Pick-a-Lily
was that summer?
Hi all, long time no see!
Although I have reformed my former spending habits, I do look in occasionally to see what you're all up to!
I'm posting here a time line of the changes to benefits, both the story so far, and what is planned for the coming months, just for your information. I hope it's useful prep for people, there are big changes to come next year, as if we haven't already suffered enough. I think things are laid out very clearly here for reference puposes, and forewarned is forearmed.
I cannot take any credit at all for this timeline, it's been compiled by the (((wonderful))) welfare benefits advisor at my place of work, but I hope it is helpful for some of you here.
Timetable - key points of Welfare Reform
Changes that have already been introduced:
October 2008 – no further new claims for Income Support / Incapacity Benefit for people unable to work due to ill health. Introduction of a new benefit instead: Employment & Support Allowance. The qualifying conditions are different and those who no longer qualify must claim job seekers allowance instead.
March 2011 – Employment & Support Allowance qualifying conditions are narrowed. This creates more disallowance, i.e. meaning that more people no longer qualify and have to claim Job Seekers Allowance instead.
March 2011 – current date - existing claimants of Income Support on grounds of incapacity for work / Incapacity Benefit start to be reassessed for Employment & Support Allowance.
April 2011 – a number of cuts and rate freezes applied to child benefit and child and working tax credits.
April 2011 – current date - rolling introduction of a number of Housing Benefit cuts applicable to private sector tenants including:
maximum housing benefit rates payable go down meaning in general terms that where 5 out of every 10 private sector properties would have been affordable on maximum housing benefit, now only 3 in every 10 are
the “single room rate”, which used to apply to single claimants aged under 25, now applies to single claimants aged under 35. Claimants affected by the “single room rate” may only claim a lesser amount of housing benefit: the lesser rate is intended to cover the cost of a room in a shared house, rather than the cost of a 1 bedroom self- contained property (there are some exemptions to this rule including some claimants of DLA middle or higher care component)
the housing benefit rate for 5 bedroom properties is abolished, meaning that the maximum rate now available for a large household is that intended to cover the cost of a 4 bedroom property.
April 2012 – further restrictions to child and working tax credit, including the requirement that couples with children are now required to work at least 24 hours a week between them, with one of them working at least 16 hours a week, in order to claim working tax credit. Previously the requirement was only that one of the couple must work 16 hours a week.
May 2012 – time limiting of contribution based Employment and Support Allowance to 52 weeks. Those claimants eligible for ESA on a non means tested basis (i.e. based upon having paid NI contributions) will only be eligible for 52 weeks (NB - Any claimant in the Support Group of ESA is exempt from this provision). After 52 weeks the claimant will be able to continue to claim ESA on an income related basis instead but only if the household income /savings are low enough to qualify. Those who have a partner in work or household savings may no longer qualify for ESA payments due to this change.
May 2012 – latest in a series of changes to Income Support rules for lone parents. Lone parents are now only allowed to claim Income Support up to youngest child’s 5th birthday. At this point they are required to look for work and claim job seekers allowance instead.
Changes that are still to come:
October 2012 – introduction of civil penalties in overpayment cases. Claimant may now be fined £50 if there has been an overpayment of more than £65 and it is considered that the overpayment arose where the claimant, without reasonable excuse, failed to provide information, report a change of circumstance, or has negligently made an incorrect statement.
April 2013 – introduction of restrictions to Housing Benefit for social sector tenants. HB may be restricted if the claimant is considered to have more bedrooms than is needed for the size of the household. The deductions are currently expected to be 14% of the rental liability for 1 spare room, and 25% for 2 spare bedrooms.
April 2013 – abolition of Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans from the DWP. Responsibility passes to Local Authorities, who are expected to devise their own schemes to provide “locally administered assistance”. Our council is in the process of consulting and devising its scheme and the details are not yet available.
April 2013 - abolition of a national legal framework for Council Tax Benefit as we know it. Responsibility passes to Local Authorities, who are expected to devise their own schemes to provide “localised support”. However the overall budget is being cut by 10% and it is expected that many working age people currently on full benefit will have to pay a council tax shortfall (pensioners are expected to be protected from having to make any extra payments).
April 2013 – introduction of the “benefit cap”. The maximum amount of weekly benefits and tax credits claimable will be restricted to £350 p/w for single claimants and £500 p/w for couples (with or without children). This includes housing benefit though it is not yet clear how the new council tax benefit scheme will fit into the cap. Some claimants on disability benefits, or in the support group for ESA or on working tax credit will be exempt from the cap. If a person’s entitlements exceed the cap when calculated and added together, a deduction will be made from the housing benefit to reduce the total amount down to the level of the cap. Likely to affect large families or those with high rents the most.
April 2013 – introduction of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a new benefit to replace Disability Living Allowance. To begin with only in trial areas, and our area is not on the list.
