Details of welfare reforms to be published tomorrow (Tues 18th)

FeistyPigeon

Hi folks,

They had a Q&A session on welfare reform in Parliament this afternoon, and although not much was revealed, they're planning to publish the Green Paper, which will give details of all the welfare reforms they're planning to do, tomorrow. So we should all be able to download copies from the Gov website then and see for ourselves just what they intend to do.

A couple of things have been revealed:

1. They will NOT be freezing PIP payments after a load of Labour MPs revolted against their plan. Instead they will go up this year by inflation (which will still not be very much)
2. They want to make it harder for people to claim PIP in future.

Their plans don't have the support of all the Labour MPs in the cabinet, let alone the backbenchers. It was telling several of them got up today and asked pretty critical questions of the work & pensions team. In other words, they might have quite a fight on their hands to pass this legislation, if it succeeds at all.

So try not to panic folks, whatever the green paper says. Don't forget it has to pass several stages in Parliament before it becomes law, and at each stage it could be defeated or the plans watered down. And even if it does pass it will take a good while before being written into law and applied to claimants.

Timms said in Parliament today that at every stage of the bill, disability groups would be consulted and their reforms would be formulated with compassion. We need to HOLD THEM to that and PROTEST LOUDLY when they do not.

evelyncourtney

Saw your comment on the other thread — thanks for this post!

I have a question about the legislation aspect.. would changing PIP eligibility and cutting LCWRA both have to go through parliament and become law before they come into force? I’ve seen mixed beliefs on this, some saying it wouldn’t require a change in legislation to be enforced

Autistic_Superpower

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/999419#Comment_999419

Yeah this is my issue, it’s far less the PIP and much more the LCWRA issue that concerns me at the moment.

An LCWRA cut or removal would be far more devastating and costly to us disabled people than the PIP right now, and we need to be sure that isn’t going to be taken away from those of us who can never work again.

FeistyPigeon

Just very quick visit right now folks. Kendell will be speaking around 12.30 in Parliament today to announce the Green Paper (you should be able to watch her on freeview 232). She'll be talking for about 15 mins, and directly afterwards the whole green paper will be available from the gov website to download.

Politico gives a summary of what papers are speculating at the moment, but bear in mind it is all speculation, so don't waste you time if you think it'll add to stress levels…

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/liz-kendalls-carrots-and-sticks/

Also bear in mind: Green Papers are consultation papers - NOTHING will change for a good while yet, however frightening the news. It still has to go through Parliament + written into law.

FeistyPigeon

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/999419#Comment_999419

Hi Evelyn, sorry I'm no expert on this. What I know so far is it's a Green Paper, so it's a proposal that's put before Parliament for consultation. It will then go to a vote and if passed will go onto several further stages, a White Paper stage and several committee stages, where MPs get the chance to debate the details + can vote at each stage whether to accept it or not. I'd be really surprised if anything happened to our benefits in the next 6 months or so, but that's just my best guess. If I find anything more I'll let you all know. If there's a lot of opposition at any stage of the bill, Kendell & Co will most likely change their proposals or water them down.

Albus_Alumni

Thanks for the update @FeistyPigeon it's appreciated. We're having a big discussion about it, which you can read here: Upcoming changes to benefits.

At the moment, no formal announcements have been made, so no one knows for certain what the changes will be or how they’ll be implemented. However, we're actively campaigning and raising awareness through The Cost of Cuts, and we’d really appreciate your support and signature.

We understand this is a difficult topic, and many people are finding it challenging. To keep the community a safe space, we're encouraging all discussions on benefit changes to stay in one place. For that reason, we’ll be closing this discussion, but we’d love for you to join the main discussion thread here: Upcoming changes to benefits.