Welfare benefits news, possible changes & constructive ‘discussion - an ongoing thread

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  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    Mini update from my post from earlier today:

    it turns out that the House of Lords (well a staff member) releases several previews (by policy areas) of the upcoming kings speech a few days before.

    These are similar to the guesstimates I made in my last post, the difference is that the staff who write these articles are significantly more knowledgeable than myself on the subject, hence their educated guesses are much better than my own (though still guesses/unconfirmed till the kings speech on the 7th November.

    This is the subject topic link that most likely will affect us the most (due to be discussed on the 9th November - this coming Thursday)

    https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/kings-speech-2023-welfare/

    The most interesting points from this webpage are below (remember these are educated guesstimates and not fact yet - the kings speech could still have some unexpected stuff in):


    ” However, the white paper stated that this would not be legislated for until the next parliament (after the next general election). The government has since launched a consultation on reforms to the WCA which runs until 30 October 2023.[2] The consultation confirmed that the abolition of the WCA would not be included in the 2023 King’s Speech.”
    ————————————————
    ”     The government has said it will legislate to reduce fraud and error in the benefits system. In 2022, the DWP published ‘Fighting fraud in the welfare system’………. It stated that in the financial year 2020/21 the combined loss to fraud and error was “£8.4bn or 3.9% of benefit expenditure”. This compared to £3.9bn or 2.1% in 2018/19……….

    The document stated that much of the legislation used by the DWP’s counter-fraud officers is “now decades old”. It said the government would introduce measures to improve access to data and enforcement:

    “Subject to parliamentary time, we will legislate to update their powers to boost access to data from third parties and carry out arrests and searches and seize evidence. This will enable them to act more quickly to identify, detect and disrupt fraud, particularly from organised criminal gangs and wider economic crime. We will also bring in a new civil financial penalty, so more fraudsters pay for their crimes.”

    In March 2023, the government reiterated its intention to legislate for the changes “when parliamentary time allows”.”



    This would suggest that the likelihood is that if the wca reforms happen it won’t be until after the next general election (this backs up the green highlighted screenshot from the gov webpage) - obviously this government loves u-turns and rushing through things so this isn’t a certainly on timetable but it’s reassuring to read this paragraph on the lords website.

    However it does look like the gov may push forward with the plans to tackle benefit fraud (see this - https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/dwp-considers-powers-of-arrest,-seizure-and-collecting-information-on-where-claimants-spend-money) which imo is bordering on ‘nanny state’ territory and may be this community’s immediate issue (by immediate I mean within the next 12 months) that will need to be fought - the possible wca reforms may be ‘tomorrows’ problem rather than ‘todays’



    Anyway, I hope this post has been useful and if you want to read the rest of the previews the link is below:

    https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/kings-speech-2023-research-and-resources/
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    apple85 said:

    the speech sets out the laws the gov wants to get through Parliament in the coming 12 months (I’m not sure on this but I think the gov may need to pass some laws ans legislation changed before any possible reforms can happen)

    Just to confirm your thoughts are correct.
  • carbow32
    carbow32 Online Community Member Posts: 253 Empowering
    apple85 said:
    Mini update from my post from earlier today:

    it turns out that the House of Lords (well a staff member) releases several previews (by policy areas) of the upcoming kings speech a few days before.

    These are similar to the guesstimates I made in my last post, the difference is that the staff who write these articles are significantly more knowledgeable than myself on the subject, hence their educated guesses are much better than my own (though still guesses/unconfirmed till the kings speech on the 7th November.

    This is the subject topic link that most likely will affect us the most (due to be discussed on the 9th November - this coming Thursday)

    https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/kings-speech-2023-welfare/

    The most interesting points from this webpage are below (remember these are educated guesstimates and not fact yet - the kings speech could still have some unexpected stuff in):


    ” However, the white paper stated that this would not be legislated for until the next parliament (after the next general election). The government has since launched a consultation on reforms to the WCA which runs until 30 October 2023.[2] The consultation confirmed that the abolition of the WCA would not be included in the 2023 King’s Speech.”
    ————————————————
    ” The government has said it will legislate to reduce fraud and error in the benefits system. In 2022, the DWP published ‘Fighting fraud in the welfare system’………. It stated that in the financial year 2020/21 the combined loss to fraud and error was “£8.4bn or 3.9% of benefit expenditure”. This compared to £3.9bn or 2.1% in 2018/19……….

