No benefits if unemployed for more than a year and other ways Sunak wants ti tackle the Benefits system

[cakeorwine]

This are the headlines - I can see some massive issues here for people - it's easy to say there are job vacancies - but what if they aren't in the area people are and there is no transport to get there. How does that work? I can see a lot of exploitation here.

There's also the other rules here around PIP payments, part time workers etc.

I wonder how much personal experience Sunak has of such things?

This is an outline from the Daily Mail

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13330045/Benefits-axed-year-stop-lifestyle-choice-Prime-Minister.html

12-month rule for unemployed

Tory manifesto plans will see people on the dole have their benefit claims closed after a year unless they can convince Jobcentre staff they are actively looking for work and willing to accept any reasonable job offer.

Personal Independence Payments

Hundreds of thousands of people with anxiety and depression could lose access to payments worth up to £700 a month and instead be offered therapy to help them back to work.

PART-TIME WORKERS

New rules will require part-time workers on Universal Credit to look for more work. Anyone working for less than the equivalent of 18 hours a week on minimum wage will have to show they are actively seeking more hours.

Disability rules

The work capability assessment rules, which govern who is eligible for sickness benefits, will be tightened to require 424,000 with milder mental health conditions to start looking for work.

Sick notes

GPs could be stripped of their role in signing off people as sick and replaced by 'specialist work and health professionals' who will focus on what work people could do with support, such as flexibility to work from home.

Benefit Fraud

Investigators will be handed new powers to tackle benefit fraud, which hit £6.4 billion last year. In future they will have similar powers to those investigating tax fraud, including the ability to make seizures and arrests

Where do you hear this? It's just not true other than in cases of fraud which are pursued.

I think you need to learn more about the reality, you're having your chain pulled. Dont allow yourself to be brainwashed.

A universal basic income for everyone is the answer. Give everyone a fair amount to live on. Remove the stigma of benefits and all of the red tape that goes along with it. People who want a more affluent lifestyle will still work but it would be a proper safety net for those who can't. It's been a while since I wrote my dissertation on it but done properly it would actually be cheaper than the current benefit systems!

Hasn't the amount of people out of work risen A LOT, since the tories have been in power? So are we supposed to be impressed they want to tackle a problem they caused? Doesn't the fact it's risen whilst they ve been in charge suggest they're a bit shit at knowing how to get more people back to work?

It's all trying to get votes crap. Hopefully even the people who vote for them usually have come to realise it's nonsensical.

Well, on no planet, because it's not happening.

People are off work due to sickness - it is illness and NHS waiting times driving the long term absence rates.

The Tories want to distract you from the economic impact of their NHS crisis.

Don't fall for this bollocks.

What if there is no work in the area? Will claimants be expected to relocate? Will the DWP fund that?

Why shouldn't people be expected to relocate for work?

Why are the Polish plumbers, the Bulgarian cleaners and the nursing staff from the Philippines able to relocate but UC claimants are not?

This is utterly stupid not to mention heartless. Mental health services are stretched to the limit and unable to cope so who is going to provide this therapy? I guarantee it will be an app!

It will also not solve the problems this country is facing. Please go listen to Gary Stevenson's work on economics. Sunak is an incredibly rich man who will never deal with the source of the problem - inequality and the super rich.

Healthy people do move.

Sick people stuck on NHS waiting lists will be too ill to work wherever they are.

I can't believe people are still sucked in by this bullshit from Sunak.

Because if someone like me moved, they'd be noone to take care of my mum and help my sister with child care. I also have no idea how I'd afford to move!

I think it is appalling the way Sunak is attacking the most vulnerable in society. I suppose they couldn’t fix the boat issue and so quietly needed to shift public enemy #1 from asylum seekers washing up on our beaches to the long term sick and disabled. Absolutely despicable.

You are absolutely right about anyone Ill.

But I was under the impression that PP wasn't happy with anyone having to relocate.

Happy to be corrected.

People who have the resources can relocate for work.

If young people relocate to where the work is (if they have the resources), what happens to the place they leave behind?

Investing in local areas, providing good public transport, decent local opportunities, good education prospects...so people don't have to relocate would be a good idea so there is a more level playing field for jobs and opportunities.

We could call it Levelling up

Too, if you move, you are kicked off your waiting list and have to get referred again to the bottom of the waiting list for the new NHS trust that covers the new area.

If someone provides unpaid care for a parent, would you force them to move and have the state pay the care instead even though that would cost more?

Where are you housing them?

Do you think it'll improve our country to wind the clock back to the 1930s?

