What welfare cuts do you think Sunak is about to announce in budget?

[caringcarer]

It's been reported that Richi Sunak said there will be tax cuts in the budget before the election and then more after the election so people who work hard will gain more and the government will curb spending on welfare. So, what welfare cuts do you think he is planning? I wonder whether he will reduce the triple lock on pensions to a double lock. Will he make single parents with DC over 7 work more hours to get UC top up. So maybe make them work 20 or even 25 hours. Do you think the £300 CoL payments will stop, as inflation is now much lower? I'm not advocating for these cuts just curious to what they could be. Can anyone think of others they might implement? Also which tax cuts could he be thinking of introducing? Threshold going up from £12,500 to £13k or inheritance tax go up a bit?

It's a five week wait for UC roughly.
It can take a few months to be assessed for work capability which can increase UC. But if someone was off sick and only getting SSP ( bearing in mind many employers pay more than SSP ), then they would get help with rent after 5 weeks.

Many many employers only pay SSP.
I know UC is supposed to take 5 weeks, that is not always the reality. And 5 weeks is a long time if you are on the bones of your arse.
I worked in a nursery with diarrhea. We were not supposed to, but staff did and hid it from managers. Because nurseries nearly always only pay SSP.

I already don't take time off sick because SSP is so low. But at least I got it when I was in hospital. How can they possible cut it any lower?
We are on household income of £33k and get no UC - 2 teens and 2 adults. If I had two weeks off ill I would not be entitled to UC. I would just get nothing. I would have to steal to feed us.

I don't think there has been any indication that SSP is being cut.
The proposals that have been put out recently by the government are changes to the work capability processes and how many people are awarded that on UC and ESA. They are looking to reform the criteria and presumably make it more difficult to get as such a lot of people are claiming it long term and not getting back to work as the government want them to.

I don’t think they will touch housing benefit as rent is hugely unaffordable as it is. They need to update the local housing allowance.

yes they announced recently they are increasing the local housing allowance rates towards private rent. These allowances haven't been raised for a few years in line with rent increases.

Why are you banging on about the triple lock? Pensions aren’t benefits in any case.

@Babyroobs It does not affect me. But it is because lots of people have been put in the work capability group who are not really capable of work.

I wish instead of raising housing benefit ( although I know that’s necessary in the short term) they’d focus more on rent controls in places like London and also building more social housing and making sure the vast majority of it in prime areas is not sold off.

I don’t know much about benefits and I do think those in receipt of them can become scapegoats, but that said I have a friend with 3 kids, none SEN and all over the age of 13. I don’t understand how she only works 12 hours a week and always has done. Her partner does work here and there but I know most of her rent etc is paid through benefits. I think something has to change regarding those situations where someone( who is not restricted by childcare )can deliberately work such few hours and has the rest subsidised.

To add I can understand that people will do what’s best for them but there needs to be a move to make work pay basically.

@Howtofryanegg someone with children her age with no SEN has to look for work to work more hours, unless her DP is working. I would assume that between them they are working enough hours to meet the criteria.

I used to think they were not either but apparently they are classed as a benefit.

From what I understand he doesn’t work full time either, he does manual/ odd job man work here and there some weeks not working so either way they are both getting subsidised heavily. And she didn’t work at all until her youngest was 5 and this was due to benefits. Her partner used to work even less back then.

Most of my couple friends with kids have both had to work from when their kids were pre-school (after maternity) or if one isn’t working it’s their partner paying for them to stay at home.

I can see how some working parents can get annoyed at the situation but it’s really the system rather than individuals.

I really think LCWRA should be for people who can't work at all. I don't understand how they have LCW and LCWRA, yet allow those on the latter to still work.

Yes I know it's "limited" capability but surely if you could work at all, even if it's 2 hrs a week, that is literally LCW (limited capability for work), not the 'and work related activities' bit (RA). You are literally doing 'work related activities' by working at all.

I think the reason so many started wanting to be put on LCWRA (and trying to find ways to qualify for it) was because they took away the monetary aspect of LCW. Who wants to be on LCW if they can't get extra benefit for it while also being slightly pressured to work but not as much or as often as other uc claimants who work?

So I think the govt should reinstate benefit payment for LCW and move anyone on LCWRA who can work at all to that category, without any pressure from uc to do anymore than they can (That's a big one which affects mental health too). This should help people feel more free to do the work that they can and not try to claim that they can't at all.

That would free a lot of space for those on LCWRA who can't work at all and either save the govt some money or remain the same as it costs now to have too many people on LCWRA who really don't need to be. They shouldn't be in the same category and it's screwing the numbers of those who truly can't work.

Not like there's long covid
Huge waiting lists for treatment for things

Oh wait...

I'm working FT and don't claim as not entitled but I have a fucking massive list of conditions and the most recent is endometriosis
I'm lucky, got pushed up the list as I went to a&e but the waiting list is a year. How can you work when you need 2 days off a month to be able to scream in pain on your own at home?

I have a condition that seems to have resolved itself. If it had not I would have been off ill waiting for an operation. The NHS waiting lists are ridiculously long.

I'm dreading whatever it is.

I have noticed that he has stated upfront that the tax cut bribes offered will be at the expense of health, investment and growth.

Please note not all retired people vote Tory. Some (lots that I know) actually vote Labour

Whatever can give the poor, disabled, and otherwise vulnerable another kick in the teeth and make their lives even less worth living. This government won't touch the pension triple lock before the election, their typical voter base is very much tipped towards older generations who won't see sixty again and people who think the Sun is a newspaper.

I think that despite the exitement and (in some quarters) panic, "curb welfare" will just mean officialy announcing that the cost of living payments will be stopped moving forwards and restating if you can work you will work.

Gillian Keegan (and Bridget Phillipson) have been making noises this week about anxiety not being an acceptable reason to be out of school.

I think they’ll say the same about being out of work with it.

no more child benefit. back to good old victorian times and it's off to workhouses for all children old enough to walk.

inspired by when people were paid for handing in rats tails. 50p per immigrant put on the plane to Rwanda. 5 quid for each boat shot down on the channel. even better if the boat belongs to the French navy.

a brexit tax for all those who voted remain.

an abolition of all of these nimby pamby climate levies. pointless. my great grandfather used to breathe in coal fumes when he felt tired. never did him any harm.

sell off the NHS to tory donors and they can supply the healthcare for the nation (obv not for us, we have private care) as they did such a great job supplying ppe during covid. frankly I think all this free healthcare is making people soft. sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and get through whatever ailment you have. it's God's will. no doctors needed.

these are just some of my the great ideas to be implemented in the next great tory government

I think this is prescient. The headline in the Times today (one of the Tories' mouthpieces) is about the tax bill for disability claims for mental ill health being "out of.control."

Do you know of any jobs going that will take on a disabled person for 2/4/8 hours a week? Because I don’t and believe me I have looked… or jobs that will take on adults with kids with sen who need term time/school hour jobs who allow them to take time off for hospital appts…
Its all very well talking about people doing some work but how do they get these jobs?

If I were PM I'd be cutting back on topping up people who work less than 35 hours.

I'd also make carers allowance non means tested as it should then save on low level social care costs.

Isn't it amazing how they keep going after the weak and vulnerable?

Surely there are better places to make cuts?