The Liberal Democrats have published their election manifesto today, including their promises in relation to welfare benefits. These include an undertaking to bring the WCA back in-house, stop unnecessary PIP assessments, end sanctions and increase carer’s allowance. The manifesto says:
We will:
- Tackle child poverty by removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap.
- Set a target of ending deep poverty within a decade, and establish an independent commission to recommend further annual increases in Universal Credit to ensure that support covers life’s essentials, such as food and bills.
- Support pensioners by protecting the triple lock so that pensions always rise in line with inflation, wages or 2.5% – whichever is highest.
- Ensure that women born in the 1950s are finally treated fairly and properly compensated.
- Give unpaid carers the support they deserve by increasing Carer’s Allowance and expanding it to more carers, and stop pursuing carers for old overpayments of Carer’s Allowance.
In addition, we will:
Repair the broken benefits safety net by:
- Reducing the wait for the first payment of Universal Credit from five weeks to five days.
- Scrapping the bedroom tax.
- Replacing the sanctions regime with an incentive-based scheme to help people into work.
- Ending the young parent penalty for under-25s by restoring the full rate of Universal Credit for all parents regardless of age.
Increase Carer’s Allowance and expand eligibility for it by:
- Raising the amount carers can earn and introducing an earnings taper to end the unfair cliff-edge.
- Reducing the number of hours’ care per week required.
- Extending it to carers in full-time education.
Reverse the Conservatives’ cut to support payments for parents whose partners have died.
Establish an Independent Living Taskforce to help people live independently in their own homes, with more choice and control over their lives.
Make the benefits system work better for disabled people by:
- Giving disabled people and organisations representing them a stronger voice in the design of benefits policies and processes.
- Bringing Work Capability Assessments in-house.
- Reforming Personal Independence Payment assessments to make the process more transparent and stop unnecessary reassessments, and end the use of informal assessments.
Give everyone the chance to enjoy a decent retirement by:
- Developing measures to end the gender pension gap in private pensions and ensure working-age carers can save properly for retirement.
- Improving the State Pension system by investing in helplines to ensure quicker responses to queries and resolution of underpayments.
- Ending the scandal of lost top-up payments by overhauling the processing system and providing proper receipts.
Fix the broken Statutory Sick Pay system.
Require pension funds and managers to show that their portfolio investments are consistent with the Paris Agreement.
Ensure that military compensation for illness or injury does not count towards means testing for benefits.