    The document stated that much of the legislation used by the DWP’s counter-fraud officers is “now decades old”. It said the government would introduce measures to improve access to data and enforcement:

    “Subject to parliamentary time, we will legislate to update their powers to boost access to data from third parties and carry out arrests and searches and seize evidence. This will enable them to act more quickly to identify, detect and disrupt fraud, particularly from organised criminal gangs and wider economic crime. We will also bring in a new civil financial penalty, so more fraudsters pay for their crimes.”

    In March 2023, the government reiterated its intention to legislate for the changes “when parliamentary time allows”.”



    This would suggest that the likelihood is that if the wca reforms happen it won’t be until after the next general election (this backs up the green highlighted screenshot from the gov webpage) - obviously this government loves u-turns and rushing through things so this isn’t a certainly on timetable but it’s reassuring to read this paragraph on the lords website.

    However it does look like the gov may push forward with the plans to tackle benefit fraud (see this - https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/dwp-considers-powers-of-arrest,-seizure-and-collecting-information-on-where-claimants-spend-money) which imo is bordering on ‘nanny state’ territory and may be this community’s immediate issue (by immediate I mean within the next 12 months) that will need to be fought - the possible wca reforms may be ‘tomorrows’ problem rather than ‘todays’



    Anyway, I hope this post has been useful and if you want to read the rest of the previews the link is below:

    https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/kings-speech-2023-research-and-resources/
    Thank You Apple Interesting Reads
  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    I had to think long and hard before posting the below article because it is the daily telegraph and this is massively scaremongering 

    however the daily telegraph seem to have some direct gov sources as they have reported a lot advance policy somewhat correctly which is why I’ve decided to post it

    However id like to point out that the only way this would be able to be carried out is via ai (neither dwp nor banks have enough staff to carry out monthly bank checks on the millions that are on a means tested benefit) - I’d hope because of this being a huge invasion of privacy (and privacy being a human rights issue? - can someone confirm my thinking here) and the unease with ai the backlash for this should in theory be massive
     (I’ve noticed that conspiracy theorists are already linking this to the 1st step in a ‘nanny state’ gov spying on everyone’s bank accounts - which is huge massive scaremongering however may be useful in drumming up even bigger public bashlash)

    point is the gov ‘perception of fraud’ consultation had less that 4K public opinion input and they’ve taken 100 miles from a mm (as this extreme was never asked about and if it was I cant imagine it would much support) - and if this article is accurate (we’ll know for sure tomorrow) we need to make sure we contribute to the backlash

    (edit: the article says this will be announced in the chancellors statement on nov 22nd not the kings speech - however this will clearly require a law (legation) change so if this isn’t mentioned in the king’s speech tomorrow does that mean it’s not a priority for the coming 12 months (aka pre election)? - once again I need someone with better knowledge than myself on this one)



    from the daily telegraph:

