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Election 2015
Thought it would be useful to collect together everything Election 2015-related in one thread ... including the manifestos of parties that might have a role to play in forming the next government; and the welfare benefit-related commitments in each .... plus other bits and pieces as we come across them, including any advice sector-related stuff.
Do feel free to add stuff as you come across it .....
Cheers - Shawn
[ Edited: 1 Apr 2015 at 01:15 pm by shawn mach ]Kicking off with the Plaid Cymru manifesto, launched today
http://www.partyof.wales/2015-manifesto/
Commitments include –
Welfare Policy -
We will scrap the bedroom tax.
The Universal Credit system should not be implemented until a fully independent and comprehensive review is carried out. If the Universal Credit is introduced, then Plaid Cymru support the provision of weekly, rather than monthly, payments, direct to individuals, rather than households, without requirement for internet access or IT skills. We are also concerned that the tax rates for Universal Credit act as a barrier to work, and we will change this.
Plaid Cymru will prepare for the further devolution of welfare by developing a Welsh employment and benefits system that supports individuals to find suitable jobs. We will involve disabled people and groups that represent the interests of disabled people in designing and developing such a system.
Plaid Cymru will work to remove the need for food banks, whilst supporting the good that they carry out in the face of economic pressures placed upon people from government.
Plaid Cymru will ensure an independent review on the use of benefit sanctions to ensure a humane and effective social security system.
Helping people into work -
Plaid Cymru’s proposals for a Welsh JobCentre Plus system will put the focus upon helping people into work rather than punishing them for disadvantages that they face.
With an increase in in-work poverty, child poverty will be best tackled through better-paid and full-time work rather than simply finding a job. We will also investigate how tax credits can be better used to reduce child poverty
A fair deal for pensioners -
To bring about an end to pensioner poverty, we would ensure that the new single-tier pension is a Living Pension for all, set at least at the rate of Pension Credit, and support moves to allow early access to pensions.
Tackling Fuel Poverty -
High energy bills are hitting many people hard. Plaid Cymru will ensure that Winter Fuel Allowance is paid to off-grid households during the summer so that they can get better value for money.
We will ensure that cold-winter payments are based on accurate local temperatures.
We will also start a new ‘Claim It’ campaign so that everybody entitled to their benefits claims them, working alongside the Citizens Advice Bureau, Local Authorities and the third sector to promote this.
Fair taxation -
To help lower paid workers, we will raise the personal allowance threshold at which National Insurance Contributions are paid, with the aim of making this the same threshold for paying income tax, over the term of the Parliament. We would increase the Upper Earnings Limit on National Insurance Contributions to £100,000 per year.
Lib Dems unveil plan to triple paternity leave, to up to 6 weeks
Latest on Labour’s plan to abolish the bedroom tax
Election 2015:What’s at stake for social security - report by think tank Centre for Labour and Social Studies -
http://classonline.org.uk/pubs/item/election-2015-whats-at-stake-for-social-security
New adviser magazine has a great break down of all the major parties (and UKIPs) election promises
The Disability Benefits Consortium are holding an event on 14 April 2015 -
‘General Election 2015: Making welfare work’
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/general-election-2015-making-welfare-work-tickets-16323198125
‘Manifesto for Justice’ ... from the Bar Council; the Law Centres Network, the Legal Action Group, AdviceUK and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/media-centre/publications/2015/march/a-manifesto-for-justice/
‘Manifesto for Legal Aid’ ... from the Legal Aid Practitioners Group
Telegraph reporting that ‘Chancellor refuses to say he will not roll child benefit into the Universal Credit system, in a move that would deny 4.3 million households the payments’
Labour announces review into Child Maintenance Service
http://labourlist.org/2015/04/labour-announce-review-into-child-maintenance-service/
CPAG has published it programme for the 2015 government setting out six steps to tackle child poverty -
http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/our-programme-2015-government
Labour Party will publish its manifesto next Monday; followed by Conservatives on Tuesday; and Liberal Democrats on Wednesday.
That link doesn’t work Ros.
Here’s (hopefully) a link to the CPAG programme for the 2015 government
The Labour Party has now published its manifesto -
http://www.labour.org.uk/page/-/BritainCanBeBetter-TheLabourPartyManifesto2015.pdf
rightsnet news story to follow.
So in summary…...
......it’s a pity we can’t all vote Plaid or SNP?
Benefit and tax credit measures in the Labour Party manifesto now @
See also brief summaries of the: Debt related measures | Housing related measures | Employment related measures | Community care related measures
The Green Party has launched its 2015 manifesto -
https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/2015-manifesto.html
Green Party commitments include -
- scrap most existing benefits apart from disability benefits and housing benefit.