Approx June 2013 – it is expected that PIP will be introduced nationwide from around this date. To begin with, new claimants only will be required to claim PIP rather than DLA. This applies to working age adults only: child claims for DLA will still be allowed and people aged 65 or over and claiming for the first time will still claim Attendance Allowance.*
October 2013 – March 2016 – existing claimants of DLA aged 16-64 will be reassessed for PIP.*
*The qualifying conditions for PIP are narrower than for DLA and it is expected that significantly fewer people will qualify under the new scheme.
October 2013 onwards – gradual introduction of a new means tested benefit scheme: Universal Credit. Universal credit intends to roll all means tested benefits and tax credit payments together into one single payment, i.e. a claimant who currently gets income related ESA, child tax credit and housing benefit would under the new scheme receive one single payment that covers all 3 components.
Non means tested payments such as contribution related ESA, contribution JSA, Carers Allowance and DLA /PIP are not part of the UC scheme and will continue to be paid separately.
It is expected that Universal Credit (UC) will be introduced as follows:
October 2013 – April 2014 - phased introduction by district over this period - no new claims for Income Related Employment & Support Allowance, Income Support or Income Based Job Seekers Allowance from date of introduction. Instead, a UC claim will be required.
October 2013 onwards – cases of existing claimants of means tested benefits that have a change in circumstance i.e. find a job or birth of a child or partner moving in/out of household: this is expected to trigger an end to the current means tested benefit or tax credit claim and these claimants will have to claim UC instead.
October 2014 – No further new claims for Housing Benefit or Tax Credits. Claimants will need to claim UC instead.
October 2014 – end of 2017 – existing claimants of means tested benefits who have not had any change of circumstance to trigger a switch to UC already will be moved over to UC in a rolling programme.
It is intended that most people will be paid UC on a monthly basis. There is expected to be the option of asking for payments to be split up and made on a more frequent basis in exceptional circumstances, but that an individual case will need to be made for each claimant.
Claimants of Universal Credit will be required to sign a “claimant commitment” which will set out what “work related requirements” the claimant is expected to meet, i.e. preparing for work / attending work focussed interviews, etc. Failure to comply with the commitment without good cause may incur a sanction or a set of sanctions. There will be exemption from work related activity requirements for some claimants i.e. those on ESA who are placed in the Support Group.
The above information is based upon what is known at September 2012 and some details may change before implementation as the detailed legislation is still being written
September 2012
Although I have reformed my former spending habits, I do look in occasionally to see what you're all up to!
I'm posting here a time line of the changes to benefits, both the story so far, and what is planned for the coming months, just for your information. I hope it's useful prep for people, there are big changes to come next year, as if we haven't already suffered enough. I think things are laid out very clearly here for reference puposes, and forewarned is forearmed.
I cannot take any credit at all for this timeline, it's been compiled by the (((wonderful))) welfare benefits advisor at my place of work, but I hope it is helpful for some of you here.
Timetable - key points of Welfare Reform
Changes that have already been introduced:
October 2008 – no further new claims for Income Support / Incapacity Benefit for people unable to work due to ill health. Introduction of a new benefit instead: Employment & Support Allowance. The qualifying conditions are different and those who no longer qualify must claim job seekers allowance instead.
March 2011 – Employment & Support Allowance qualifying conditions are narrowed. This creates more disallowance, i.e. meaning that more people no longer qualify and have to claim Job Seekers Allowance instead.
March 2011 – current date - existing claimants of Income Support on grounds of incapacity for work / Incapacity Benefit start to be reassessed for Employment & Support Allowance.
April 2011 – a number of cuts and rate freezes applied to child benefit and child and working tax credits.
April 2011 – current date - rolling introduction of a number of Housing Benefit cuts applicable to private sector tenants including:
maximum housing benefit rates payable go down meaning in general terms that where 5 out of every 10 private sector properties would have been affordable on maximum housing benefit, now only 3 in every 10 are
the “single room rate”, which used to apply to single claimants aged under 25, now applies to single claimants aged under 35. Claimants affected by the “single room rate” may only claim a lesser amount of housing benefit: the lesser rate is intended to cover the cost of a room in a shared house, rather than the cost of a 1 bedroom self- contained property (there are some exemptions to this rule including some claimants of DLA middle or higher care component)
the housing benefit rate for 5 bedroom properties is abolished, meaning that the maximum rate now available for a large household is that intended to cover the cost of a 4 bedroom property.
April 2012 – further restrictions to child and working tax credit, including the requirement that couples with children are now required to work at least 24 hours a week between them, with one of them working at least 16 hours a week, in order to claim working tax credit. Previously the requirement was only that one of the couple must work 16 hours a week.
