[ssf] From SWAN: Disability Welfare reform to be severe!

[dave thompson]

Despite some medias reports that the Govt is to reign
back on its reform programme, the FT reports that
there will be benefit cuts if people do not look for
work and an even more brutal welfare regime than was
proposed earlier. It is also now clear that the Gov't
will target existing claimants as well as new ones
if the Govt is to reach its target
of one million disabled people back to work.

SWAN urges that people contact/write to their MP/the
media, etc,  urgently with their concerns. There are
some resources on our website.


Regards

John for 

SWAN


http://www.swansheffield.org.uk/
email: sheffieldwelfare_an at yahoo.co.uk
join the discussion! sheffieldwelfare at yahoogroups.com




Claimants could have benefits cut

By Ben Hall, Political Correspondent
Published: January 15 2006 22:03 | Last updated:
January 15 2006 22:03

Millions of long-term sick and disabled people risk
losing part of their benefits if they do not take up
work or training, the government will propose under
forthcoming welfare reforms.

The government will publish a green paper on welfare
reform later this month.

John Hutton, the work and pensions secretary, will on
Monday signal that all but the most severely disabled
of the 2.6m existing claimants of incapacity benefit
will face tough conditions in return for extra help in
finding a job or a place on a rehabilitation scheme.

In a speech to the Work Foundation, Mr Hutton will say
that the �largely voluntary approach� of existing
programmes will not be enough to enable the government
to reach its goal of getting 1m people back into work.

Although he appears to have rejected more radical
reforms to incapacity benefit, such as time-limiting
or means-testing payments, Mr Hutton hopes that with
more help and hassle hundreds of thousands of people
could be lifted off benefits and out of poverty.

Welfare reform has proved a highly divisive issue in
the Labour party since 1997. Ministers believe
backbenchers can be won over by a balance of carrot
and stick in the proposed reforms. But MPs will want
reassurance that the government can provide more help
to claimants when there is little prospect of extra
funding to pay for it.

In his speech, Mr Hutton will give his most detailed
assessment of the flaws in the incapacity benefit
system, which costs the taxpayer �12bn a year.

He will say that it is too easy to claim, that it
creates �perverse incentives� because claimants
get
paid more the longer they stay on it, and that it
gives little encouragement to claimants to find work
because, if they do, they prove themselves ineligible
for the benefit.

The government is expected to propose tougher medical
tests on all new claimants, a flat rate benefit that
does not rise over time, and permission for recipients
to come back on to the benefit if they take up a job
but do not stay in it.

But the centrepiece of the green paper will be a big
extension of what experts call �conditionality�,
or
obligations to seek work or re-skilling in return for
state benefits.

Under the flagship Pathways to Work programme, which
is being extended to one-third of the country,
incapacity benefit claimants are offered extra
interviews, advice, training and job searches. If they
do not attend interviews they can have their benefits
docked by up to �20 a week.

Mr Hutton wants to go further, extending compulsion to
rehabilitation, training and job placement. He also
wants compulsory work-focused interviews to be used in
all parts of the country, not just Pathways areas.

The green paper would mark a return to the original
ethos of the welfare state, Mr Hutton will say. �Our
predecessors would have been horrified to see how the
notion of personal responsibility gradually became
obscured over the decades as parts of our welfare
system trapped people between the twin vices of
benefit dependency and poverty.�

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c1d71d8e-85f9-11da-bee0-0000779e2340.html


		



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