- pay every woman, man and child legally resident in the UK a ‘Basic Income’ - a guaranteed, non-means-tested income, sufficient to cover basic needs.
- children will receive a reduced Basic Income (child benefit)
- pensioners will receive their Basic Income at a higher level, as a Citizen’s Pension.
- abolish the ‘bedroom tax’.
- bring housing benefit for all age groups back in line with average market rents
- subject the Shared Accommodation Rate to a comprehensive review to ensure it reflects the real cost of renting shared properties
- make small changes in the direction of allowing those who earn some income from paid work to keep more of that income, starting with increasing the disregards for income support and JSA. Initially we would increase the income disregarded on JSA for all categories of client to £50 a week , with similar increases for those on universal credit.
- halt implementation of the universal credit programme and carry out a thorough review of its structure and implementation, including the treatment of earned income, and removing conditionality.
- end work-for-benefits programmes, or workfare and ensure a fair choice of waged work opportunities or voluntary training for jobseekers.
- ensure that all those on training or work placements as part of the benefits regime are either in college-based training or at work earning at least the minimum wage.
- review the harsh systems of sanctions and benefits caps introduced by the Coalition government and its predecessors.
- consider offering more personalised job-seeking support for people with mental health problems.
- restore council tax benefit at the equivalent of 2012-13 levels for low-income householders
- cancel the DWP’s contracts with the private sector for benefit entitlement assessment.
- restore the link between state benefits and earnings;
- ensure state benefits rise as fast as prices or wages, whichever of those grows more.
- raise child benefit as from 2016 from £20.70 a week for the oldest or only child and £13.70 a week for additional children in 2015-16 to £40 a week for each child.
https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/2015-manifesto.html
[ Edited: 16 Apr 2015 at 01:33 pm by shawn mach ]Conservative Party manifesto 2015 now launched -
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/manifesto2015/ConservativeManifesto2015.pdf
rightsnet news story to follow…
Here’s the rightsnet summary of benefits and tax credits measures in the Conservative Party manifesto -
and here are brief summaries of -
Housing related measures | Employment related measures | Community care related measures
Manifestos to come include:
- Lib Dems: 15th
- UKIP: 15th
- SDLP: 15th
- SNP: 20th
- DUP: 21st
Liberal Democrat commitments include that they will -
- complete the introduction of universal credit whilst reviewing it to address any issues regarding ‘cliff edges’ and ensure increased working hours are properly incentivised for all claimants
- retain the benefit cap which should continue to be set at around the average family income
- deliver a reformed and improved Work Programme in partnership with English local government, and the national governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
- improve incentives for Jobcentre staff and Work Programme providers to ensure there is real help for those furthest from the labour market
- develop a package of specialist support for carers seeking part-time work or a return to full-time employment
- review sanctions procedures in Jobcentres, bearing in mind that those with chaotic lives might be more successful in finding a job if they were directed to targeted support with their problems
- ensure there are no league tables or targets for sanctions issued by Jobcentres and introduce a ‘yellow card’ warning so people are only sanctioned if they deliberately and repeatedly break the rules
- protect young people’s entitlements to the welfare safety net, while getting them the help they need to get their first job
- introduce a 1% cap on the uprating of working-age benefits until the budget is balanced in 2017/2018, after which they will rise with inflation once again, with disability and parental leave benefits exempt from this temporary cap
- encourage landlords to lower their rent by paying them housing benefit directly, with tenants’ consent, in return for a fixed reduction
- review the way the shared accommodation rate in local housing allowance is set, and review the broad rental market areas to ensure they fit with realistic travel patterns
- improve links between jobcentres and Work Programme providers and the local NHS to ensure all those in receipt of health-related benefits are getting the care and support to which they are entitled
- work with local authorities to tackle fraud and error in a more coordinated way, in particular on housing benefit
- help everyone in work on a low wage step up the career ladder and increase their hours, reducing their need for benefits, with tailored in-work careers and job search advice
- withdraw eligibility for the winter fuel payment and free TV Licence from pensioners who pay tax at the higher rate (40%)
- retain the free bus pass for all pensioners
- conduct a review of the work capability assessment and personal independence payment assessments to ensure they are fair, accurate and timely and evaluate the merits of a public sector provider
- invest to clear any backlog in assessments for disability living allowance and personal independence payment
- simplify and streamline back-to-work support for people with disabilities, mental or physical health
- raise awareness of, and seek to expand, Access to Work
- reform the bedroom tax so that - existing social tenants will not be subject to any housing benefit reduction until they have been offered reasonable alternative accommodation; tenants who need an extra bedroom for genuine medical reasons are entitled to one; and those whose homes are substantially adapted do not have their benefit reduced
- continue the introduction of our simpler single tier pension
- legislate for the ‘triple lock’ of increasing the state pension each year by the highest of earnings growth, prices growth or 2.5%
- introduce an annual carer’s bonus of £250 for carers looking after someone for 35 hours or more each week
- work to raise the amount you can earn before losing carer’s allowance from £110 to £150 a week.