    Benefits claimants will have their bank accounts checked every month to make sure they are not lying about their savings under plans for a new post-Covid fraud crackdown.
    The law change is set to be unveiled in the Autumn Statement, with government estimates indicating it could save the taxpayer £500 million in the first five years.
    The drive marks the Government’s latest attempt to bring down the number of people on out-of-work benefits, which has ballooned to 5.4 million since the pandemic.
    Under the current rules, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has to individually request details of a benefit claimant’s bank account if they suspect fraud is being committed.
    But under the new system, banks will be required to run monthly or even weekly data checks to spot red flags that suggest “risk” of fraud and hand the information over to officials.
    People are not allowed to claim Universal Credit if they have more than £16,000 in savings, so a claimant’s bank account that suggests otherwise could trigger a red flag. 
    An account that regularly transfers money overseas could also suggest fraud.
    Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has made “rooting out fraud” in the benefits system one of his priorities since he took up the role last autumn.
    A government source said: “Every pound stolen by fraudsters could be spent on our public services or on those most in need. 
    “Mel sees it as profoundly wrong that benefit cheats aren’t playing by the rules and is determined to bring fairness for the taxpayer.”
    The current system is believed to be too ad hoc, with the department having to go to banks with their suspicions of wrongdoing before checks can be made.
    The new approach being proposed puts the onus on banks and other financial institutions to scan relevant data and pass on red flags to officials.
    It comes as Tuesday’s King’s Speech will reveal which pieces of legislation Rishi Sunak has decided to prioritise in the final parliament before the next general election, which must take place by January 2025.
    A new law mandating yearly oil and gas licensing, tougher rules on tents being used by the homeless and moves to stop “rip-off” airline fees are expected to feature.
    But already the Treasury is working up plans for the Autumn Statement on Nov 22, which will be potentially the penultimate major fiscal statement before the general election.
    Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, is facing fresh calls for tax cuts after a Resolution Foundation analysis that suggests the Treasury has twice as much money in “fiscal headroom” to use than expected.
    Welfare reform is expected to feature heavily in the Autumn Statement, with widespread alarm in the Government at soaring out-of-work benefit claims in recent years.
    Ministers are working on tightening criteria of work capability assessments and for a different approach to issuing sick notes, with people being signed off work ill also markedly up since Covid.
    This autumn, the number of people claiming out-of-work benefits hit 5.4 million. It was pushed up during the pandemic and nationwide lockdowns but is yet to markedly drop down since restrictions have eased.
    The amount people on Universal Credit receive each month varies depending on personal circumstances. A single person under 25 gets £292, but people with children can get more than double that.
    DWP estimates suggest that £900 million a year is being wrongly claimed 
    In recent years, about 11,000 cases of benefit fraud have been discovered annually by DWP, but there is concern among some in the department that many more people are not getting caught.
    DWP estimates suggest that £900 million a year is being wrongly claimed by people who should not get Universal Credit because they have savings of more than £16,000.
    The proposals could trigger criticism that the personal rights of benefits claimants are being infringed, with banks looking into specifics of accounts without the individual being notified.

  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing

    apple85 said:

    However id like to point out that the only way this would be able to be carried out is via ai (neither dwp nor banks have enough staff to carry out monthly bank checks on the millions that are on a means tested benefit) - I’d hope because of this being a huge invasion of privacy (and privacy being a human rights issue? - can someone confirm my thinking here) and the unease with ai the backlash for this should in theory be massive

     (I’ve noticed that conspiracy theorists are already linking this to the 1st step in a ‘nanny state’ gov spying on everyone’s bank accounts - which is huge massive scaremongering however may be useful in drumming up even bigger public bashlash)
    I’d quickly like to add it’s probably not just conspiracy theorists, (if I’ve understood this correctly) professionals such as accountants are commenting on not too dissimilar a subject 

    example: https://www.thp.co.uk/can-hmrc-check-your-private-bank-account-yes-and-it-could-become-normal/

    im going to use my personal logic here (so please add to or correct if I’m wrong as I’m certainly no expert - but I preempt/look for patterns a lot - sometimes I hit the nail on the head but sometimes I miss and hit the wall instead) also note that I’m writing to the perspective that the sunak & his crew has many more years in power 

    if this policy goes ahead (and going by the telegraphs figure) the dwp would be looking at 5mil out of work peoples bank accounts plus everyone who is working but still have to claim UC because their job isn’t paying them enough (so about 7-10 million in total - guesstimate as I don’t know the true figure) - say that the dwp report that this change in policy has been ‘successful in reducing benefit fraud’ so I imagine the natural progression would be for the relevant gov departments to start checking the monthly bank accounts of the self employed/freelance as they have to submit their own tax/ni returns. After that the gov may want to start regularly checking everyone’s bank accounts and justify it as technically anyone could be committing fraud of some type

    and yes I’ve gone very very extreme with the example above but my point is that if this door is opened for those on mean tested benefits bank accounts to be watched then it certainly unlocks the door to the same being done down the line for all uk citizens - hence why I’m saying that this should trigger huge backlash from the public if they look past who it targets


    the right for privacy is a human rights issue (that one I double checked)

    however what I don’t know is if the government regularly had access to our bank accounts if that would just be hugely distasteful or actually be taking away a claimants right for privacy (and therefore a huge scale human rights issue) - someone with legal knowledge would have to have input here

    i also do think the only way that the dwp could check bank accounts at such a huge scale every month is via computer algorithms (we know that the dwp and computer technology has been riddled with problems in the past) and/or ai (which wasn’t sunak talking about the dangers of at that weird sit down with Elon musk?) - 5million plus people being at the mercy of computer tech, ai and all it’s shortcomings/possible problems (ie…data privacy) is surely another large legal issue here?


