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

I wish they’d look at the greater picture and put support in for children. I know it’s tomorrows governments issue.
but how much of this would be resolved by early intervention?

I also think the housing bill is going to be truly eye watering when generation rent can’t work anymore. Imagine the costs involved then? McCarthy Glenn can see it and are already investing in it.

Who is going to pay the costs to relocate?

If you have a rented house, or even a mortgage, maybe a Council House or a Housing Association House, can you imagine being forced in your 50s to relocate 100s of miles away to live in a shared house? Away from the community you grew up in?

Would you do that? In your 40s or 50s?

Or should there be more investment in local areas?

Time for a Universal Basic Income

www.bath.ac.uk/publications/basic-income-automation-and-labour-market-change/attachments/Basic_income-automation-labour-market-change.pdf

Why do you expect everything for you to be coveted by someone else?

Having had to deal with the DWP telling me a relative with advanced dementia (doubly incontinent, epileptic, psychotic and didn't even know how to get dressed) had zero excuse not to be working, this does not surprise me.

Well the obvious difference about coming from a poorer country to a richer one is you can live in conditions that arent ideal, on the basis that you can save up money which will go much further back home

So my grandfathers carer from the Philippines and shared a room with another carer in a hot bedding situation. but the money she sent back to her chikdren went a long way to massively improve their life. Plus it was never intended to do it forever. Then she headed back home.

A uk person isnt going to send money back to a cheaper place (or save up an buy a half a house, or pay their uni fees due to currancy differences) unless the uk person does the whole hot bedding thing, then moves to bulgaria after 5 years themselves.

I think poland is rich now.

The whole idea that people in poverty can just relocate for a NMW insecure job is laughable. People who can get better paid jobs already do relocate, because they are being offered permanent contracts or fixed contracts with relocation costs covered. You can’t apply the country trotting or globe trotting of an expat to a Tesco cashier or bin man on NMW- they simply do not have the financial resources to relocate and no employers are going to pay relocation costs for a NMW job for which they will get dozens of local applicants for anyway.

Looks like capita are after more money

I thought he said the individuals have to comply with the system i.e. support will be provided. I am sure nobody is being shipped to work if there is proof they cannot work and if they haven't seen a specialist for their illness.

Millions of people live and work with chronic illness. We do need a better and well funded health system.

I don’t? Do you think someone who has survived on JSA and UC for a year would have the thousands in savings needed to relocate?

This government is dismantling something so precious and we just stand by and watch whilst millionaires with every advantage tell people who are really poorly that they must try harder. It’s disgusting. I can’t wait to vote them out but sadly they’ll still be swanning around in their heated outdoor swimming pools in the middle of an energy crisis.

@spuddy4 spot on.

@dimllaishebiaith i agree with some of what you say big that means support must be tailored and I think one of the biggest failures of the last Labour government was to drive everyone down the uni route and not into trades etc…. Yes I’m intelligent but I also know of I lost this job I would pick up whatever work was necessary - I’ve cleaned and worked in factories before whilst studying and would do it again. A plasterer of limited intelligence could still work - it might not be what they want to do but it’s an income.

I think people are supposed to just get the bus down, stay in a backpacker's hostel and then get a shared house.

Not sure how that works if you have kids. Or a partner. Or have caring responsibilities.

.. for the record I’ve never been on benefits and always worked. But I know it’s by the grace of God I haven’t had cancer or was born with a genetic predisposition to a debilitating mental health condition.

It doesn't necessarily need to take thousands to relocate. When I relocated for a job, I lived in a tiny room above a pub. It cost hardly anything and I saved up to get somewhere more permanent. There's options like shared housing, youth hostels, longer term b&b, hiring a caravan, private renting and some of those won't cost thousands especially in some parts of the country.

I have suffered from severe anxiety and depression all my life. Still managed to work. Trouble is that many people abuse the system.

Right?!?

I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do it. It’s so cushty and easy. The money rolls in and you are free to live the life you please, unhindered by work.
I would suggest you too, quit work and live the life of Riley on benefits of you feel it’s unfair.

