Welfare shake-up: Mums, widows and poor get clobbered
IT bears the hallmarks of yet another clueless Tory slash and burn policy.
David Cameron trampled on the lives of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people yesterday with the most ruthless overhaul of the welfare system in more than 60 years.
Betraying the poor, sick and elderly in his crusade to slash Britain?s deficit, the PM revealed all state handouts will be replaced from 2013 by a single universal payment.
His ministers insisted nobody would be worse off.
But their claims were blown apart by the Department for Work and Pensions just two hours later when it stated 1.7 million households will be entitled to less.
Buried in the smallprint were the Government?s plans to force millions of parents back to work ? despite five people chasing every job.
The merciless reforms will slash ?5.5billion from the welfare bill over the next four years by limiting housing benefit, reforming tax credits and taking child benefit away from higher-rate taxpayers.
The plans were announced on the day the Government hit millions of pensioners by switching their funds from the Retail Price Index to the lower Consumer Price Index.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne MP yesterday blasted: ?It?s obvious welfare to work won?t work without more jobs.? Labour MP Karen Buck added: ?Has the Government any understanding what the implications will be for the poor, widows and older people??
Of the 1.7 million facing a fall in their living standards, 500,000 will be up to ?25 a week poorer and 200,000 up to ?75 worse off.
Lone parents will be particularly badly hit with 400,000 losing out.
And 400,000 couples with children who are not in rented accommodation will face benefit cuts.
Stay-at-home mums wanting to claim could face the same jobseeking regime as single mothers whose youngest child is over seven. They will be made to turn up at jobcentres and explain how they are looking for work or have their benefits docked.
The change is expected to apply to mums or dads in households where one parent works three days a week or less.
But the DWP refused to say what the threshold would be.
Another draconian measure could see 680,000 people claiming housing benefit getting their payments cut if they are deemed to be ?under occupying? their properties ? in other words anyone living in a house with a spare room. This will make 750,000 ?13 a week worse off including widows, the divorced and 50,000 aged over 60.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith insisted the Welfare Reform Bill would make work pay.
Announcing the changes, he claimed: ?Nobody will be worse off because every single person, as we migrate them on to this new credit, will be cash-protected. That means that whatever system you are on, we will stay at that level whilst the new system is set.?
But his department?s own impact assessment published two hours later said: ?1.7 million households will have notional lower entitlements than they otherwise would have done as a result of the universal credit.?
Documents also revealed the cost of introducing the shake-up had increased from ?2billion to ?4.6billion.
And they state the poorest 10% of benefit claimants will lose more than the richest 10% .
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber hit out: ?Long-term unemployment has doubled not because of a sudden increase in workshy scroungers, but as an inevitable result of economic policies based on cuts that destroy growth.
?Today?s proposals are based on blaming the jobless for unemployment in the hope voters won?t notice the real cause.?
The National Housing Federation said the measures may force thousands of people out of their homes. A quarter of those affected will be married or cohabiting couples ? most of whom will be ?under occupying? as a result of their grown-up children having left home.
VULNERABLE
NHF chief David Orr said: ?The cuts to housing benefit for households deemed by the Government to be under occupying are extremely harsh and could effectively compel thousands of people to leave their homes.
?Ministers have long promised to protect the vulnerable and yet these plans could force thousands to move out of homes they have lived in for many years.?
Disabled groups hit out at moves to replace the Disability Living Allowance with a Personal Independence Payment. Leonard Cheshire Disability said: ?We need assurances this will not push even more disabled people below the poverty line.?
Mr Cameron said the reforms were the ?most ambitious, fundamental and radical changes to the welfare system?.
The PM said: ?Never again will work be the wrong financial choice. Never again will we waste opportunity. We?re finally going to make work pay.?
The Universal Credit will ensure those coming off welfare can keep 35p of benefits for every extra ?1 they take home.
Housing benefit will be restricted to cover only the cheapest 30% of homes.
There will also be a crackdown on the so-called ?sick note culture? in which 300,000 people a year leave work to live on benefits. Reforms will also bring in sanctions against people who refuse job offers. They could lose handouts for up to three years.
