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Budget 2016
Some early stories:
£4bn spending cuts:
George Osborne will announce fresh austerity measures on Wednesday as he delivers his eighth budget against the backdrop of a darkening economic outlook.
The chancellor has signalled that he will make spending cuts of £4bn, as he battles to hit his self-imposed target of delivering a surplus on the public sector finances by the end of this parliament.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/16/chancellor-fresh-austerity-measure-in-budget
Money Advice Service expected to be abolished/replaced:
The Chancellor, George Osborne, is expected to announce in the Budget that the Money Advice Service will be replaced by a smaller advice body.
The MAS has been criticised in two official reports. One study commissioned by the Treasury found that few members of the public had even heard of it. And two years ago the National Audit Office found the MAS was not always delivering value for money.
“We will work with the government to fully consider the implications of any announcement,” said a spokesperson for the MAS.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35820752
£100m to target ‘unacceptable’ growth in homelessness:
More than £100m has been earmarked for a series of measures aimed at helping people at risk of being forced on to the streets.
The chancellor will announce cash to provide 2,000 accommodation places for rough sleepers who are ready to move on from crisis hostels and £10m for homelessness prevention projects.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/15/chancellor-osborne-100m-budget-homelessness
Some links for later:
- Budget 2016: HM Treasury
- Parliament TV
- Budget 2016 live: The Guardian
- Budget 2016 live: BBC News
Budget 2016 speech and documents now available:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/budget-2016-george-osbornes-speech
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2016-documents
This section of the Budget document is suspiciously empty…..
4.32 Addressing imbalances in the tax system
It’s followed by a completely blank space and then section 4.33….shurely shome mistake?
Just picking out the key bits:
Income tax
1.82 The government is determined to support those in work by continuing to cut taxes and has committed to raise the personal allowance to £12,500, and the higher rate threshold to £50,000 by the end of this parliament.
1.83 The personal allowance will be 70% higher in April of this year than in 2010-11. At Budget 2016, the government takes another significant step towards this commitment, by increasing the personal allowance from £11,000 in 2016-17 to £11,500 in 2017-18. This continues to ensure that no-one working 30 hours per week on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will pay income tax in 2017-18, and will bring the total number of taxpayers taken out of income tax since the start of this parliament to 1.3 million. As a result, a typical basic rate taxpayer will pay over £1,000 less income tax in 2017-18 than in 2010-11.67
1.84 The government also wants to ensure that the tax system encourages individuals to progress. At Summer Budget 2015 the government announced that the higher rate threshold would rise from £42,385 in 2015-16, to £43,000 in April this year.
1.85 This Budget goes further. The government will increase the higher rate threshold by £2,000 to £45,000 in 2017-18.
Help to Save
1.113 To help the people who find it hardest to save, the government will introduce a new Help to Save scheme for those on low incomes who wish to regularly set aside some of their income. The scheme will be open to 3.5 million adults in receipt of Universal Credit with minimum weekly household earnings equivalent to 16 hours at the National Living Wage, or those in receipt of Working Tax Credit.91 It will work by providing a 50% government bonus on up to £50 of monthly savings into a Help to Save account. The bonus will be paid after two years with an option to save for a further two years, meaning that people can save up to £2,400 and benefit from government bonuses worth up to £1,200. People will be able to use the funds in any way they wish.
Preventing homelessness
1.129 To further support rough sleepers off the streets and to help those who are recovering from a homelessness crisis, Budget 2016:
- invests £100 million to deliver low-cost ‘second stage’ accommodation for rough sleepers leaving hostel accommodation and domestic abuse victims and their families moving on from refuges. This will provide at least 2,000 places to enable independent living for vulnerable households and individuals, freeing up hostels and refuges for those in most acute need
- invests £10 million over two years to support and scale up innovative ways to prevent and reduce rough sleeping, particularly in London, building on the success of the No Second Night Out initiative
- doubles the funding for the Rough Sleeping Social Impact Bond announced at the Autumn Statement 2015 from £5 million to £10 million, to drive innovative ways of tackling entrenched rough sleeping, including ‘Housing First’ approaches
- takes action to increase the number of rough sleeping EU migrants returning to their home countries. Building on the success of the Operation Adoze pilot, the government will roll out a new approach in which immigration officials work with Local Authorities and outreach workers to connect rough sleepers to services that can return them home
Disability employment reform
1.134 This Budget announces that the government is accepting the recommendations of an independent stakeholder group and will offer new peer and specialist support for those suffering from mental health conditions and young disabled people.
Later this year, the government will publish a White Paper focusing on the roles that the health, care and welfare sectors can play in supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to get into and stay in work.
