Fri 30-Mar-07 03:24 PM by Gareth Morgan

I think we urgently need to start considering the implications of the Freud review and the other issues which are beginning to appear.

DWP ministers are saying pretty publicly that it's not whether but how Freud is implemented.

My own suspicions, and they are just suspicions, is that ahead of us we have the biggest changes to the benefit system since 1988.

..and not that far ahead.

Some people are talking about these changes being Tony Blair's legacy and needing to be secured before he leaves office.

At the moment we are already seeing the way in which some of these changes are being spun, for example this week we saw headlines saying:

Government to lift thousands more children out of poverty

Look a little closer and the method is to:

Get more parents into work

The 'how to do that' message that was being given at Monday's 'Welfare Reform: Challenges, Choices and International Insight' conference is to cut benefits to single parents. That encourages them to enter the labour market where they, and their children, become better off. (see the presentations at http://www.dwp-welfare-conference.org ).

Just listening to the phraseology of the presentations and discussions gave the flavour; responsibilities, carrot flavoured stick, role of the private sector, significant savings, work is good for you, must include partners.

The simplified core benefits system with a few add-ons may be easier to understand and administer but will it be fairer? (ps. has anyone thought how simple it would be to incorporate HB & CTB into this DWP scheme when we all have LHAs?)

I'll stop rambling on now but I hope that people are thinking about the implications of all this themselves, and not leaving it all to the larger organisations with policy resources to respond. After all they're also the very bodies who could meet the criteria for profitable involvement by the voluntary sector.

I agree with you Gareth, that there is a pressing need for people to give these proposals some serious thought and would encourage responses to the Freud report to be made.

There is an overview of the Freud report on the DA website, including details of how to respond.

We have been unable to ascertain a cut-off date for responses unfortunately, although we have asked for one. I can assure anyone thinking otherwise that DA has no plans to get involved as a contractor, either under Pathways to Work roll-out or any of these proposals, so if you would rather, please let me know your views and opinions and I can incorporate these into our response, when I get around to drafting it.

The problem is, Paul, that I don't think any responses to consultation are going to change any minds where it matters.

It's back to good old-fashioned campaigning and lobbying if we want to see any effect, I'm afraid.

"(ps. has anyone thought how simple it would be to incorporate HB & CTB into this DWP scheme when we all have LHAs?)"

Even scarier is the thought that LHAs could be incorporated into Tax Credits...

They'd have to do that if they took them into out-of-work benefit.