The Government has signalled it will end the ‘rigid focus’ on the 35-hour a week job search requirements for out of work benefit claimants after a Work and Pensions Committee report called on it to scrap blanket benefit requirements. In its response to the Committee’s Get Britain Working: Reforming Jobcentres report published today, the DWP…
Tag: work
No need for a moral panic about the welfare system
https://www.ft.com/content/ee67c643-01bc-41f6-a4e2-c738deef129e Britain is in the grip of a moral panic over welfare benefits. The preferred adjective for the costs of social security benefits to those not yet at pension age is “spiralling”, and it is used as much by Labour ministers as by the opposition. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has expressed horror at 6.5mn working-age…
Work Capability Assessment delays are leaving disabled people in limbo
https://wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/work-capability-assessment-delays-are-leaving-disabled-people-in-limbo-a1deb1e457cb Disabled people can get extra support under Universal Credit (UC) if they’re found eligible after a Work Capability Assessment (WCA). But many of those who come to Citizens Advice are waiting months, if not over a year, for this assessment. In the meantime, many struggle to afford essential costs and risk being pushed into…
Job advisers to be embedded in GP surgeries in Brighton
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/job-advisers-to-be-embedded-in-gp-surgeries-as-tens-of-thousands-more-sick-and-disabled-people-offered-help-into-work Connect to Work delivery area Lead authority Included authorities (^ indicates lead) Funding (rounded down to nearest £0.1) Number of people set to support (rounded down to nearest 50) West Sussex and Brighton West Sussex County Council ^West Sussex County Council, Brighton and Hove City Council £15.6m 3,950 – Funding includes putting specialist employment…
Big day for #UniversalCredit
https://x.com/NeilCouling/status/1965768015938748780?s=19 Big day for #UniversalCredit. The final migration notices were issued to ESA claimants today – all now have had the call to claim UC. Important all do that before the provisions of the Universal Credit Act 2025 come into effect in April.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether existing claimants of Employment Support Allowance, who leave the social security system and later need to return to claim (a) Employment Support Allowance and (b) Universal Health, will be considered new claimants.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-08-29/71743 Answered on5 September 2025 Customers who leave the social security system and later need to return to claim New Style Employment Support Allowance or the Universal Credit health element will be considered new claimants, unless they stopped receiving Universal Credit as a result of increased earnings and then return to payment within six months….
Not so Universal: the two-tiered health element. How the Universal Credit Bill will create a two-tiered system for disabled people.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publications/not-so-universal-the-two-tiered-health-element-how-the-universal-credit-bill/ The government’s decision to remove cuts to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) from the Universal Credit Bill (UC bill) was the right call. However, damaging and unjustified cuts elsewhere in the health and disability benefits system have been overlooked. The UC bill will have a devastating impact on disabled people and their families. An estimated…
Welfare reform: health-related and disability benefits
Keep up-to-date with the main changes
https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/whats-new/welfare-reform-health-and-disability-benefits Keep up-to-date with the main changes included in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, the Universal Credit Bill and the Employment Rights Bill, affecting personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit (UC), employment and support allowance (ESA), jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) and statutory sick pay (SSP), including proposals for PIP health assessments, work capability assessments, and…
Work incentives aren’t working: is the Universal Credit review asking the right questions?
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publications/work-incentives-arent-working-is-the-universal-credit-review-asking-the/ The Universal Credit (UC) system includes elements designed to encourage claimants’ transition into employment. These range from measures ensuring people are financially better off (such as the taper rate and the work allowance) to penalising people for failing to take active steps towards work (conditionality and sanctions). These mechanisms cannot necessarily offset the systemic…
Renting vs. Buying in 2025
https://blog.spareroom.co.uk/renting-vs-buying-in-2025/ Renters are spending more of their take-home pay than ever on rent, with three-quarters spending more than 30% – meaning that the majority qualify as being ‘rent burdened’. Over a quarter (26%) surpass this threshold, spending more than 50%. This is partly because UK average room rents have increased in the past 4 years,…