    is there anyone on this forum with legal knowledge that can provide solid info on the above (research and reading from myself is nowhere near enough to fully understand all this)





  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    edited November 2023
    Been posting a lot today - want to go to bed early to keep an ear out on the kings speech tomorrow (need to look up start time)

    the following articles are a sensitive read but I think also important (that there are some on our side):

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/05/uk-poverty-levels-simply-not-acceptable-says-un-envoy-olivier-de-schutter

    https://www.bigissue.com/opinion/disabled-people-benefits-system-deaths-by-welfare-dwp/

    Trigger warning - the following website may be a hard read for some but it should absolutely be shared:
  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    edited November 2023
    Morning folks

    i believe the kings speech will start at 11.30am

    However I’m probably going to wait a few hours to post rather than ‘live text’

    i want a chance to read the govs official write up and political commentators write ups so I can understand the relevant bills as much as possible before posting anything

    ive also been doing a lot of reading in the past week about the queens/kings speech, bills, law and legislation so I can hopefully explain what’s need as accurately as possible but please note the internet can only provide so much knowledge and I never studied law or politics when I was still in education.

    if anyone on this forum does have knowledge on these subjects feel free to add your own explanations or correct mine

    the kings speech is the 1st event of interest to our community (where the ‘intent’ in policy changes affecting the disabled may be announced), followed by the chancellors statement on nov 22nd and the spring budget in march 2024

    the kings speech lists the ‘priority’ bills (edit: ‘headliner’ bills may be more accurate a term here rather than priority - these are ‘front page’ bills rather than ‘buried in the middle’ bills) for the next parliamentary session of 12-18 months (basically until the next general election in 14 months or less) - however it’s a tad more complex than that and I’ll try and post more in depth explanations throughout the day
  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    edited November 2023

    One factor that could play a part in whether a bill or policy change announced either in the kings speech or the autumns chancellors statement is ironically the ‘conservative growth group’ set up by liz truss

    i can’t find the direct source quoting the following but I remember it being mentioned that if Hunt didn’t fold to their demands (including tax cuts) then they’d vote down any other policy he announced (I’m not sure this includes stuff from the kings speech - if the 1st reading to any bill is after the 22nd November it may do)

     - 60 mp’s have signed up to the CGG which is the majority (meaning if the CGG as a block vote against the Tory whip sunak will need another parties help/votes to win that specific vote)

    which leads to the possible scenario of the bills/policy changes that our community are most fearful of not getting enough votes to pass because in blunt terms liz truss is ‘throwing a tantrum’ over things like tax rises

    it does add another interesting element to all this

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-tory-party-majority-truss-b2422847.html

    https://www.gbnews.com/politics/liam-halligan-latest-threat-warning-tories-rebel-group


  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    The in-depth contents of the kings speech is now able to download:

    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/654a21952f045e001214dcd7/The_King_s_Speech_background_briefing_notes.pdf

    im not going to post a summary yet as I want to read through it first (I’ll probably post a round up some point during the night.

    im going to concentrate on explanation posts for the rest of today as all this is complex and a hell of a lot of info to sieve through so bear with me
  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    So in an earlier post I wrote the following:

    the kings speech lists the ‘priority’ bills (edit: ‘headliner’ bills may be more accurate a term here rather than priority - these are ‘front page’ bills rather than ‘buried in the middle’ bills) for the next parliamentary session of 12-18 months (basically until the next general election in 14 months or less) - however it’s a tad more complex than that and I’ll try and post more in depth explanations throughout the day

    So I’ve been following the guardian live text commentary today and they probably posted the best summary of what I was trying to explain above - much better than I did



    This means that additional bills could be announced at any point in the next 14 months (actually it’s 13 months because Parliament need to be dissolved 25 working days before the latest possible election date - in this case dec 17th 2024). But announcements of other bills are most likely to happen (but not limited to) the following dates:

    > the chancellors autumn statement - 22nd November 2023
    > the spring budget - March 2024
    (it’s possible that the current chancellor could have another autumn statement in 2024 but that would either be after a general election or only a few months before so just a manifesto preview in essence.


