Welfare Reform Rejection

Three aspects of the government’s welfare reform plans were defeated in the House of Lords this week.

Plans to time-limit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for cancer sufferers and to restrict it for sick and disabled young people were among the rejections. Means-testing for ESA for people who are disabled were also rejected. There is still a danger, however, that MPs will push ahead with the plans.

Later this month Peers will examine the proposed charges for lone parents seeking maintenance from former partners and the proposed household benefit cap of £500 per week for a couple with children and £350 a week for lone adults.

These measures have already been criticised by the Children’s Commissioner for England, who warns that the plans will result in increased child poverty, family breakdown and homelessness.

Of reform measures that have already been implemented, homelessness charity Crisis are predicting that the newly introduced shared accommodation rate for housing benefit, which has been extended from those under the age of 25 to those under the age of 35, will lead to an increase  in homelessness.

They argue that many areas do not have such properties and that flat sharing will be unsuitable for many.  Moreover, from this month, housing benefit payments will be capped at £250 a week for a one-bedroom flat and £400 for accommodation with four-bedrooms, a move that will force many to move, leading Crisis to express fears that “the gap between rents payable and benefits received will, we fear, become unbridgeable for countless families and individuals across the UK”.

Source:  The Guardian

Tags: Cuts, Welfare