IT bears the hallmarks of yet another clueless Tory slash and burn policy.
David Cameron trampled on the lives of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people yesterday with the most ruthless overhaul of the welfare system in more than 60 years.
Betraying the poor, sick and elderly in his crusade to slash Britain?s deficit, the PM revealed all state handouts will be replaced from 2013 by a single universal payment.
His ministers insisted nobody would be worse off.
But their claims were blown apart by the Department for Work and Pensions just two hours later when it stated 1.7 million households will be entitled to less.
Buried in the smallprint were the Government?s plans to force millions of parents back to work ? despite five people chasing every job.
The merciless reforms will slash ?5.5billion from the welfare bill over the next four years by limiting housing benefit, reforming tax credits and taking child benefit away from higher-rate taxpayers.
The plans were announced on the day the Government hit millions of pensioners by switching their funds from the Retail Price Index to the lower Consumer Price Index.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne MP yesterday blasted: ?It?s obvious welfare to work won?t work without more jobs.? Labour MP Karen Buck added: ?Has the Government any understanding what the implications will be for the poor, widows and older people??
Of the 1.7 million facing a fall in their living standards, 500,000 will be up to ?25 a week poorer and 200,000 up to ?75 worse off.
Lone parents will be particularly badly hit with 400,000 losing out.
And 400,000 couples with children who are not in rented accommodation will face benefit cuts.
Stay-at-home mums wanting to claim could face the same jobseeking regime as single mothers whose youngest child is over seven. They will be made to turn up at jobcentres and explain how they are looking for work or have their benefits docked.
The change is expected to apply to mums or dads in households where one parent works three days a week or less.
But the DWP refused to say what the threshold would be.
Another draconian measure could see 680,000 people claiming housing benefit getting their payments cut if they are deemed to be ?under occupying? their properties ? in other words anyone living in a house with a spare room. This will make 750,000 ?13 a week worse off including widows, the divorced and 50,000 aged over 60.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith insisted the Welfare Reform Bill would make work pay.
Announcing the changes, he claimed: ?Nobody will be worse off because every single person, as we migrate them on to this new credit, will be cash-protected. That means that whatever system you are on, we will stay at that level whilst the new system is set.?
But his department?s own impact assessment published two hours later said: ?1.7 million households will have notional lower entitlements than they otherwise would have done as a result of the universal credit.?
Documents also revealed the cost of introducing the shake-up had increased from ?2billion to ?4.6billion.
And they state the poorest 10% of benefit claimants will lose more than the richest 10% .
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber hit out: ?Long-term unemployment has doubled not because of a sudden increase in workshy scroungers, but as an inevitable result of economic policies based on cuts that destroy growth.
?Today?s proposals are based on blaming the jobless for unemployment in the hope voters won?t notice the real cause.?
The National Housing Federation said the measures may force thousands of people out of their homes. A quarter of those affected will be married or cohabiting couples ? most of whom will be ?under occupying? as a result of their grown-up children having left home.
VULNERABLE
NHF chief David Orr said: ?The cuts to housing benefit for households deemed by the Government to be under occupying are extremely harsh and could effectively compel thousands of people to leave their homes.
?Ministers have long promised to protect the vulnerable and yet these plans could force thousands to move out of homes they have lived in for many years.?
Disabled groups hit out at moves to replace the Disability Living Allowance with a Personal Independence Payment. Leonard Cheshire Disability said: ?We need assurances this will not push even more disabled people below the poverty line.?
Mr Cameron said the reforms were the ?most ambitious, fundamental and radical changes to the welfare system?.
The PM said: ?Never again will work be the wrong financial choice. Never again will we waste opportunity. We?re finally going to make work pay.?
The Universal Credit will ensure those coming off welfare can keep 35p of benefits for every extra ?1 they take home.
Housing benefit will be restricted to cover only the cheapest 30% of homes.
There will also be a crackdown on the so-called ?sick note culture? in which 300,000 people a year leave work to live on benefits. Reforms will also bring in sanctions against people who refuse job offers. They could lose handouts for up to three years.
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