- consult on introducing five days’ paid additional ‘care leave’ a year for carers who qualify for carer’s allowance.
UKIP commitments include that they will -
- support a lower cap on benefits
- crack down on benefit fraud
- end welfare tourism with a five-year ban on benefits for migrants
- stop child benefit being paid to children who don’t live in the UK
- limit child benefit to two children for new claimants
In respect of housing benefit they will -
- scrap the bedroom tax
- continue to pay housing benefit to young people under 25 (contrary to Conservative policy)
- given tenants the right to have housing benefit paid direct to the their landlords, whatever benefit scheme they are on
In respect of disabiltiy benefits they will -
- end ATOS-style work capability assessments and return assessments to GPS or appropriate specialist consultants
- require GPs/specialists to notify the DWP when they believe a patient is well enough to return to work
- remove ‘tick-box’ and quota arrangements from sickness and disability assessments
In respect of carers they will -
- increase carer’s allowance from £62.10 per week to the level of JSA - £73.10 per week
- improve carers’ access to support by sharing information on benefit and social care entitlements and support groups across all public services
Finally, in response to the rise in demand for foodbanks, UKIP says it will ‘train and fund the cost of 800 advisers to work in 800 foodbanks, so the poorest in our society have free and easy access to timely help in their hour of need’.
On the extension of the right to buy.
Housing associations are private ‘individuals’. How on earth would it be lawful to allow an individual, as a matter of right, to compel another individual to sell him (his) private property in which he has no equitable interest? This would undermine the legitimacy of the state itself given that that legitimacy rests on the very edifice, established in the seventeenth century, of the rights of the individual over his private property.
UKIP commitments include that they will -
- support a lower cap on benefits
- crack down on benefit fraud
- end welfare tourism with a five-year ban on benefits for migrants
- stop child benefit being paid to children who don’t live in the UK
- limit child benefit to two children for new claimants
In respect of housing benefit they will -- scrap the bedroom tax
- continue to pay housing benefit to young people under 25 (contrary to Conservative policy)
- given tenants the right to have housing benefit paid direct to the their landlords, whatever benefit scheme they are on
In respect of disabiltiy benefits they will -- end ATOS-style work capability assessments and return assessments to GPS or appropriate specialist consultants
- require GPs/specialists to notify the DWP when they believe a patient is well enough to return to work
- remove ‘tick-box’ and quota arrangements from sickness and disability assessments
In respect of carers they will -- increase carer’s allowance from £62.10 per week to the level of JSA - £73.10 per week
- improve carers’ access to support by sharing information on benefit and social care entitlements and support groups across all public services
Finally, in response to the rise in demand for foodbanks, UKIP says it will ‘train and fund the cost of 800 advisers to work in 800 foodbanks, so the poorest in our society have free and easy access to timely help in their hour of need’.
So, nationalism and socialism.
Now where have I heard that before?
Nice one PC!
Is this…
“Finally, in response to the rise in demand for foodbanks, UKIP says it will ‘train and fund the cost of 800 advisers to work in 800 foodbanks, so the poorest in our society have free and easy access to timely help in their hour of need’.
... the most advice-sector friendly policy we have had on this thread so far? Bit of a surprise!
If you want a summary of the respective parties position re: legal aid, the Legal Aid Handbook has a good one.
Legal Aid Handbook Election 2015
Only one’s I can see who are offering anything towards the advice sector as we know it are the LD’s who say:
Develop a strategy that will deliver advice and legal support to help people with everyday problems like personal debt and social welfare issues, working across government and involving nonprofit advice agencies
SDLP’s Westminster Manifesto is also out today .... inlcudes:
- continuing to campaign for the immediate restoration of the earnings link for the state pension;
- fighting for the winter fuel payment to be increased to £500;
- a call for specific support for older and disabled jobseekers;
- automatic payment of benefits;
- continuing to press OFMDFM to deliver on the Executive’s anti-poverty commitments and for Northern Ireland specific child poverty targets;
- opposition to any future cuts that attack the unemployed, the sick and disabled and hard-pressed families.
http://www.sdlp.ie/site/assets/files/42192/westminster_manifesto.pdf
A summary of the benefit stuff in the 7 manifestos published so far:
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/pdfs/Welfare_Benefits_Party_Manifestos_GE2015.pdf
A summary of the benefit stuff in the 7 manifestos published so far:
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/pdfs/Welfare_Benefits_Party_Manifestos_GE2015.pdf
nice one shawn, that’s really helpful.