Why people fall for this bollocks I do not understand.

I don’t think the two situations are the same and the post is not goady in the slightest. The poster is clearly pointing out those who have nothing wrong with them, can easily work but choose not to and claim benefits. It’s not the same as your situation where you are actively seeking work

It’s the age old problem of weeding out piss takers without the genuine being collateral damage

reading that I could give piss taker and genuine examples from practically everything mentioned

I don’t think anyone has a silver bullet for this one

Ah I love the "just move"

So you have been working on minimum wage and dont exactly have savings

You live in a council house

Do you

a. make yourself intentionally homeless in order to move to the "big city" where housing is expensive but there might be a job, but you can't afford a deposit or your first months rent, you aren't eligible for housing because you made yourself homeless and even if you were eligible for housing that council would be within their rights to send you back to your original council to be housed because you dont have any local connection to the big city

b. live on job seekers for a bit in the hopes of getting another job

But sure lets just bash people on benefits for not making themselves intentionally homeless in an environment where housing is problematic

Lets also ignore the fact that when people in populated areas like london complain about how hard it is to get housing they are equally berated for not moving out of the cities

Lets also ignore the fact that councils have council houses in villages and smaller rural locations and sometimes people feel forced into taking these because they are the only housing option available because funnily enough there is high demand for the ones in more populated areas

'specialist work and health professionals' - I wonder how much it will cost to recruit, train and pay these folk?

This is a pre-election gambit to bring in the right wing voters.

As someone who has worked with people who are sick, I can assure everyone that there are far more people who qualify and don't get benefits than people getting benefits they do not qualify for.

If only Sunak could get his head round the fact that people are waiting interminable times to get proper health care and treatment and if he tackled this then there would be more people fit for work.

What Sunak (and a great many other people), seem to have overlooked IMO, is the 1 thing that is key to his idea......employers. What is he going to do to ensure that employers take on those with MH/ long term sickness issues? It's all well and good saying "ah but there are laws against discrimination", but when someone gets a "sorry you were not successful this time but good luck in the future" type response, how can discrimination be proved? So no matter what Sunak says, unless employers are compelled to employ those people then it really means fuck all.

I don't think simply removing benefits is the solution (although I'm not sure anyone is suggesting it is), but there is a problem to be solved.

2.8 million people are out of work on long term sick leave. That's an astonishing number: the population of the uk is 67 million. Out of those 67m, lots of people are legitimately not in the workforce like children, retired people, SAHMs etc. So that 2.8m is a huge proportion of the workforce.

Many of those individually will have very difficult stories and it's not as simple as saying "oy get back to work". But on a societal level, our economy will continue to suffer if we don't start being more productive as a country. That drives up cost of living for everyone.

And I'm sure everyone on mumsnet is not a fan of cost of living increases.

The point is there are simply not enough jobs to start with and many jobs are minimum wage. Many claimants have carer and or childcare responsibilities.

Plenty of the jobs that do exist necessitate long journeys to them and potentially a car. More and more people that drive cannot afford insurance meaning a lot of illegal drivers on the road. Rishi Sunak is not in the real world.

@Grumppy i agree with you. The current situation is unsustainable and something needs to be done and part of the truth is that people got used to being paid at home to do fuck all and the books now don’t balance. DH and I (both high rate tax payers) have left the country and we’re sick of paying in and getting nothing back. Benefits should be a safety net not a way of life.

Thank you! Yes!

Really?

Because I am a higher rate tax payer and I am only a higher rate tax payer because I was able to "sit at home doing nothing" when I became disabled and then could take the time to retrain in a job that accomodated my disabilities.

As a higher rate tax payer I am happy that my taxes support other people. I personally feel, as I have already posted, that the extra money should come from businesses profiting either through AI and automation or through paying less than a living wage but boasting of high profits but that doesn't mean I think support to people should be cut.

The Tories promised us £350 million a week for the NHS after Brexit, where is this money? Surely now we have so much extra money coming in every week we can pay to get the NHS backlog reduced and people the mental health support they need? 🙄
I notice that the Tories are no longer quoting this magic figure as to how we’re going to have more money to help people. Instead they keep blaming the people who have no access to proper services that would support their health.

Yes @dimllaishebiaith really. I’m glad you got the help and support you needed and I wish everyone could do the same and get back to making the country productive. The benefits should be the sole preserve of those who can’t and they should be upped in my opinion but there are too many people - and this isn’t some daily mail take on matters - who are rinsing the system. The whole system and all
our services are fucked and I’ve no idea how whoever is in power yet will get it right.