May 2012 – time limiting of contribution based Employment and Support Allowance to 52 weeks. Those claimants eligible for ESA on a non means tested basis (i.e. based upon having paid NI contributions) will only be eligible for 52 weeks (NB - Any claimant in the Support Group of ESA is exempt from this provision). After 52 weeks the claimant will be able to continue to claim ESA on an income related basis instead but only if the household income /savings are low enough to qualify. Those who have a partner in work or household savings may no longer qualify for ESA payments due to this change.
May 2012 – latest in a series of changes to Income Support rules for lone parents. Lone parents are now only allowed to claim Income Support up to youngest child’s 5th birthday. At this point they are required to look for work and claim job seekers allowance instead.
Changes that are still to come:
October 2012 – introduction of civil penalties in overpayment cases. Claimant may now be fined £50 if there has been an overpayment of more than £65 and it is considered that the overpayment arose where the claimant, without reasonable excuse, failed to provide information, report a change of circumstance, or has negligently made an incorrect statement.
April 2013 – introduction of restrictions to Housing Benefit for social sector tenants. HB may be restricted if the claimant is considered to have more bedrooms than is needed for the size of the household. The deductions are currently expected to be 14% of the rental liability for 1 spare room, and 25% for 2 spare bedrooms.
April 2013 – abolition of Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans from the DWP. Responsibility passes to Local Authorities, who are expected to devise their own schemes to provide “locally administered assistance”. Our council is in the process of consulting and devising its scheme and the details are not yet available.
April 2013 - abolition of a national legal framework for Council Tax Benefit as we know it. Responsibility passes to Local Authorities, who are expected to devise their own schemes to provide “localised support”. However the overall budget is being cut by 10% and it is expected that many working age people currently on full benefit will have to pay a council tax shortfall (pensioners are expected to be protected from having to make any extra payments).
April 2013 – introduction of the “benefit cap”. The maximum amount of weekly benefits and tax credits claimable will be restricted to £350 p/w for single claimants and £500 p/w for couples (with or without children). This includes housing benefit though it is not yet clear how the new council tax benefit scheme will fit into the cap. Some claimants on disability benefits, or in the support group for ESA or on working tax credit will be exempt from the cap. If a person’s entitlements exceed the cap when calculated and added together, a deduction will be made from the housing benefit to reduce the total amount down to the level of the cap. Likely to affect large families or those with high rents the most.
April 2013 – introduction of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a new benefit to replace Disability Living Allowance. To begin with only in trial areas, and our area is not on the list.
Approx June 2013 – it is expected that PIP will be introduced nationwide from around this date. To begin with, new claimants only will be required to claim PIP rather than DLA. This applies to working age adults only: child claims for DLA will still be allowed and people aged 65 or over and claiming for the first time will still claim Attendance Allowance.*
October 2013 – March 2016 – existing claimants of DLA aged 16-64 will be reassessed for PIP.*
*The qualifying conditions for PIP are narrower than for DLA and it is expected that significantly fewer people will qualify under the new scheme.
October 2013 onwards – gradual introduction of a new means tested benefit scheme: Universal Credit. Universal credit intends to roll all means tested benefits and tax credit payments together into one single payment, i.e. a claimant who currently gets income related ESA, child tax credit and housing benefit would under the new scheme receive one single payment that covers all 3 components.
Non means tested payments such as contribution related ESA, contribution JSA, Carers Allowance and DLA /PIP are not part of the UC scheme and will continue to be paid separately.
It is expected that Universal Credit (UC) will be introduced as follows:
October 2013 – April 2014 - phased introduction by district over this period - no new claims for Income Related Employment & Support Allowance, Income Support or Income Based Job Seekers Allowance from date of introduction. Instead, a UC claim will be required.
October 2013 onwards – cases of existing claimants of means tested benefits that have a change in circumstance i.e. find a job or birth of a child or partner moving in/out of household: this is expected to trigger an end to the current means tested benefit or tax credit claim and these claimants will have to claim UC instead.
October 2014 – No further new claims for Housing Benefit or Tax Credits. Claimants will need to claim UC instead.
October 2014 – end of 2017 – existing claimants of means tested benefits who have not had any change of circumstance to trigger a switch to UC already will be moved over to UC in a rolling programme.
It is intended that most people will be paid UC on a monthly basis. There is expected to be the option of asking for payments to be split up and made on a more frequent basis in exceptional circumstances, but that an individual case will need to be made for each claimant.
Claimants of Universal Credit will be required to sign a “claimant commitment” which will set out what “work related requirements” the claimant is expected to meet, i.e. preparing for work / attending work focussed interviews, etc. Failure to comply with the commitment without good cause may incur a sanction or a set of sanctions. There will be exemption from work related activity requirements for some claimants i.e. those on ESA who are placed in the Support Group.
The above information is based upon what is known at September 2012 and some details may change before implementation as the detailed legislation is still being written
September 2012
