Tubby Isaacs wrote:I know someone who used to work with Tomlinson, and apparently he's not a swivel eyed loon at all. But as you say, he voted for all that stuff.ephemerid wrote:New Minister for disabled people is Justin Tomlinson.
In the last Parliament, he voted - for bedroom tax, crisis/hardship help to be the responsibility of LAs, reductions in benefit spending; and against: with-inflation rises in benefits, and higher amounts for those sick and/or disabled for long periods.
As Priti Patel, who thinks that British workers are the "idlers of Europe", is minister for employment, and now Tomlinson who voted as above is minister for people with disabilities, IDS has minions in place who despise the people they are in government to deal with.
Not looking good.
And the £12bn is hanging over the whole social security budget. £45 per week per working age claimant. I've wondered before if they have any attention of keeping that promise- looked like a balancing figure to me, put in so that the "right" answer was reached. Tomlinson might actually be an OK appointment in that he'll have more of a sense of the limits than some would.
That £12 billion - it is indeed £45PW per claimant.
As with the £20BN cuts which actually saved just £2BN, these cuts won't save a lot either.
Cutting Child Benefit to allow only the first 2 children to be eligible might save a bit - it's easy to administer.
Freezing the rates of all benefits for a few years is estimated to save about £2BN.
All the other benefits involve either DWP, HMRC, and LAs - sometimes all three - to administer. It costs a fortune.
This is what happens for one sanction -
Interview at JCP; referral for sanction paperwork has to be completed and sent to DMA (that's decision-making and appeals section); DMA staff have to check the referral; if a sanction applies, letters must be sent to the claimant, the referring JCP, the LA; if the claimant decides to appeal there is a whole new tranche of paperwork to be done, and the whole process happens again.
If the claimant needs a hardship claim, another set of paperwork has to be done, and letters sent etc. if a nil-income Housing Benefit claim has to be done, ditto; if the claimant appeals, yet another set has to be done and sent to DMA for Mandatory Reconsideration, which involves a whole new set of letters etc. to be sent out when the decision is confirmed or rejected.
If the sanctions are going to be ramped up again, it'll cost a fortune.
There are rumours that more people will be subject to bedroom tax. There are 600,000 already and it has been said there will be a million. The group which over-occupies the most is pensioners; many of them get HB. Then there is the working poor.
Again, this is expensive to administer, especially in larger families as circumstances change; plus there are all the extra costs of moving people into the private sector with its higher rents plus the costs of appeals etc. Not many savings there.
LAs will be in charge of hardship support, and they can do what they like - they don't have to offer anything if they don't want to as the money they will get is not ring-fenced; same applies to the ILF replacement funding which is 20% less than before.
I suspect that the cuts will be vicious in terms of the people affected by them - there will be more hunger and homelessness.
But - I doubt that the things I've mentioned here will save more than a billion or so; they're too costly to administer.
What I think will happen, along with all the above, is a couple of big-ticket items that are guaranteed to save a lot.
My bet is the abolition of the higher rates for ESA.
I think that getting rid of WRAG and SG will save about £5BN PA, and bring sickness support down to the level of JSA.
Universal Credit will cut a lot more - and they are determined to get it rolled out, whatever the consequences.
Things are not looking good for claimants - and as IDS has said that he isn't going to be "cheese-paring" but expecting to impose what he calls behavioural change, he may well attack lone parents and other groups like WRAG claimants and expect them to work.
I have no idea how he intends to magic up the millions of jobs required, so I also expect an increase in mandatory workfare.
but that what I was working to. An antidote to the jumping. A way to create something constant or enduring in a time when we are losing so much.
) you won't object to my chipping in (I might be a member by vote time though)...I'm liking Hunty more and more...this is a GQ interview by Campbellclaret last December - interesting takes on various bits, but especially UKIP...
You can hear the oink, oinks from here.