Welfare reforms look set to change benefit entitlements
December 9, 2008
This week a white paper is to be published on the proposed shake up of the welfare state, and if the proposals are implemented it will mean that many more people who claim benefits will have to prove they are looking for work or attending training in order to continue receiving their benefit payments.
The plans include medical testing for people claiming incapacity benefit, housing benefit reforms that will look at jobseekers allowance claimants’ living circumstances, and ‘work-fare’ schemes which force people to work in return for their benefits if they refuse to take a job.
Benefit entitlements will be split into three groups. The first group will be jobseekers allowance claimants, and from 2010 will also include single mothers whose youngest child is 7 or over. At the moment this group is entitled to income support until the child is 16. Lone parents of children between the age of 1 and 6 will make up the second group, as well as those claiming incapacity benefit. This group will be interviewed at the job centre for eligibility for work. The final group will be mainly people with a serious disability or mothers of very young babies. The new rules would also allow for benefits to be cut if claimants failed to turn up to interviews with the job centre.
Of course, there has been a lot of negative feedback on the proposals, from campaign groups, opposition politicians and rebel labour backbenchers. It is felt by many that the changes would cause big problems with the rising unemployment levels, and there are worries that the rules would be unfair on lone parents due to the lack of affordable childcare.
What do you think of these proposals?
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