Support for parents in employment
1.136 To support families in this Budget, government will launch a consultation in May 2016 on how to implement its commitment to extend Shared Parental Leave and Pay to working grandparents. The consultation will also cover options for streamlining the system, including simplifying the eligibility requirements and notification system, and will explore the potential to make better use of digital technology.
1.137 The government will work with the Behavioural Insights Team to look at new ways to support parents in choosing how and when to return to work.
1.138 From early 2017, the government is introducing Tax-Free Childcare to help working parents with the cost of childcare, ensuring more parents who want to can go out to work or increase the number of hours they work. Tax-Free Childcare will be rolled out in such a way that allows the youngest children to enter the scheme first, with all eligible parents brought in by the end of 2017. The existing scheme Employer-Supported Childcare will remain open to new entrants until April 2018 to support the transition between the schemes. This will sit alongside doubling the free childcare entitlement from 15 hours to 30 hours a week for working families with three and four year olds from September 2017.
National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage
1.142 The Budget announces that the government will set the main rate of the NMW, which applies for workers aged between 21 and 24, at £6.95 from October 2016, in line with the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations. This increase means the main NMW rate will reach its highest ever level in real terms.112 The government has also accepted the LPC’s recommendations for the youth and apprentice rates of the NMW.
[ Edited: 16 Mar 2016 at 02:20 pm by shawn mach ]
damage done in the last budget really. just another budget for those that have cash and none for those that dont.
Supporting the self-employed
1.166 From April 2018, Class 2 NICs will be abolished. This represents an annual tax cut for 3.4 million self-employed people of £134 on average ...
1.167 The government will reform Class 4 NICs, so that self-employed individuals continue to build entitlement to the State Pension and other contributory benefits, following the abolition of Class 2 NICs. The government will set out its plans for the contributory benefit tests in its response to the recent consultation on this reform ...
1.169 The Budget provides self-employed Working Tax Credit claimants with access to business support and will extend the mentoring support offered on the New Enterprise Allowance scheme to self-employed Universal Credit claimants. The government will also trial face-to-face support from Jobcentre advisors for selfemployed Working Tax Credit claimants, with a view to national roll out if successful.
HMRC customer service
1.186 Individuals and businesses should be able to get the help and support they need from HMRC, when they need it. By the end of this Parliament, HMRC’s digital transformation will have made it quicker and easier for customers to report and pay their taxes online. But the government recognises that more needs to be done now, and is investing £71 million to improve the service it provides taxpayers. This investment will deliver:
- a 7-day a week service by 2017, with extended hours and Sunday opening on online services and the tax and tax credits phone lines, so that people and businesses have more opportunity to contact HMRC outside of working hours
- improved telephone services and reduced call waiting times by recruiting over 800 new staff into HMRC call centres ...
War Pensions and Social Care
2.19 The government will exempt war pension payments made to injured veterans from the social care means test in England from April 2017.
Northern Ireland
[ Edited: 16 Mar 2016 at 02:29 pm by shawn mach ]2.29 Northern Ireland welfare top-ups tax exemption – The government will legislate at a later stage of the Finance Bill to exempt from income tax the payments intended to top-up nontaxable welfare benefits that the Northern Ireland Executive intends to fund from within its block grant.
Welfare
2.69 Support for the Self-employed on Working Tax Credit and Universal Credit –
The government will provide self-employed Working Tax Credit claimants with access to business support and extend the mentoring support offered on the New Enterprise Allowance scheme to self-employed Universal Credit claimants. The government will also trial face-to-face support from Jobcentre Advisors for self-employed Working Tax Credit claimants, with a view to national roll out if successful.
2.70 Improving support for ESA Work Related Activity Group claimants –
As announced by Department for Work and Pensions’ Ministers in Parliament, the government will fund an additional £15 million in each year from 2017-18 to help Employment and Support Allowance claimants placed in the Work Related Activity Group and Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work claimants pay for the additional costs of preparing for work; improve the process for reassessing claimants placed in the Work Related Activity Group with deteriorating conditions; and remove the 52 week work time limit on Permitted Work rules for claimants in the Work Related Activity Group from April 2017.
2.71 Behavioural Insights Unit Research –
The government will work with the Behavioural Insights Team to look at new ways to support parents in choosing when and how to return to work.
2.72 Allocation of Summer Budget funding for additional disability employment support –
The government announces that it is accepting the recommendations of an expertled taskforce on how to provide £330 million of additional funding for disabled claimants allocated at Summer Budget. This will include a new, tailored peer support offer to offered shared experiences and support to disabled people, and bespoke employment support directed at key priority groups, such as young people and those suffering from mental health conditions.
2.73 The household benefit cap –
From Autumn 2016, the government will introduce exemptions for recipients of Guardians Allowance, Carer’s Allowance and the carers element of Universal Credit from the household benefit cap, which caps the amount of benefits out-of-work working-age families can receive at £20,000, and at £23,000 in Greater London.