I’m sorry but we have one of the most soft systems in the world. I think this is to target the worst of those who cba to work and it doesn’t bother me. I work very hard and had been on JSA in the past, I looked for jobs everyday and that’s exactly what people should be doing.

People with mental health problems or other disabilities are less likely to be able to relocate because they will be reliant on local support structures.

I live in America. I’m forced to live here and I hate it. The UK continues to follow the worst aspects of American culture and then wonders why society continues to collapse.

Zero hour contracts should never have been allowed in the first place and should be banned. Every employment contract should have a stated number of hours and the days those hours are worked. This is state law in the majority of well functioning states. Employers in these states can offer that employees go home but they are not allowed to force employees to not work contracted hours.

The education and family court system are the two main problems. Standards of behavior are extremely low and I’m talking about the parents, not the children. Parental rights trump the welfare of the children. When you divorce the cost of running two households is financially not feasible for the vast majority of families. The children should sleep in the same bed each night in the same home. It’s called stability. At the same time parents need to show up for their children. The family courts mirror the insanity going on here in America and we wonder why we have a mental health crisis. Half of the education problems would be solved by family courts being focused on the welfare of the children and not the rights of parents. Parents don’t have rights, they have responsibilities.

When it comes to working childcare needs to be completely rethought. Why can’t a nanny be paid for from their employers PAYE earnings directly? This way, you have a simple but effective way of enabling families to work and not be taxed on childcare costs. It would give childcare workers better security that they are indeed going to be paid. It’s tough working in someone’s home doing childcare. I think the government should also provide a HR service to both parents and childcare workers to resolve disputes that come up.

I am forced to exist in a country where you can lose your job because your boss doesn’t like the shirt you are wearing, the lunch you eat at your desk or for no actual reason at all. It’s no wonder the suicide rate is as high as it is. Children are traumatized by the bizarre notion that coparenting is something that is forced onto every divorced family despite overwhelming evidence that shows it’s not beneficial for the children.

Both can be true. People can be angry and upset that people can live well on benefits (they can, I did, but I had no debt and am well educated on managing my finances) and people can be upset that there are sectors of the community who are struggling financially, socially and in terms of their health due to a lack of resources. People can also be upset that the middle earners are struggling and not entitled to any help and this is the bracket more likely to be upset at people on benefits appearing to be living the life of Riley.

All arguments are valid.

You have definitely nailed it!

Interestingly many people's response to this is that there are waiting lists. The reality is that when Doctors and Nurses ask for better pay and working conditions they are snubbed. Many have left for greener pastures to countries where they will get paid better. Meanwhile in this country there were Doctors' strikes recently - they barely got any airtime. There were a few articles stating they get paid enough.

As long as you refuse to pay them the country will always be severely short staffed. It's no wonder there's now an apprenticeship to become a Dr in the UK without studying at University, there are also measures to make pharmacists, nurses and physician associates work as Doctors to avoid paying appropriate qualified Doctors and increase appointment availability.
Doctors and nurses are also recruited from 3rd world countries and paid very low salaries. This has always been the case even under labour. Nurses from African, Philippines, India as well as Portugal, Spain, Italy and more recently the Caribbean. A similar job in the USA/ Canada would pay 5-10x as much.

So in a way it's not true that they aren't doing anything to reduce waiting lists. There are many people who genuinely have chronic illness stopping them from working. However there are also millions working today and living with chronic illnesses. We also know there are tonnes of people who choose benefits over work. I agree benefits should never be a lifestyle choice even if you'd get £200 more per month on benefits vs working.

In the same way that taxes have to be raised by adding VAT to school fees, universities and nurseries, we should also look to get taxes from other people who are capable and should be working. This isn't about people who cannot work.

Zero hour contracts should never have been allowed in the first place and should be banned. Every employment contract should have a stated number of hours and the days those hours are worked. This is state law in the majority of well functioning states. Employers in these states can offer that employees go home but they are not allowed to force employees to not work contracted hours.

zero hours has always been a thing though, it's not new. I remember my teen years as a waitress and all the staff (including adults doing it as a "proper" job) never knew what hours they were getting from one week to the next. It seemed pretty standard in that industry as it did when I went to shop work. We didn't call it zero hours though it was just the nature of our jobs.