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

I’m still planning to take a break from this forum but let’s address a couple of things so this thread doesn’t get clogged up:

Poppy - I’m aware some people will never vote in a general election (and you can’t force anyone to do anything over the internet) however this isn’t a subject I will fully drop (still bring it up intermittently) and I will try and present arguments of why someone should use there vote that they may not of thought of

@WhatThe - I’d once again like to remind you that it’s 2023 going on 2024 and there’s more than enough new government announcements from this year to discuss all by themselves. Yes precedents have there value but not in this thread beyond a brief mention (we’ve been over briefed at this point), so politely may I ask no more pre 2022 stuff

@Tonawanda17 - I am struggling to find the most polite way to address you so you’ll have to excuse me if I come across as a little rude as you seem to be a person who benefits from blunt, straightforward answers.
Firstly I need to request that you take the time to scroll back on a thread (to see if your question has already been answered earlier).  Also as a person whom thinks up a bundle of questions I try and read internet articles fully and then I may try and find the original source and/or do some research digging so I may be able to answer my own questions.
(for the record all of your posts I’ve found the ‘answer’ for within 5 minutes so you don’t need to post spins of the same question every few days……..it’s clearly annoying members who actively reply in order to help others with the knowledge they’ve obtained via their own experiences and research)
to answer your latest question @Kimmy87 is correct - nothing is set in stone because a general election will happen within the next 14 months (plus many of the things we’ve talked about on this thread won’t get implemented till 2025 even if there was no GE in the horizon - 2024 is officially the year of ‘the calm before the storm’)
if labour win the next GE all bets are off as we’ll be back to square one not knowing what policies they may cut, retain or introduce and it’s impossible to predict what labour will do once they have power as they have been pretty coy till now.
so no one here can give up to date info on what labour would do if they gain power, we just don’t know……..ask us again after the next GE but not before
in the scenario that the Tories win the next general election things are somewhat clearer in terms of schedule - I’ve posted in depth the most up to date ‘answer’ to you last question in that scenario so I’d advice you that you reread some of my previous posts and the attached links as I really don’t think I need to type a repeat explanation post (unless there’s a huge demand but I think most here understood the ‘answers’ in that scenario)

apart from sending you a private message to try and reexplain, scope forum members have already provided all the ‘answer’ currently known in this moment in time (but I don’t want to pm as that’s further time out of my day)

we have probably gotten all the info we are going to get for 2023 and holiday season so try and pause the worrying till 2024…….there are more than enough crappy Xmas films out there to keep us all occupied through december

Only back briefly:

the work&benefits forum did a much better write up of this bank surveillance stuff than I did:

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/almost-9-million-claimant-bank-accounts-to-be-put-under-continuous-surveillance

please not that until the next general election has been decided (because this begins no earlier than 2025 and the next GE has to happen jan 2025) none of the above is stone


> if the tories win the next general election then yes the above article is accurate in that scenario 
(but no one is expecting the tories to win)

> if labour win the next general election then starmer & co continuing down the Tory path on this is only one scenario of many (starmer used to be a top lawyer/barrister - if he can’t see how ‘nanny state’ this all is then I don’t know anymore)
point is the above article becomes somewhat irrelevant (at least temporarily) in the case of a 2025 labour government 

this still needs to make it through the lords and even some Tory lords are heavily against this

i don’t know why labour or Lib Dem’s abstained on this bill - there’s actually a lot of abstaining right now which isn’t a great look / prehaps they are planning to make a stand at the ping pong stages, prehaps they plan to hold the bill up so completion happens post GE (and there wasn’t time in the 3rd reading as all this stuff popped up with little warning and there wasn’t time to act on it straightaway)

even some Tory MPs were concerned about the new dwp bank powers so I think a lot could happen yet

Okay i am going to get round to my break from the scope forum for the rest of December (and start watching the crappy Xmas films)

however there are still questions on whether newspaper sources are reliable and lots of people are getting over panicked (this still needs to get through Lord’s, survive a general election and even then get to 2025………….we have 2024 to worry……or even better get angry and contribute to public outcry which I’m 75% will happen once everyone starts doing the maths/reading the details - seriously give your mental health December off)

anyways I believe I’ve found the actual source material - direct from the gov - closest thing to fly on the wall you are going to get that details every single detail that the tories have come up with on this

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6564bab01524e6000da10168/DWP_third_party_data_impact_assessment_november_2023.pdf

There are paragraphs that charities & media should be publicly highlighting in the current months as this whole thing is messed up and if enough of the public are aware of the small print then there’s a good chance a u-turn could be forced but hundreds of thousands need to be made aware