2.74 Capping Housing Benefit in the social rented sector –
The date from which new or renewed tenancies in the social sector will be subject to the cap on Housing Benefit at the relevant Local Housing Allowance rate will be deferred for supported accommodation – from April 2016 to April 2017 – to enable the government to complete a review of supported accommodation.
2.75 Housing Benefit and Pension Credit: limiting temporary absence –
The government will delay the ending of the payments of Housing Benefit and Pension Credit to claimants who travel outside of Great Britain for longer than 4 weeks consecutively. This will now come into force in May 2016.
2.76 Ensuring disability benefits are better targeted –
As announced by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the government will ensure that support for disabled people is focused on those with the greatest need, including by:
- changing the way that entitlement to Personal Independence Payment is determined – a reduction in the number of assessment points awarded for needing to use an aid or appliance to carry out two of the ‘daily living’ activities assessed. This will take effect for new cases and re-assessments from January 2017.
- altering the arrangements for terminally ill claimants migrating from DLA to PIP – this change means that those claimants who are granted a greater award under PIP will get that higher award from the date of the decision, rather than remaining on their DLA award for the standard four week waiting period
- considering the case for long-term reform of disability benefits and services that is fair for the taxpayer and for those with disabilities or health conditions
2.77 Phased rollout of Tax-Free Childcare, with Employer-Supported Childcare remaining open to new entrants until April 2018 –
The government will introduce Tax-Free Childcare in early 2017. As announced by Treasury Ministers in the passage of the Childcare Payments Act 2014, Tax-Free Childcare will be gradually rolled out to children under 12, in a managed way. Parents of the youngest children will be able to enter the scheme first and it
will be open to all eligible parents by the end of 2017. The existing scheme, Employer-Supported Childcare, will remain open to new entrants until April 2018 to support the transition between the schemes.2.78 ESA and PIP presenting officers –
The government will increase the number of presenting officers in attendance at Employment and Support Allowance and Personal Independence Payments tribunal hearings from 2017, to support the tribunal in making the right decision.
Fraud and error
2.79 Extending the use of Real Time Information to reduce fraud and error in benefits – The government will expand the use of HMRC’s Real Time Information (RTI) on earnings to prevent and correct overpayments in Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and Income Support. This builds on the wider use of RTI announced at the March Budget 2015, on Housing Benefit and Pension Credit.
Public Financial Guidance Review
2.228 The government will restructure the statutory financial guidance providers – the Money Advice Service, The Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise – to ensure that consumers can access the help they need to make effective financial decisions. The new delivery model will direct more funding to the front line and focus support on areas of greatest consumer need. It will include:
- a new pensions guidance body, to make sure that consumers can get all their pensions questions answered in one place, at all stages of their lives
- a new, slimmed down money guidance body charged with identify gaps in the financial guidance market and commissioning providers to fill these gaps to ensure that consumers can access the debt advice and money guidance they need
Ministry of Justice relocation
2.232 The Ministry of Justice is moving jobs out of Whitehall. By the middle of this Parliament the Ministry of Justice will establish a major programme to create substantial centres of expertise outside the capital
[ Edited: 16 Mar 2016 at 02:57 pm by shawn mach ]
Here’s the consultation document on the government’s plan to restructure publicly funded pensions guidance, debt advice and money guidance (including financial capability)
“- considering the case for long-term reform of disability benefits and services that is fair for the taxpayer and for those with disabilities or health conditions”
The most ominous phrase in the whole thing for me.
Love the bit about increasing the numbers of POs for ESA/PIP appeals to ‘support the tribunal in reaching the right decision’. In other words, too many appeals are succeeding so we’re going to send the boys in.
Love the bit about increasing the numbers of POs for ESA/PIP appeals to ‘support the tribunal in reaching the right decision’. In other words, too many appeals are succeeding so we’re going to send the boys in.
Yes, I spotted that. Probably going to outsource it to G4S or someone.
We argued in our MR consultation response that DWP need to start treating tribunal outcomes as a learning experience rather than a challenge. Part of that is sending POs BUT that has to go hand in hand with guidance that correctly interprets the law and allows for the possibility that a HCP is plain old wrong and a raft of other things beside. We argued that historically DWP have done anything but the things that would resolve the quality of decision making and now, in a bitter irony, they do the one thing we’d probably all like to see but in such isolation it will be meaningless.
When we start to notice it happening it’s going to be 1980s throwback time as the current raft of DMs have little clue as to the law and the POs they send in will have even less but will be armed with a raft of anti-tribunal/anti-claimant prejudice combined beautifully with such a terrific misunderstanding of the regs that it will only end in tears.
