vulnerable people

Work and pensions secretary tells MPs controversial disability benefit reforms will go ahead next year

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https://news.sky.com/story/work-and-pensions-secretary-tells-mps-controversial-disability-benefit-reforms-will-go-ahead-next-year-13382300

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall. File pic: PA

Liz Kendall rejects calls to delay the changes until a full assessment is carried out of the impact on employment, poverty and health.

The government has told MPs it will not back down from its controversial reforms to disability benefits, which are set to be introduced to parliament later this month.

More than 100 Labour MPs are thought to have concerns about the plans to cut nearly £5bn from the welfare bill by restricting personal independence payments (PIP) and the health top-up to Universal Credit.

Charities say the changes will have a “catastrophic” effect on vulnerable people.

The chair of the Commons’ Work and Pensions Committee wrote to the secretary of state, Liz Kendall, last month, calling on the government to delay the changes until a full assessment is carried out of the impact on employment, poverty and health.

Labour MP Debbie Abrahams wrote that while there was a case for reform to disability benefits, “the evidence indicated [these changes] might not improve outcomes for most claimants, but instead push many into poverty and further away from the labour market”.

‘Reforms are needed now’

But Ms Kendall has written back, in a letter made public on Wednesday, to reject the idea because the bill needs final approval from parliament in November in order for the changes to take effect in 2026.

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Article continues at https://news.sky.com/story/work-and-pensions-secretary-tells-mps-controversial-disability-benefit-reforms-will-go-ahead-next-year-13382300

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Continue ReadingWork and pensions secretary tells MPs controversial disability benefit reforms will go ahead next year

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.”

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

Continue ReadingLabour welfare ‘reforms’ are a cruel, destructive move

Torygraph catches up to Reeves’s lack of due care – almost a year after Skwawkbox

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Original article republished from the Skwawkbox.

Labour’s disdain for conducting impact assessments on the effects of its cuts and austerity reaches the ‘MSM’ – 11 months after Skwawkbox exclusively revealed it

The Telegraph has today reported that right-wing Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves carried out ‘no impact assessment’ before ‘withdrawing winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners, the Telegraph can reveal’.

The right-wing rag is a little late to the party. Skwawkbox revealed exclusively eleven months ago that Labour undertook no impact for any of its plans on vulnerable people, whether pensioners, the disabled, the poor, the ill or children.

Tragically, the revelation was correct and Labour has begun to implement its red-Tory austerity – supposedly to fix the blue-Tory austerity that wrecked the country – as soon as it was ushered into power by the fascist Reform ‘party’ despite receiving far fewer votes than in 2017 and even the supposed ‘disaster’ of 2019 under Corbyn.

And the party is even trying to cover up how many people the blue-Tory policies killed, presumably so its hands are freer to impose fresh misery and death without scrutiny – as if the UK’s ‘mainstream’ media does much scrutiny in the first place.

Original article republished from the Skwawkbox.

Continue ReadingTorygraph catches up to Reeves’s lack of due care – almost a year after Skwawkbox