    as far as I know there are 2 potential bills that could be introduced between now and the next general election (I’m excluding the possible changes to the mental health act and general care for now but I’ll bring them back up once more relevant info is known):

    > the possible wca reforms (the one we just had the consultation for)
    > the possible benefit fraud reforms (the rumours of the gov going all ‘big brother’ on all claimant bank accounts amongst other things)

    im about 90% certain both of these reforms will need to have bills (rather than being announced and started immediately with no parliamentary discussion) as both would need a major change in law/legislation to be able to happen no neither reforms can happen overnight and in theory should take some time to get to royal assent (I’ll explain more later) and it’s possible it may not reach that point before the next election (and any incoming gov may abandon the bills if they don’t have royal assent/aren’t concluded by the time they come in) - I’ll explain more in my next post
  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    so here are the possible general questions you may have about bills:

    Do all Bills announced during a parliamentary session (this current one starting today and ending 25 working days before the next general election - I’ll need to double check that point) make it to royal assent (ie….the bill becomes law) before the end of the same parliamentary session in which it’s announced?


    The short answer is no/not necessarily 

    The long answer is more complex and hard to tie down to a simple answer - I’ll use the previous queens speech from 2022 to illustrate my point via the following articles (unfortunately I can’t find the final stats of bill status as the 2022-2023 parliamentary session has only just ended so I’ll be posting the most up to date relevant articles to help explain further):

    https://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/publications/briefings/legislative-logjam-what-is-the-state-of-the-governments-programme
    This is the most up to date article I can find - it’s dated July 2023 however due to parliamentary recess the 2022-2023 parliamentary session only ran for an additional 
    28 working days (in which 5 by-elections happened around the same time) - I’d need to look up all these 2022/2023 which is too huge a job but I can’t imagine that the remaining bills progressed that much further since the end of summer recess and many made royal assent by the end of the last session but that’s a guess on my part

    So the most up to date figures of the last parliamentary session in 2022-2023 are:

    > 54 bills in the 2022 queens speech (only 29 of these bills made it into the 2022-2023 parliamentary session
    > an additional 22 bills that were not included the 2022 queens speech have been presented in Parliament (that may of been announced during a budget, a chancellors autumn statement or separate announcement)
    > This was a total of 51 bills during the last parliamentary session which ran for 18 months total
    > out of these 51 bills, only 22 of these bills made it to royal assent and became law (only 8 bills from the 2022 queens speech and 14 of the additional bills introduced at different times)
    > many of these remaining bills (29 in total) are still either in the 1st/2nd reading stage or ping-pong stage (or stalled/shelved) and will need to continue in these new, current parliamentary session that will only run a max of 13 months


    todays kings speech include 21 bills total as far as I know 

    So going by past stats the answer to the original question is not all bills make it to royal assent but it appears that bills not introduced at the kings speech are more likely to become law during the session in which they are announced (though the previous parliamentary session 2022-2023 was 18 months and our current one is a max of 13 months…….ie less bills will get royal assent in this session compared to the last

  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    edited November 2023

    How long does it take for a Bill to go from its introduction to royal assent (made into law)?


    this question is a bit of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question

    straightforward bills with no (or next to no) opposition may only take days or weeks once it’s gotten to the 1st/2nd reading stage, more complex bills may take over a year. On average I’d imagine the average bill takes 6-12 months from start to finish (and that is very much a guess on my part - don’t quote me on that)

    below is a link that explains the process that a bill goes through in more detail:

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/legislative-process-taking-a-bill-through-parliament


    in regard to potential upcoming bills that may heavily affect this community (I’m initially referring to the possible wca reforms and welfare fraud reforms but other future bills may be worth watching in the future if they come up) - these bills are complex and I very much doubt they’d be straightforward (I’m 99% these will not achieve royal assent in the matter of days and that opposition party will provide opposition, especially so close to a GE - so on paper the tories shouldn’t be able to rush things through)


    In theory these bills should take a few months at least to reach royal assent if at all but there are many factors that will affect the speed of this/create delays:


    > at best the gov only have a 13 month max parliamentary session to pass as many new bills as possible (not including the many incomplete from the last session). Using figures from my previous vote to form a guesstimate I don’t see many more than 15 newly introduced bills from the kings speech or another time in the current session(eg..chancellors autumn statement)