And this when we’re on the cusp of ADR pilots…
“- considering the case for long-term reform of disability benefits and services that is fair for the taxpayer and for those with disabilities or health conditions”
The most ominous phrase in the whole thing for me.
I thought the same - government has already said it will be consulting on what sounds like abolishing attendance allowance and giving equivalent cash to local authorities to provide care with –
Maybe that they’re considering something similar for PIP and DLA?
“- considering the case for long-term reform of disability benefits and services that is fair for the taxpayer and for those with disabilities or health conditions”
The most ominous phrase in the whole thing for me.
I thought the same - government has already said it will be consulting on what sounds like abolishing attendance allowance and giving equivalent cash to local authorities to provide care with –
Maybe that they’re considering something similar for PIP and DLA?
be interesting to see what the response would be to that. personal care is currently free for the elderly in scotland and i cant see the scottish government changing that or trying to take away benefits to cover it.
For rightsnet subscribers, we’ve now collected the main announcements together under each area of law ..
Benefits:
Welfare benefit-related measures in Budget 2016
Debt:
Government announces intention to ‘restructure’ the Money Advice Service and Pension Wise
Government outlines details of Help to Save scheme in Budget 2016
Housing:
Government announces £115 million funding to help tackle homelessness
Employment:
Government outlines series of employment-related reforms in Budget 2016
Community care:
Change to the treatment of war pension payments in the social care means test in England
A round-up of some responses:
Budget 2016: The next generation comes second: Child Poverty Action Group
Budget sets next generation up to be the poorest for decades, say child poverty campaigners: Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland
Citizens Advice response to Budget 2016: Citizens Advice
Homelessness funding welcome but money alone won’t tackle deep-rooted problems: Crisis
DRUK comments on the budget 2016: Disability Rights UK
Chancellor’s Budget giveaways failed to support an all-out assault on poverty: Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Low earning self-employed need financial support as well as mentoring: LITRG
DBC response: Disability Benefits Consortium responds to Budget 2016
Money Advice Trust response: Tax and savings changes welcome but spectre of household debt remains
[ Edited: 17 Mar 2016 at 09:11 am by shawn mach ]Love the bit about increasing the numbers of POs for ESA/PIP appeals to ‘support the tribunal in reaching the right decision’. In other words, too many appeals are succeeding so we’re going to send the boys in.
Yes, I spotted that. Probably going to outsource it to G4S or someone.
Phew, that’s all right then.
I just have this vision of a bunch of ‘heavies’ sitting at the back of the venue, fingering their knuckle-dusters and staring beligerently at the panel.
I don’t have a problem with PO’s at tribunals.
They’re usually helpful IMO
The tribunal reverts to its neutral stance rather than having to ask the appropriate questions if the SSWP was there.
One particularly bad PO kept calling the DWP ‘Jobcentre Minus’ repeatedly whilst at the same time sweatily hoisting up his ill fitting trousers.
Now that I would like to have seen!
I have no issue with POs per-say (many of the ‘old school’ POs were helpful and knowledgeable) but like Paul & Mike, I have my concerns about the motives behind this announcement and the standard of POs we’re likely to encounter.
Liking the new moniker John 😊
For me, having a PO there is useful only to avoid the scenario where the tribunal would otherwise adjourn for comment from DWP et al, or,where they’re going to concede a key point or make complete fools of themselves.
I can’t see there will be anyone to train these POs to any great degree so we’re really going to get a throw back to the 1970s or worse still 1990s take-up campaigns for SDP and Supp Ben. when all sorts get thrown at the job and sit there either passively shrugging their shoulders; trying to flail their way through law pretending they know some it, or, and always best of the lot in my view, the PO who just decides that because they’re there they may as well argue everything, and I mean literally “everything”. The worst bit will be the lack of knowledge of protocol. I take a certain perverse pleasure in watching a PO talk across the tribunal not realising they may be quietly hanging themselves. Ditto striking up a conversation in the waiting area pre-tribunal. Always carry a copy of the pages in the DMG with me about conduct of a PO. Always enjoyed the look of horror on their faces when I showed it to them.
I can’t see there will be anyone to train these POs to any great degree so we’re really going to get a throw back to the 1970s or worse still 1990s take-up campaigns for SDP and Supp Ben. when all sorts get thrown at the job.
More presenting officer will be coming to PIP and ESA appeal hearings ... but how much training will they get?
Justin Tomlinson confirmed yesterday that a ‘small amount’ of the available budget of £22 million announced in the March budget will be used for training new presenting officers -
‘The vast majority of the £22m, which will be spent over three years, will be used for Presenting Officer salary costs, with a small proportion for Learning and Development, communications and start up project costs.’
The original policy costings were announced in March budget documents -
‘£22 million to DWP to recruit presenting officers across 2016/17 to 2017/18 to support the department in personal independence payments and employment and support allowance tribunals’