Forum Home → Discussion → Other benefit issues → Thread
Welfare Reform and Work Bill
CPAG briefing on the Second Reading ..
http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/welfare-reform-and-work-bill-commons-second-reading-briefing
House of Commons library briefing paper on Bill - not yet on listings page due to tech issues so attached as pdf
File Attachments
- CBP-7252.pdf (File Size: 1781KB - Downloads: 3067)
George Osborne calls on Labour MPs to back welfare changes in Commons vote ... http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/19/george-osborne-labour-welfare-commons-vote
Calling all progressives: help us reform the welfare state: George Osborne ... http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/19/george-osborne-progressive-reform-welfare-benefits-system
Acting Labour leader facing revolt after ordering the party’s MPs not to vote against the govt’s welfare bill later ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33590465
forum member
Advice and Rights Team, Child Poverty Action Group
Total Posts: 550
Joined: 30 June 2014
Excellent piece on the stupidity of cutting WRA-component from Isabel Hardman in the Spectator of all places….
The benefit cut that isn’t quite as it seems”
So 61 per cent of the claimants in the ESA WRAG benefit may well, as Osborne points out, want to work, but the main barrier to them doing so is not financial or to do with the amount of training they receive. The barrier to those people who want to work going into work is that they are too ill to work.
Labour’s reasoned amendment to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill defeated by 308 votes to 208.
MPs vote in favour of second reading of Welfare Reform and Work Bill by 308 to 124.
forum member
Advice and Rights Team, Child Poverty Action Group
Total Posts: 550
Joined: 30 June 2014
i’m not saying a word. hmmm
forum member
Welfare Rights Officer, Southway Housing Trust, Manchester
Total Posts: 630
Joined: 2 June 2015
There seems to be something missing from our democratic process….........
an opposition!
forum member
Deputy Manager, Reading Community Welfare Rights Unit
Total Posts: 1711
Joined: 16 June 2010
I so agree….
Shall we set up our own party?
forum member
Advice and Rights Team, Child Poverty Action Group
Total Posts: 550
Joined: 30 June 2014
Here’s some Equality Impact Assessments, more to follow.
File Attachments
- benefit_cap_IA.pdf (File Size: 318KB - Downloads: 2312)
- changes_to_child_tax_credit_and_child_element_of_universal_credit_IA.pdf (File Size: 260KB - Downloads: 2372)
- ESA_work-related_activity_component_and_the_UC_limited_capability_for_work_element_IA.pdf (File Size: 263KB - Downloads: 2360)
forum member
Advice and Rights Team, Child Poverty Action Group
Total Posts: 550
Joined: 30 June 2014
And the rest.
File Attachments
- freeze_of_certain_social_security_and_tax_credit_amounts_IA.pdf (File Size: 282KB - Downloads: 2257)
- loans_for_mortgage_interest_IA.pdf (File Size: 253KB - Downloads: 2320)
- universal_credit_work_related_requirements_IA.pdf (File Size: 250KB - Downloads: 2345)
“Do you have relevant expertise and experience or a special interest in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill ...?”
Have your say!
http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2015/july/have-your-say-on-the-welfare-reform-and-work-bill/
forum member
Advice and Rights Team, Child Poverty Action Group
Total Posts: 550
Joined: 30 June 2014
Strong article from ex-Director of Public Prosecution and current Labour MP Keir Starmer on the rape test exception to the two child policy in the Guardian.
Hidden away in paragraph 2.103 of the “red book” (the budget) is the following sentence: “The Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC will develop protections for women who have a third child as a result of rape, or other exceptional circumstances.”
In other words, a rape test will be introduced into our welfare law. The implication being that those mothers who can provide evidence of rape will not have their tax credits removed, presumably because they did not choose to have a third child.
This proposal is chilling. It is well recognised that the vast majority of women subjected to rape are unlikely ever to come forward and report to the authorities what has happened to them. Under-reporting of rape has been running at 80%-90% for years. Does the chancellor seriously think that women, who find the prospect of reporting a rape to the police so horrendous that they would rather remain silent, will come forward and disclose it to the DWP? That proposition only needs to be stated to be seen to be absurd; and the government’s distorted thinking does not end there.
Are women really expected to identify their third-born as conceived during rape to avoid losing their tax credits: something most, if not all, would find wholly anathema?
A rape test for welfare is a chilling way to save money
In other news, we met DWP yesterday who confirmed that, in relation to this policy, families with disabled children born after 6 April 2017 will have child elements restricted to two children, as with other families, with the new disability element intended to provide some financial support otherwise.
forum member
Deputy Manager, Reading Community Welfare Rights Unit
Total Posts: 1711
Joined: 16 June 2010
Nothing about this bunch surprises or shocks me now. Nothing. Sadly.