    > the current parliamentary session could be much less than 13 months (one possible election date touted is the end of oct/start of nov 2024 - in that case parliament would need to rise in the end of September meaning in that case the current parliamentary session would only be 11 months)

    > also recent by-elections results have made it clear (or at least gives the appearance) that no (or not many) Tory seats are safe in the upcoming general election - this means that current Tory mp’s especially will want to be canvassing and campaigning in their constituencies to try and keep their seats (and job) and for a huge amount that will take personal priority over travelling to parliament in London for bill readings, ping-pongs or even votes (their attendance would most likely be less frequent) - this would also probably slow down bill process

    > as only so many bills will be able to be passed before the GE I’d imagine that sunak will want to prioritise the bills (or at least the passing of the bills) that are particularly popular with the public and those that have a good chance on being completed within a year. The 2 possible future bills that I’ve highlighted recently in this thread are certainly ‘Tory red meat’ policies but I’m 50/50 on whether they are overwhelmingly popular with the general public as they cover very controversial topics. Also the complex subjects on paper should mean that these should not be quick bills to pass

    > possible public backlash, the media’s opinion (if they pick up on public opinion) and even involvement from lawyers or human right courts (both the possible wca reforms and benefit fraud reform could either breach human rights or be close to the fine line/in a grey area

    > if Liz truss conservative growth group (the CGG) aren’t happy with the chancellors autumn statement (more explained in a previous post from today) then they could use the power of their current 60 members (basically more than the current Tory majority) to vote against any of the policies/bill’s proposed by the chancellor (unless other parties prop them up) basically blocking the bills at least temporarily from making further process - in a short 13 month parliamentary session that may mean some bills being delayed or shelved as a result
    (to quote Liam Halligan from gbnews recently: “everytime there’s an autumn statement or a budget, there’s a piece of legislation called a Finance Bill, that then has to go through Parliament to enact everything. (if that isn’t voted through) That will bring the government down”)
    If the CGG take this route it will be up to sunak to call their bluff (that the Tory’s don’t want another leadership contest and no Tory mp wants to be mp possibly for a max of a year) or he will have to fold to their demands which is a who set of new problems


    as I said……unlikely to be quick and straightforward!
  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    edited November 2023
    Update: it’s possible I’ve misunderstood the possibility/probability of bills and legislation being announced at the chancellor’s autumn statements and the spring budgets

    im researching and reading up about it now (not easy to get head around)

    my current understanding so far is that the autumn statement/spring budget always has a ‘financial bill’ which groups together the financial changes that the chancellor announced in their speech/red box (definitely includes any changes to tax - cuts or raises………….still researching what else this includes - initial research suggests the financial bill is mostly concerning tax but I’m not 100% sure)

    these ‘financial bills’ only take a month or 2 to gain royal accent and made into law


    why I bring this up is even though I’m about 95% sure both the possible wca reforms (covered by the recent constitution) and the policy change to tackle benefit fraud (that’s been heavily covered in the news) would both in theory need legislative change/a change in the law………which should mean they’ll need their own individual bill in the parliamentary session to be able to move forward.


    however the wca reforms are designed to reduce the welfare bill and any benefit fraud measures to identify wrongly paid money and also reduce the welfare bill
    reduction to the welfare bill is technically a financial issue and may be included into the chancellors financial figures (which then may be included in this ‘financial bill)

    im hoping I’m overthinking things but that 5% is worried that one or both the potential 2 reforms that are currently a worry to the disabled community could be included in the chancellors autumn statement financial bill and enacted much quicker than what I’ve suggested in my previous posts to.

    could anyone with more knowledge on this area be able to confirm either way?
    (Could a scope mod be able to explain things better, or Poppy - do your knowledge superpowers extend to this particular topic area?)

