Tag: Welfare

Bedroom Tax

Under the Con/Dems and/or Labour Government (if elected), people in social housing will receive a cut in housing benefit where they are deemed to have spare bedrooms. Take careful note all you council and Housing association tenants.

Ed Miliband, The Labour leader claimed financial help for disabled people hit by the so-called bedroom tax was outweighed by cuts in other benefits they receive.

David Cameron Con/Dem Prime Minister said the figures put forward by Miliband to support his claim were “completely wrong” and said the coalition government was exempting a range of vulnerable groups from paying the bedroom tax.

There is a way out of this madness vote, “Yes” in the referendum. Take Scotland back. Let us decided for ourselves what our policies are to be.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9912660/PMQs-David-Cameron-and-Ed-Miliband-clash-over-bedroom-tax.html

Welfare Reforms Debate. Hansard Record

Ian Mearns: Labour MP Gateshead

“Put bluntly, this Government, the Department for Work and Pensions and their agencies are telling us, repeatedly, that people who are dying are fit for work.

Between January 2011 and November 2011, some 10,600 employment and support allowance claims ended and a date of death was recorded within six weeks of the claim end.

This Government have repeatedly refused to release updated 2013 statistics on deaths within six weeks of the end of an ESA claim, calling such requests for information “vexatious”.

Four people a day are dying within six weeks of being declared fit for work under the WCA—it is scandalous and an indictment of this place.

Some might consider this bad taste, but I am told that there was a story doing the rounds that when the bones of Richard III were discovered in Leicester, Atos carried out an assessment and judged him fit for work.

It would be funny if it was not so sad. It is a sad truth faced by 12,000-plus families who every year face their own personal tragedies of this nature—it is a reality.”

The Universal Credit debacle- Robert Devereux- United Kingdom Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions

Robert Devereux is the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions. A government organisation with 100,000 staff, operating from nearly 1000 sites, with some 22 million customers, and an annual budget – in terms of money spent on pensions and other benefits – of £160 billion. He believes there are four crucial qualities in public servants namely, Confidence, Openness, Resilience and Leadership.

The Con/Dem Coalition Government decided upon a radical reform of the UK’s welfare system, aiming to reduce worklessness, and make work pay, and at the same time improving the support available for both disabled people and pensioners. Delivering these reforms, would be an enormous leadership challenge.

There’s history here. The Labour government led by Tony Blair & Gordon Brown wasted many millions of taxpayers money presiding over the introduction of the, “tax credit” system. Blame for the disastrous out of control project had been placed with the, “civil service” . One government minister likened, “Whitehall” to the set of a disaster movie.

With the foregoing in mind one wonders what, “bright spark” ever thought the department could successfully introduce a fundamental change in the benefits system titled, “Universal Credit”. Well we have his name, “Ian Duncan Smith”. Having assessed the tools to hand, namely Robert Devereux and his management team Ian was persuaded the project, whilst complex could be implemented within the timescales and other parameters outlined. So off they went, with a potload of taxpayers money, (anyone minded of the 7 dwarfs at this point). Well a couple of years later, way beyond the completion date, with nothing in the pipeline the National Audit Office, (NAO) decided to have a wee gander, just to guide Westminster that satisfactory progress was being made and financial expenditure was within prescribed limits.

“Shock and Horror”. The adverse report on, “Universal Credit” made for difficult reading with a focus more on the day-to-day operations of the department than on the decision-making at the top. It described a “fortress” mentality within the team and a “good news” culture, where officials avoided telling ministers about problems. It said the department used unfamiliar methods to implement the reform, and that there was a “lack of a detailed plan”.

All fingers pointed to Robert Devereux, the Department’s Permanent Secretary, as the bad tool. A government minister said, “You have a permanent secretary who seemed not to know what he was doing and was not willing to admit it and appallingly badly negotiated contracts with suppliers, which you would not expect”.

The project was halted so that the NAO, Ian Duncan Smith and the project team would be able to take stock before deciding the way forward, if indeed the project could be salvaged. After a deal of discussion, and appointment of a team of highly paid external experts. It was decided the project would be RESET and started again.(RESET: write off all before and start again). Reset costs projected at £2.5billion but not yet confirmed. Could be much higher.

