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Welfare Reform Bill
does 124 refer to WROs and the like over egging the pudding?
Conditionality, Work Focussed interviews etc. into IS.
Lots of HB bits
A new acronym; appropriate maximum housing benefit (“AMHB”)
Secretary of State’s intention to exercise powers to provide for AMHB to be determined by methods other than by reference to rent officer determinations.
Introducing a size criteria for working age claimants receiving housing benefit in the social rented sector. This will allow the Secretary of State to prescribe the amount by which the claimant’s actual rent liability is to be reduced to reflect the additional bedrooms within the property; the claimant’s eligible rent will be restricted if their dwelling is larger than they need. A percentage reduction will be made based on the numbers of extra bedrooms, which will be prescribed in secondary legislation.
Re Carers Premium in PC above, The intention is that this premium will cover, but not be limited to, people entitled to carer’s allowance
There will be a Capital Cut-Off for the new Housing Credit in PC
does 124 refer to WROs and the like over egging the pudding?
Don’t know but the new S115C (‘Civil Penalties’), inserted in the SSAA 1992 by Clause 111 of the Bill, might:
“where a person negligently makes an in correct statement or representation or negligently gives incorrect information evidence in or in connection with a claim ...or an award…which results in the making of an overpayment ... a penalty of a prescribed amount may be imposed ... on the person”.
Nothing confining it to claimants.
Richard Atkinson
Gareth - can you lead me to where I will find the part about CTB and UC please? Thanks, Tracey.
regulations may provide that there is to be a right of appeal only where the Secretary of State has considered whether to
revise the decision as a result of an application having been made for that purpose.
Tracey,
DWP explanatory note 10
10. Universal credit will be paid to people both in and out of work, replacing working tax credit, child tax credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit, IS, income-based JSA and income-related ESA. It will provide support for people between 18 (or younger in specific circumstances) and the age at which the claimant becomes eligible for state pension credit.
CTB is specifically abolished in Clause 34 of the Bill and, I assume, will be covered within the general hosings costs element in Clause 11.
Clause 12 - additional amounts - in effect, for UC, what were premiums for IS. It is left open (“as may be prescribed”) but the only amounts mentioned, in the Bill or the notes, are the existing WRA component and support component, and an amount for carers. Are EDP and SDP going completely for working age claimants?
Richard Atkinson
Thanks Gareth - I guess we should have been expecting to lose CTB!
Tracey,
DWP explanatory note 10
10. Universal credit will be paid to people both in and out of work, replacing working tax credit, child tax credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit, IS, income-based JSA and income-related ESA. It will provide support for people between 18 (or younger in specific circumstances) and the age at which the claimant becomes eligible for state pension credit.
CTB is specifically abolished in Clause 34 of the Bill and, I assume, will be covered within the general hosings costs element in Clause 11.
Hmmm… CTB is certainly abolished but I’m not yet certain that we know its replacement will be via UC(HC) & PC(HC).
The EM says of UC(HC) “This could be in the form of rent, mortgage costs or
other housing-related costs” - I think a specific mention of CTax would be made here if that had already been decided.
Of course regs could define “what is meant by payments in respect of accommodation for the purposes of this section” to include CT but I thought the local CTax rebate scheme idea was still in play?...
See, also, the UC impact assessement para 10 ...
“Council Tax Benefit will be abolished and Local Authorities will be given scope to take account of the priorities of their own communities when determining the amount of support for low-income households to meet their Council Tax bills. There is more work to be done on the detail of the new system and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will work closely together with local government and devolved administrations to flesh out the overall framework. In doing so the Government will aim to protect the most vulnerable, particularly pensioners, and not undermine the positive impact of Universal Credit on work incentives. In the absence at this stage of further detail on the workings of the new system, the analysis in this Impact Assessment includes Council Tax Benefit in its current form both in the baseline and as part of Universal Credit. The Department will look further at the impact of these proposals in subsequent iterations of the Impact Assessment.”
(that’s at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/universal-credit-wr2011-ia.pdf ).
So has a decision been made?
[ Edited: 17 Feb 2011 at 04:42 pm by Jon Blackwell ]Youth condition abolished. Does this apply if the person is in the Support Group? See 52.5(b).
On a lighter note the Work Search requirement states that the Secretary of State may specify action such as 17 (3)(c) creating and maintaining an online profile.
I don’t do facebook but presume this means putting your Status to ‘unemployed.’
See, also, the UC impact assessement para 10 ...
“Council Tax Benefit will be abolished and Local Authorities will be given scope to take account of the priorities of their own communities when determining the amount of support for low-income households to meet their Council Tax bills. There is more work to be done on the detail of the new system and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will work closely together with local government and devolved administrations to flesh out the overall framework. In doing so the Government will aim to protect the most vulnerable, particularly pensioners, and not undermine the positive impact of Universal Credit on work incentives. In the absence at this stage of further detail on the workings of the new system, the analysis in this Impact Assessment includes Council Tax Benefit in its current form both in the baseline and as part of Universal Credit. The Department will look further at the impact of these proposals in subsequent iterations of the Impact Assessment.”
(that’s at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/universal-credit-wr2011-ia.pdf ).
So has a decision been made?
Well the note’s pretty definite and that goes with the Bill which was still being drafted at the beginning of the week ....but, who knows? There was real concern that a LA which decided to stop CTB for people in any work would mess up the MDR guarantee.
I’ll go along with assumption that it is in UC as it seems, to me, to fall into 11; “an amount in respect of any liability of a claimant to make payments in respect of the accommodation they occupy as their home.”. ‘Any Liability’.