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

Ok

The whole world is experiencing a shortage of healthcare staff. The world is just passing staff round from one country to another.

I'm not against zero hours contracts being available as an option - they do suit some people, for example if you are semi-retired and don't want the tie of fixed hours - but I think there should always be the choice of fixed hours.

Who is going to an interview saying I suffer from abc so expect that sometimes I might not come to work?

I have a chronic illness. My workplace now knows about it. I didn't feel the need to mention anything until it affected me. I take time off when I need it but also try my best to cause minimal disruption at work when I have to be off.

At the end of the day I need to pay my bills.

''@ChardonnaysBeastlyCat
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?''

Your statement lacks logic and does not take into account the wider picture...

We also have a housing crisis so it is a vicious circle.

There are many jobs in London for example in anything from hospitality, retail to social care but these jobs are low paid. Teachers and nurses also struggle to live on their wages in the capital so basically it makes no sense whatsoever for people to relocate to get a job with a mediocre pay only to find out they can't house themselves.

This is why we have massive shortage of staff in so many sectors.

Also with Brexit most EU workers making the staff shortage even more acute.

But unless you look at affordable housing and why too many employers pay poverty wages then there is no point in thinking relocating is the answer.

Not to mention that with the high cost of childcare many people need to stay near family members so they can help look after young children while the parents go to work.

So as usual easy soundbites don't make good policy...

True except UK staff never go to 3rd world countries, they always got to US, Canada, OZ, NZ etc for better pay, working and living conditions. Most of the people who come here from Europe come from poorer countries like Poland, Romania etc and Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal where there are no jobs.

If a Doctor can make 10 times what they make a month in the UK. This means on UK pay they have to work 10 years to get what their colleagues make in a year in the US/ Canada. Why would they stay here? What are we doing to keep them?

We need to learn from the countries which are doing well like Nordic countries.

OMG, f**k all that. Tories out!

Dog whistle politics.

@Startingagainandagain How many people from the UK would even consider moving abroad for a regular job? I don't mean highly paid senior roles. I mean for example fruit picking with accommodation. If they made 30K per year.
I can almost guarantee that many won't and many would rather claim benefits than go through the stress of going to another country to work. I saw a documentary a while ago. A farmer offered some young men on benefits work and they turned it down because they said they didn't want to work in his farm with Polish people and would rather be on Benefits.

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.

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.

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.

Honestly, fair enough. Everyone has depression and anxiety, unfortunately we just have to get on with it. I really think the bigger problem is appalling pay, high CoL, low min wage and extremely short holidays (6 weeks per year). Sunak needs to address these issues, more people will want to work if it's worth it.

I agree with these policies but I still will never vote Tory.

So long as you are single and able bodied yes

But what if you are disabled and you can work, but to facilitate this you need a house that has been accomodated to suit this

What if you are married, you are out of work but your partner isnt? Are they supposed to give up their job and follow you or are you forced to split up if you have to move for work?

What if you have children and the only way to work is for your parents to provide childcare. Who pays for them to move with you when you have to move children to a room above a pub or a caravan for work?

What if your children are in a specialist school and there isnt provision where you might move for a job?

There are so many what ifs which mean that "just move" is not a one size fits all solution

I agree with this to a degree. A lot of the people you mention come from countries without benefits therefore they do everything they can to find work. There are many foreigners who live here and are not allowed benefits. How do they manage?
I know many people who go to work daily because they have to. They have no choice.
I've also known one or two people who sit at home because benefits are great. One of them has now gone to work but works very minimal hours.

There’s a difference in general anxiety and unable to work anxiety.

shouldn’t they already be receiving therapy on the years long waiting list ?

It's life you have to make it work somehow. Find balance. Many people work away from home - I do. Until I get something closer to home this is how it is.

What if there were no benefits at all in this country?

You have a lot more faith than me if you think this government gives a damn enough to put support in for the plans.

it will take years to undo the harm they have done to the system as it is. We need proper support system in place and early interventions.

How would that look?

@YourHazelScroller "more people will want to work if it's worth it"

It shouldn't be a choice, if you are able to work you should. That's the point.

Its all very well saying take a job fruit picking but you can't leave a council property unoccupied for weeks at a time so if you are in council accomodation you lose your home and your right to be rehomed because you made yourself voluntarily homeless. For a few months of income.

Its not that simple.

As much as I HATE this government to lay blame on them fully is wrong. This system was broken during Labour as well.

Brits don't want to pay for anything. Look at other countries in the nordics and what they are doing for an amazing national health service.

The issue here isn't so much those on benefits because they are truly unwell. This is for those who are choosing benefits over work because they can and want to.

How do foreigners here on visas without benefits manage?

Aren't they mostly young single men and live in these multiple occupancy houses sharing rooms/ dorms, some working day/ nights and rotating beds?

Yeah they tend to put single parents in prison if they work away from home leaving their children behind...

What if there were no benefits at all in this country?

People would die. Children would die. Women would be stuck in abusive relationships were they risk being killed. Children would be stuck in abusive households where they risk being killed. Homelessness would rise. Disabled people would be begging on the streets or dead.

Like this is really obvious...

I am not a young single man and very few of my friends and family were young single men when they moved here.

Do you not have any foreign friends?

@eise Nordic countries are not doing that well. Better than the UK but not great.

I lived in Denmark. It’s a xenophobic society and it was shocking to be called a racial slur by a government employee when I was completing my immigration paperwork. The reason their society functions ‘better’ than the UK is because it’s a homogeneous population. There is huge pressure to conform and they are all very liberal until diversity lands at their doorstep. Employment laws are very strict, unions have a lot of power and provide most of the benefits paid to employees as well as employee representation. In the first two years of employment it’s very easy to fire someone and once someone is sick or unemployed, it’s the union that pay, not the employer. There is zero incentive to work hard so senior management of companies is dire as you can’t run a business unit working 37.5hrs a week.

I think Switzerland, Germany, France and BeNLlx are better examples to follow. It would be interesting to also look to Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

The more you give people the more they want. see it every day in my job. You help people claim hundreds of pounds more in benefits than they were previously getting then they constantly call asking if there's anything else free boiler, trust fund to pay their gas bill. It's never ending. Helped one elderly man to claim hundreds extra in pension credit and housing benefit. A few weeks later he rang asking if getting pension credit would mean he could use a food bank more often.