The Green Paper Discussion (the document link is here too!)

When Dad died, his inquest is still in limbo going on 3 years now

We let the local housing benefit people know within 2 days.

the last thing we needed was hassle from them as the family setup is complex owing

to this condition being Genetic my younger brother has it also,

The "hub" where these people are based, when told my Dad had died and we wanted to inform them the reply from the person on the desk "so?" "and you have"

my sister was so taken aback she was walking away and the person on the desk told her

"I want the brothers bank statements and I want them tomorrow"

So the phone went and 40 mins "what's that whats that" "why you ordering so much on Amazon" "why prime" "why EE". in the end I just broke down and told her what is this all about why was she doing it she could see only 400 pounds in savings.

On taking advice all this should never have happened,

There never was a sorry and of course with the nature we lost dad who should still be alive today we were just broken. It was at that point my upset turned to anger I vowed they EVER do something like that again I will take legal action and make them wish they had never picked a fight.

There is currently a complete shambles going on with my brothers ESA/UC Migration again

we told them this is complex, Shared tenancy but for over 20 years HB has been split between me and him. I am still waiting for the invite over to UC and they already tried to make me

apply = lose the protection of the invite, They put my brother through to SEVEN different people all utterly clueless, then they revealed they are dealing with 10,000 "issues" and what normally should be 24hrs to reply will take 10 -15 days so they put an extension on his invite

they tried to make out he left it late to inform but then they saw over 2 months ago

he raised this issue and they said it would not trigger a COC for me but now it might

then "hmmmm not sure" then yes it would. The entire system is a mess.

He finally had a very nice person who informed him they have had this situation before and the truth is there is no setup for it, anything like this has to be done manually by the specialist

team. My brother is in the earlier stages of this condition but the stress part triggers

IBD like symptoms with severe bleeds, big ulcers coming out all over the skin, skin so fragile it rips and you look like you've just had an operation. they can only dampen things down with hardcore chemo infusions 9-12 hrs each,

Its gone CNS with me which they consider terminal the consultant knows already via my bloods, he called I told him and the amount of letters he's written to the DWP I swear could paper a small room. Sorry It sounds OTT the fear we have is real, these people really are either nasty, uncaring or clearly not a clue what they are doing and they are the most dangerous.

As a government they seem to have no plan , ideas of their own and just no idea how to run a country. I think this seems so rushed out that no one ( well I don’t ) has any real idea of what the rules will be . It all seems a bit of a mess to me x

So kind of you loucie....I really appreciate that. Xxx

As it stands the current system is still in place.

To stage the current points system they will need a change in the law

so right at this moment and for a while the current system it looks around Nov 2026 it will change, but they originally said UC would take under 5 years that nearly tripled and cost billions more.

In terms of all the announcements its the green paper which will go into the committee phase and this is normally where the nightmare fuel gets watered down. Legal challenges are going to happen without question, this is blatant cost cutting not "saving people from a live of not working". Truly right now focus on the tribunal and i truly hope it goes okay for you.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj924xvzrr2o

Some hope from "The I" this evening:

Rachel Reeves has been warned that ministers could still resign over her controversial benefits reforms, and that expected spending cuts at next week’s Spring Statement will only make their anger worse.

Labour tensions are growing over £5bn of welfare cuts set out this week, while the Chancellor is expected to outline further spending reductions, which her allies had to deny amounted to austerity, to balance the books in Wednesday’s statement.

A minister told The i Paper that their colleagues in Government ranks below Cabinet level were already considering quitting and that Reeves announcing a shrinking of the overall spending settlement for Whitehall departments would only make matters worse.

They said that “frontbenchers may well go over it [planned cuts to benefits]” or the “package won’t remain intact” in its current form as a rebellion brews on the back benches.

This revolt could spill over into frontbenchers quitting to vote against the benefit changes in Parliament, the minister said.

Although warnings last week of resignations over the welfare package have not been borne out, the comments suggests that ministers are not yet out of the woods on benefits cuts.

Alongside the Spring Statement next week, ministers are expected to publish impact assessments which will spell out how many people and who are affected by the decision to tighten disability benefit eligibility criteria for personal independence payments (PIP), which has already put MPs on the warpath.

There were signs of growing discontent on Thursday as Blackpool South MP Chris Webb, who was elected for the first time last year and is not seen as a trouble-maker, said he had “serious concerns” about the changes to PIP and would rebel over them when they come to the Commons for a vote.

“These cuts could see between 800,000 and 1.2 million people lose between £4,000 and £6,000 a year – a devastating blow for many of my constituents who are already on the edge,” he said.

“Taking support away from those who need it most will push more people into poverty and deepen the already harsh realities faced by disabled people in Blackpool.

“When you elected me as your MP, I made a promise: I will never vote for anything that makes people in Blackpool poorer – and some of these reforms could do exactly that.”

Webb said that “instead of targeting the most vulnerable, the Government should be looking at fairer alternatives” such as a “modest” 2 per cent tax on wealth over £10m that he said would affect just the richest 0.04 per cent of the population and raise £22bn.

“This is the kind of reform we need – one that protects the vulnerable instead of punishing them.”

Referring to a meeting with Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall on Wednesday which some attendees described as “****”, Webb added: “I voiced some of my concerns to the Secretary of State yesterday and will be speaking to her at length about them soon.”

It came as Chief Secretary to Treasury Darren Jones all but confirms the Chancellor is expected to cut the overall spending “envelope”, or allocations, for Whitehall, saying “budgets will be going down in terms of the annual rate of growth”.

But Jones said it was “incorrect” to label this austerity as it will be accompanied by modernising reforms that will make public services cheaper to deliver, including new plans to harness AI to enable better monitoring of departments’ spending announced on Thursday.

The mooted cuts are already beginning to provoke anger on the Labour left, with MP Ian Byrne tweeting: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. #AusteritylsAPoliticalChoice”.

They will take into consideration your partner's earnings. The Government will hopefully in the coming days/weeks give more clarification on everything. This is what the Government would like to do and it's a Green Paper. You can also give your response to the Green Paper. I think it's important to do that if you can.

BUT isn't it the case though I am severely disabled they'll change WCA..move it over to PIP and reassess anyway..with changed criteria?

@luvpink You are 100% correct. I totally agree 👍

 Nice one @Summerlove

In the 5 minutes I watched the video and read the comments, the key theme from this great presentation is that “EVEN LOYAL LABOUR MEMBERS HAVE SAID THAT THEY WOULD NEVER EVER VOTE FOR LABOUR AGAIN.”

It’s very badly written in the green paper, so we are unsure.

There’s a possibility that anyone with ESA contribution based, if that proposal goes ahead, will lose their entitlement eventually. As well as any NI contributions for their future pension.

So if you are on ESA contributions based I would reply to their green paper pointing that out.