Poor Ian Duncan Smith. He had to report the fiasco back to the commons. In his statement he suggested that he had lost faith in the ability of civil servants to deliver the behemoth project adding bitterly, “When I arrived, I expected [to find] the professionalism to be able to do the job properly.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10288977/The-Universal-Credit-debacle-is-the-fault-of-the-Civil-Service-not-Iain-Duncan-Smith.html
http://unemployedtynewear.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/dwp-denies-urging-staff-to-vote-no-in-scottish-independence-referendum/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28861227
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/19/universal-credit-failings-pac-accuses-dwp

Some of Ian Duncan Smiths Achievements

Expenditure on Temporary Staff: Up 91% this year.

Expenditure Private Consultants: Up 59% this year.

Expenditure on a Private contractor to complete botched fitness for work assessments: £60million.

Expenditure on IT equipment that may never be put into use: £90million.

Expenditure on Universal Credit IT contractor overspend: £241million.

Expenditure on Youth Contract Scheme, (failure rate 95%): £434m

Expenditure Contesting appeals against unfair work assessments: £150million

Expenditure on overpayments at the DWP due to fraud: £1.2billion.

Shares For Rights Scheme opens up a £1bn tax loophole

I doubt any undecided voters will still hold that view after reading the foregoing. Vote, “Yes” and get Scotland out of the financial madhouse that is Westminster.

Scottish Health & Welfare Staff in Lanarkshire to be Trained to Spot Health Impacts of Benefits Changes

Both North and South Lanarkshire councils are taking the lead in dealing with the changes. Janice Scouller, health improvement lead for the North West Unit, who is overseeing the welfare reform work in NHS Lanarkshire, said: “The welfare benefits system is undergoing the most significant reform since its establishment. “It is resulting in unprecedented numbers of individuals having their benefit entitlement reviewed, which is resulting in many being financially worse off.

The changes will disproportionately affect vulnerable individuals, many of whom suffer ill health and disability and who rely on benefits as their main source of financial income. We know from previous experience that this will impact on health services as poverty associated illnesses, such as stress, increase. “We not only want staff to be aware of this but to also look out for the signs of deteriorating health in patients.” It is estimated the welfare changes will result in:

disabled people in Scotland losing over £1 billion in benefit payments

100,000 claimants losing entitlement to sickness benefit

50,000 losing entitlement to disability payments

83,000 disabled households affected by the ‘bedroom tax’.

Janice continued: “Patients are also likely to turn to some of our staff for advice and support and we want staff to signpost people to the correct place.
“GPs and other health care professionals may also be asked to give support in the appeals process of some claimants whose benefit has changed. “All this will have an impact on the NHS and we want to prepare staff for this.

The brutal treatment of those least able to cope and in need of help and understanding must surely sway any still, “undecided” Scot to vote, “yes” in the referendum. Scotland is better than this.

http://www.nhslanarkshire.org.uk/publications/Documents/Pulse-January-February-2014.pd

Francis Maude-Cabinet Office Minister Tells Elderly to Go on-Line or Lose Your Benefits

1. The elderly will soon have to have to go on online or risk losing access to key government services.
2. Refuseniks, who do not want to use computers will be able to apply for a one-off lesson to help them get on to the internet.
3. In future the Government will only make services available over the internet, in the same way an airline sells tickets.
4. Ministers are migrating dozens of public services onto the internet, including the carers’ allowance, (used by 3.2million carers a year), the small claims service, and Lasting Powers of Attorney, (which allow families to take control of a loved one’s financial affairs).

The comments were greeted with dismay by groups representing the estimated five million pensioners in their 80s and 90s who have never been on the internet.

Mr Maude was unveiling figures to an audience of civil servants at the Treasury showing the billions saved by the Government by moving Government services online. Asked by the Telegraph if all Government services would be online at some stage, he said: “Our point is that everything that can be delivered online, should be delivered online and only online.” He added: “There are some things that are physical and can’t be online. The key point is that like airlines, airlines do everything that is not physical, is not about actually flying the aeroplanes online, which is better for them and better for the passenger.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10889563/Go-on-the-internet-or-lose-access-to-government-services-Francis-Maude-tells-pensioners.html#disqus_thread

Bedroom Tax

Under the Con/Dems and/or Labour Government (if elected), people in social housing will receive a cut in housing benefit where they are deemed to have spare bedrooms. Take careful note all you council and Housing association tenants.

