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campaign against welfare cuts and poverty

There does seem to be a lot of confusion over this.

What the SNP called for was removing the cap on the child element of UC. Those who have 3 or more children still get the regular child benefit, if their income is below the threshold.
 
The new Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall is supportive of a report that focuses on pushing disabled people into work and which recommends they be forced to engage with "work coaches" or lose benefits.

The report was chaired by former Health Minister Alan Milburn. The other day Smokeandsteam posted elsewhere that Milburn is saying that long-term sick people should be forced to seek work.

Liz Kendall has said she wants the DWP to move from “a department for welfare” to becoming “a genuine department for work”. Milburn's wording is almost identical, calling for "a department for work."

Among the commission’s other recommendations is for DWP to cut benefits for disabled people who are out-of-work – except for those with “severe disabilities” – to “close the financial gap between incapacity and unemployment benefits”.

Although Kendall did not call for cuts to out-of-work disability benefits, she did tell the launch that “spiralling economic inactivity” was “bad for our public finances”, and she pointed to steep rises in spending on “sickness and disability benefits”, adding: “Imagine what a fraction of that money could do instead.”

How they decide what can be classed as "severe disabilities" is not made clear, yet the words of doctors and specialist medical practitioners about their own patients are barely acknowledged under the current benefits system.

Despite its calls to force more disabled people into work – and to cut benefits – the report completely ignores the serious safeguarding issues within DWP, including those linked to the work capability assessment (WCA) process and universal credit and associated with efforts to pressure disabled people into work or work-related activity.

Kendall and her party have themselves repeatedly ignored the DWP safeguarding issue in the lead-up to the election, and since they won power.

Liz Kendall: “Under this government, there will be obligations to engage with support, look for work and take jobs when they are offered, as there always have been since the original Beveridge report, but there will be no more divisive, derogatory rhetoric or claiming that people just think that they are too bluesy to work.”

Fresh DWP fears after Kendall helps launch report that calls for ‘duty to engage’ and cuts to disability benefits
(content warning for suicide)
 
for anyone in Manchester, there's a demo this weekend about Spareroom allowing landlords to discriminate against claimaints:

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All out on Saturday, 28th of September! Meet at 1PM, on Colony One Silk Street, M4 6AG ! Banner and placards provided.

Let @spareroomuk know that we demand change in how landlords upload their listings to discriminate against benefit claimants!

The process of advertising on SpareRoom is limited to “Professionals, Students and No Preference”. This implies that there are only two types of renters that might be searching for housing: in a “professional” job or higher education. Renting costs are at an all time high, so further limitations make it even harder to find housing.

Please share anywhere else that seems relevant.
 
Wtf is going on with UC? Been on it since it started and all of a sudden got messaged that I need to send a load of photos of my driving licence, including a selfie of me holding it, same for my wife with her passport (who isn't on UC) and 4 months worth of both our bank statements. Sent them 6 months worth of mine and apparently that still isn't good enough so waiting to hear what else they need. Fingerprints maybe?
 
We were on some legacy benefits and got told to switch to UC. Who said we would get nothing. Turns out that was wrong and it would have kept them going for a year if nothing else. At least it's too late now. 🤷
 
Wtf is going on with UC? Been on it since it started and all of a sudden got messaged that I need to send a load of photos of my driving licence, including a selfie of me holding it, same for my wife with her passport (who isn't on UC) and 4 months worth of both our bank statements. Sent them 6 months worth of mine and apparently that still isn't good enough so waiting to hear what else they need. Fingerprints maybe?

The thinking in welfare rights circles is that during the pandemic, they weren't doing all the full checks for new claims and that they're now playing catch-up. However, if you've been on it since the very start, that rather debunks that theory.

It's also possible that your claim started before the full digital service (2016 or thereabouts), in which case you won't have had all the same checks done.

Although your wife "isn't on UC", as she's your wife (and presumably you live together), it's automatically a joint claim so her income, savings and eligibility are relevant. I'll check out some of the professional advisers' forums later on, and see if anything more definite has come to light.

My own theory is that the couple of cases of organised fraud that have been prosecuted in the last year or two has made them realise that the checks they were doing weren't thorough enough and so they're doing more verification of ID, nationality, etc.
 
We were on some legacy benefits and got told to switch to UC. Who said we would get nothing. Turns out that was wrong and it would have kept them going for a year if nothing else. At least it's too late now. 🤷

If you were given incorrect information and have lost out as a result, it's worth putting in a complaint and copying it to your MP.

It worked a treat for a client of mine, they got all the extra money backdated.
 
If you were given incorrect information and have lost out as a result, it's worth putting in a complaint and copying it to your MP.

It worked a treat for a client of mine, they got all the extra money backdated.
They did it before when we got put on free prescriptions when j started working. Weirdly happy to let me pay monthly when I was on jsa. Soon as I worked they changed it didn't tell me and fined us £600 for checking I pay every month box. Twice now. Getting second one sorted is on the list, plus forgot one they did when we moved in. Apparently somehow despite changing everything and me being rhe one that did it all they said I didn't declare I was living there.

Turned out there was a rule that if you didn't benefit from it then it cancelled out. Which we didn't. They had no idea about this rule. Eventually got someone high up enough they knew about it then said it had been applied randomly 11 months before for no apparent reason so couldn't be done again.

Need to start a list to aend off. Took £2k out of what was just benefits. That took a while to pay off and left us with nothing for a long time.
 
Interesting graphic from the Times showing the UK state's "world leading" cuntitude towards those that lose their job:

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