A discussion paper was presented at the last Belper & Duffield Labour Party branch meeting by Vickie, Nell and Cath which detailed the background and status of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill that is currently grinding its way through both houses of parliament. This is the bill that the Lords so famously voted against on the 26th October ........ voting for a delay so that the effects of these contentious measures can be fully understood.
The submitted paper was rigorously debated at the branch meeting but it was brought to my attention that in our desire to debate the meat of the matter we failed to allow the authors to highlight what it is that we can do to oppose the bill. I have therefore decided to post their report in full. The section that was not addressed is "What can you do" towards the end of the report.
The report mentions the second reading which took place 2 days ago so, after reading the report and exploring the embedded links you might like to cursor back up to here to read the: Hansard report on the second reading in the Lords 17/11/2015.
Welfare Reform and
Work Bill 2015-16 - report to branch
Background
Welfare policymakers in the UK have been grappling with the
problem of balancing depressed wages for low-income workers against
conditionality in the welfare benefits system since the mid-1980s. After 1997 Labour
attempted to tackle the work-welfare bargain [that being in work should always
make one better off than welfare] through the extension of tax credits which
supplemented low incomes, contained discretionary elements to meet the
additional costs of childcare and caring for a disabled child, and which
continued to be paid during brief periods of unemployment.
After the Coalition Government came to power they designed
and legislated for a radical overhaul of the work-welfare bargain which will
eventually involve the abolition of the current system of in-work benefits and
their replacement with a Universal Credit. Universal Credit is intended to
address the problem that entering and leaving employment is much riskier for
people on low incomes in receipt of multiple benefits by coordinating housing,
council and income benefits (such as jobseeker’s allowance or employment and
support allowance) into a single payment which can simply be modified depending
on level of earned income. In this way ramps into and out of employment should
be smoother, with fewer perverse incentives to remain on welfare. However,
there remain substantial concerns about the administration of Universal Credit
and whether the rate at which benefits are tapered after someone returns to work
will really leave low-income families better off in-work.
After the Conservative Government was elected in May 2015
they had to honour a manifesto commitment to make a further £12 billion cuts to
the welfare budget on top of £17 billion achieved in the last parliament. The
Welfare Reform and Work Bill represents an attempt to achieve this which,
depending on perspective, will either accelerate the timetable for implementing
Universal Credit or derail the project entirely.
Summary
The Welfare Reform and Work Bill contains proposed
amendments to much existing welfare legislation, most notably the Welfare
Reform Act 2012 and its provisions, once enacted, are intended to achieve
several policy goals.
1. Until last week, the bill contained a provision to reduce
eligibility for in-work tax credits from around 3 million households in the UK from
April 2016. The controversy surrounding the removal of tax credits was not the
fact that it was occurring but that it was happening so swiftly, leaving many
low-income working households with little time to adjust. The House of Lords
voted to delay the implementation of this proposal by a further year, but it is
not certain yet what amendments to the Bill the Government will table at 2nd
reading on 17th November to ensure it achieves the same cost
savings.
2. The legislative changes necessary to implement Universal
Credit were enacted in 2012 but the bill will remove some additional payments
available to disabled people who have ‘limited capability for work’.
3. s.96 Welfare Reform Act 2012 created a benefits cap,
whereby no household in receipt of out-of-work benefits can receive an annual
income greater than the then median household income of £26,000pa. The object
of the cap was to ensure that the government could ensure that ‘in-work
households’ were consistently better off than ‘out-of-work households’ but it
has also been severely criticised for having a disproportionate impact on the
most vulnerable households including single parent families, families affected by
disability and families affected by domestic violence. The new bill will reduce
the cap further to £23,000pa from April 2016. This will be achieved either
through reducing what a household can receive in housing and council tax benefit
or Universal Credit in those areas where this has already been implemented.
4. The bill will have a significant impact on low-income
families with more than two children as it restricts entitlement to child
benefit and child tax credits to the first two children only. It also repeals
almost all of the Child Poverty Act 2010 which placed an obligation upon the
government to reduce child poverty as defined by four different measures by
2020. Instead the Secretary of State will have new duties to monitor social
mobility, life chances and educational attainment of children in low income
families.
What you can do?
All of the major unions are running campaigns related to
aspects of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. Unison which represents many
low-paid workers who will be affected by the removal of tax credits is
campaigning against the abolition of tax credits. The National Union of
Teachers is concerned about the impact the bill will have on child poverty.
Research the campaigns your union is undertaking to oppose the bill and what
action they suggest members take.
In addition many major charities are running campaigns around
the bill. The Child Poverty Action Group has produced some excellent (though
currently not very up-to-date) briefings on the impact of the bill on children
and it may be worth following them on social media.
Macmillan has been very concerned about the cuts to
Employment and Support Allowance and the impact this could have on the cost of
living for people diagnosed with acute illnesses such as cancer. They have
produced excellent briefing materials and organised social media campaigns
around the bill.
Major disability charities representing people with
continuous disability have a more complex relationship with the changes to the
law. They broadly welcome legislative commitment to support into employment for
disabled people but they remain concerned about meeting the extra costs of
disability in or out of work. A useful summary is provided in Scope’s evidence
to the House of Commons
The major disability charities have collectively lobbied
parliament around the bill under the umbrella of the Disability Benefits
Consortium (DBC) and in the past achieved significant success in seeing earlier
Welfare bills amended. If you are a disabled person who has received benefits
you can support the work of the DBC by sharing your experiences with them.
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