Ed Miliband, The Labour leader claimed financial help for disabled people hit by the so-called bedroom tax was outweighed by cuts in other benefits they receive.

David Cameron Con/Dem Prime Minister said the figures put forward by Miliband to support his claim were “completely wrong” and said the coalition government was exempting a range of vulnerable groups from paying the bedroom tax.

There is a way out of this madness vote, “Yes” in the referendum. Take Scotland back. Let us decided for ourselves what our policies are to be.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9912660/PMQs-David-Cameron-and-Ed-Miliband-clash-over-bedroom-tax.html

Welfare to Work – Use of External Contractors

In order to deliver our commissioning future welfare to work policy objectives as efficiently and effectively as possible we need to broaden our thinking and look to develop new ways of commissioning. Large scale prime contracting enables us to meet the challenge of delivering efficient services at large scale and still has a place within the DWP commissioning landscape.

However, to get full value from our specialist providers and realise the potential of social investment, we recognise the need to commission using a range of different approaches, in particular when delivering support to those furthest from the labour market. We will embrace the range of approaches available to us including the continued testing of innovative approaches, using the findings to inform future commissioning.

Seems to me we are addressing the demise of the Job Centres. I expect amy thousands of civil service jobs will be shed throughout the UK and Scotland. The, “new Way” will be commissioning of private companies to taking over the task of assessing, training and managing the unemployed back to work. The bulk of the work will be completed on-line with little face to face contact, perhaps other than an initial interview. Payment and suspension of benefits will be the responsibility of the contractor, (within rules provided by the DWP). Interesting time ahead. Bit of a rollercoaster this one. I am just glad I’m well out of it. But I do worry about the fate of the unemployed. These new providers are not in it to do good. They will make a profit off the backs of the unemployed. I expect if it will be a case of 3 strikes and out.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-commissioning-strategy-2014

 

 

 

 

Strategic Vision – Credit Suisse

 

The Human Development Index

The Human Development Index is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices used to rank countries into four tiers of human development.

 

 

An Independent Scotland

A newly independent Scotland would have a better Human Development Index (HDI) than the rest of the UK, even without oil, a leading international finance company has said.

A report by Credit Suisse:

“https://caltonjock.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/1187961194.pdf”

has concluded that on key areas of life expectancy, education, and income a newly independent Scotland would be ranked higher than the rest of the United Kingdom.

According to the report’s authors, an independent Scotland would be ranked four places higher than the rUK.

The report said:

Scotland would rank 23rd if we include a geographical allocation to Scotland’s GNI [Gross National Income] related to the North Sea oil output, versus the current 27th place for the UK and the hypothetical 30th for rUK.

Note: Even excluding any allocation of oil output, Scotland would still rank ahead of the UK.”

 

 

Comparing the success of small countries with that of larger nations the report said:

Small countries are more homogeneous and homogeneity plays an important role in determining the success of a country.  Cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity creates a ceiling to the potential size of a country.  Small countries are more open to international trade and have embraced globalization to a higher extent than larger countries.  Small countries are successful and in general much better off than bigger countries.

 

 

Public services in smaller countries benefit more from ‘pooling resources’ and the ‘economies of scale’ than larger countries.

Research shows that large countries tend to have higher tax rates for individuals (by 5%).  So the cost of funding public services for the individual is higher in larger countries than in small countries.  The Credit Suisse Research Institute also explained that small countries are one of the “leading geopolitical trends of the last fifty years“.

 

 

 

The report and comments were welcomed by an SNP Treasury spokesperson who said:

“These comments are very welcome. Using academic data, the report sets out Scotland’s potential and how our development rating would outperform the UK- even without oil- following a Yes vote.  The report also found that smaller countries are better able to ‘effectively’ and ‘cheaply’ deliver public services, and most of the small countries mentioned do not have nearly as many of the resources we have here in Scotland.  This highlights once again that Scotland is perfectly positioned to flourish as an independent nation. We would be able to concentrate on our talents, grow our economy and build a better and fairer society following a Yes vote.”