    Some reading if you want to try interpret things better than myself:



  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    I promised to summarise the kings speech tonight didn’t i

    the summary is that there is literally nothing to summarise (I don’t think there was anything either good or bad aimed at the disabled community) - there was a few vanity bills obviously put forward by sunak but not much else

    I’ll keep an ear out if anything relevant pops up in the kings speech debates over the next 5 working days but I doubt I’ll need to post an updates on this.

    basically it’s ‘as you were’ and back to ‘squeaky bum time’

    im 99% sure that the date our community should have in the diary is the chancellor’s autumn statement on the 22nd November in just over 2 weeks time (I mean I hope we get another ‘as you were’ day but with Jeremy hunt at the helm that is probably a unrealistic dream on my part)

    I imagine the more detailed leaks will be starting to drop 7-10s from now.


    im probably not going to post anymore explanations like I have today till after the chancellors speech 

    in my last post I thought it was possible I misunderstood how the issues we as a disabled community are concerned about could be implemented - I’ve done more research and I’m 90% certain I was correct the first time however unless a forum member with more political knowledge can correct me either way beforehand I’m hoping the autumn statement itself will be able to confirm my personal understanding (or disconfirm it if that’s the case)


    my head is exhausted from all the research and typing I’ve done today so you may not see me on this thread for a few days - the healthy thing right now for everyone is to take a step back from all of this for the next week or 2 whilst we can…….try and breathe, relax and enjoy life if you can
  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    woodbine said:
    Is it me or is this now a one sided "conversation" 💤
    That had very much dawned on me

    when I started this thread I was hoping I wasn’t the only research ‘nut’ to be contributing information to this thread but it hasn’t worked out that way (on other threads mods and gamechangers have responded to me when I’ve posted something that isn’t strictly ‘correct’ but that hasn’t really happened here so I’m presuming I haven’t said anything massively ‘incorrect’…….cue the posts 😝)

    what I have noticed is that this thread does have a large amount of views so I’m hopeful that even with little interaction my posts may at least be helpful for some (whether it’s posting the stories news or trying to provide an explanation to some things) - I’m no expert (and I state so) but one thing I’m very good at is research and if I can use that to potentially help others, great (a very arrogant statement I know but sadly there aren’t many lawyers, judges or even civil servants contributing info to disability forums so we have to do our own research & digging)

    so I get your use of the snooze emoji, but it’s not 100% accurate imo (but of course I’d say that……I’m chatting to myself after all 😉)
  • Albus_Scope
    Albus_Scope Posts: 9,653 Scope Online Community Coordinator

    woodbine said:
    Is it me or is this now a one sided "conversation" 💤

    Now now, politeness costs nothing.   I've been enjoying the read, (as have many others I'm sure) but sometimes I can't comment on things. 
  • apple85
    apple85 Online Community Member Posts: 892 Championing
    Albus_Scope said:

    woodbine said:
    Is it me or is this now a one sided "conversation" 💤

    Now now, politeness costs nothing.   I've been enjoying the read, (as have many others I'm sure) but sometimes I can't comment on things. 
    Thank you albus, that’s very kind

    though I have to admit it would be nice to have other posters to bounce things off.

    also like I mentioned before I hope other scope mods and yourself would offer a correction to anything I write if need be

    I’ve done a stupid amount of research the past few months but a lot of it is complex stuff and makes me wish I had a law/politics degree !
  • Albus_Scope
    Albus_Scope Posts: 9,653 Scope Online Community Coordinator

    Fear not @apple85, we're always keeping an eye on things, if we see anything that we know needs correcting, we'll speak up.  And I hope other community member would join in with any information they have too. :) 

    And not to worry @woodbine, sometimes the meaning with the written word can be lost. Just like I'd be lost without emojis.  ;)
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    I've read some comments but not everything because for me, it's information overload and my brain just doesn't allow me to take in so much information.

    I haven't commented because i feel there's nothing to comment with. Yesterdays speech didn't contain anything about any possible changes so at the moment all everyone is doing is speculating. 

    I'm not the sort of person to speculate on anything or think of anything until something happens. I'm not a "what if" sort of person. I know i've said this many times and i'll say it again because of my health conditions, i won't worry about things that i can't control at that time, such as future reviews for benefits, amongst other things.

    My health conditions are escalated due to stress and anxiety and this is my way of dealing with such things.. 1 don't think of them. I've been this way since i was a teenager.

    Changes can't be made without first changing the regulations and this applies to all benefits.


  • cymbalfern
    cymbalfern Scope Member Posts: 25 Contributor
    Thank you apple85. It’s great you are trying to help, there could be very important changes & hopefully not detrimental to vulnerable people who need extra help & support that includes financially. I think mainly the government needs to devise a system that is fair & accurate. 

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