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I won't be claiming it.

Many will have seen the headline in tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph and Observer quoting Keir Starmer saying things will get worse before they get better. He is giving a major speech in Tuesday: we may get some clear indication of what we can expect in the Autumn. It won't be good...

This article is worth reading, as it discusses Liz Kendall's upcoming plan, called "Duty to Engage", which will force and require all disabled people and people with long term health conditions to engage with Job centres regularly, just like those on jobseekers allowance, and the WCA would take place more frequently at Job centres, rathe than at separate centres as it's now to force people into work. And failure to comply, tough sanctions would be applied. Disability benefits cuts are also coming up.

For the government to reduce the benefits bill rather than issue vouchers why don't they just freeze ESA and pip benefits for say 3 or 4 years obviously this would make us worse off but wouldn't be catastrophic.

looks like its going ahead the esa to uc enforcement from 2028 now till only a weeks time dreading the whole thing although their is 600,000 people to get threw and do get 3 months notice so probably unlikely to happen until around easter time my friend just been moved over from jsa said its a shambles nobody knows what they are doing still nothing sorted after 8 weeks 

Liz Kendell is a perfect example of a dishonest.

I can honestly say, unashamedly and unreservedly, that after a blood cancer diagnosis some years ago, and remaining on treatment ever since, and after experiencing the level of prejudice, harassment and spite that I was subjected to in the workplace post-diagnosis, and eventually being deemed unfit to work,  I have neither the desire nor health to set foot in a workplace ever again. 

Tony Blair is pushing for greater use of AI in the DWP to a) cut down on jobs, saving money and b) to constantly scan claimants bank accounts for signs of fraud and error.

The Tories left a £12 billion hole in the budget for benefit cuts so much for this being a consultation it was a done deal all along - the cuts were going to happen anyway.  And of course if labour got in they would be left with this gap in the finances for the treacherous Tories to use as tabloid bait to gode labour with headlines such as 'soft on benefits/scroungers etc.  We will have to keep on with this interminable wait to see what is in store but in the meanwhile we need to keep fighting with what little resources and energy we have.  

Hello all, I did write under the PIP response thread three days ago that the Government may be keen to force disabled people into some form of self-employment. Given the reluctance of most employers to employ disabled people this may be the only way to reduce the benefits bill....but self-employment is bloody hard work with far more risk than being a wage slave. How appropriate that the Budget is the day before Halloween! 

So basically, we’ll have a quick flick through your 16000 consultation responses at five to five on a Friday, then just do what we’d already got planned all along.

I did state previously before the election that I expected Labour from past experience in the 2000's to be no different to the Conservatives with welfare benefits. I did hope I would be wrong but it seems not. In fact they could be worse. Let's hope not!

It’s just been announced that Rachel Reeves is planning to raise social rents by more than inflation for the next 10 years. This next 5 years is going to be far worse than anything the conservatives had planned.

Guardian reporting benefit cuts in Reeves October budget. Why did I bother voting?

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
-John Kenneth Galbraith

I struggle to comprehend the thinking behind policy that, during a cost of living crisis that shows no sign of abating, today’s news reports further rises this autumn to energy bills, and yet we continue to pursue cruel policy to reduce or take away the incomes from the already poorest and hardest hit in society, to pay for a fictional financial black hole and financial deficits that your failed policies have caused. Is the aim to drive even more people into poverty?within six months of being elected? The so called party that is meant to represent the ordinary and under privileged? Awful state of modern day Britain and its politics.

They won't slow it down or postpone it because it's going to save them money. They don't give a toss about the disabled.

From tomorrow’s observer newspaper: “the work and pensions secretary pledges today, as she warns that rising welfare spending is unsustainable. In her first newspaper interview since taking the role, Liz Kendall told the Observer that a drastic overhaul was required to fix a "broken" back-to-work system, warning that the number of people who are economically inactive was now bigger than the population of London.
Describing her task as "one of the biggest challenges the country faces", she said that she would be bringing in major reforms to a system that was failing too many of the near record 2.8 million people now out of work due to long-term sickness.

From The Observer

It’s time to end blame culture over benefits bill, says Labour minister

Exclusive: Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall pledges to halt Tory ‘salami slicing’ of benefits, but Labour under fire for union pay deals

Michael Savage Policy editor

Sat 17 Aug 2024 19.00 BST

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Labour will end the blame culture aimed at people out of work and will not repeat the “salami slicing” of the benefits bill pursued by the Tories, the work and pensions secretary pledges today, as she warns that rising welfare spending is unsustainable.

In her first newspaper interview since taking the role, Liz Kendall told the Observer that a drastic overhaul was required to fix a “broken” back-to-work system, warning that the number of people who are economically inactive was now bigger than the population of London.

Describing her task as “one of the biggest challenges the country faces”, she said that she would be bringing in major reforms to a system that was failing too many of the near record 2.8 million people now out of work due to long-term sickness.

She accused a series of Conservative politicians of using anti-welfare rhetoric against people in need of help. Amid concerns within Labour that welfare will be squeezed as part of chancellor Rachel Reeves’s first budget this autumn, Kendall said she would not make reform “merely about cuts and blame”.

Citing large projected increases in welfare spending, she added: “I do not think it’s sustainable when you’re seeing those levels of increases, but we can do something about it.”

She criticised the previous government’s approach, which she described as “salami slicing cuts [and] divisive rhetoric that blames people and doesn’t support them.

“We’ve never seen more people written off. The last parliament was the worst for economic inactivity on record. It is for us to put this right. But we will need big reforms and big changes. I know people worry about this, but I want to say, we are on your side. We are not going to write you off and blame you. We take our responsibilities seriously. We’re going to bust a gut to give you the support you need to build a better life.”

Reeves has already made it clear that she will make “tough decisions” on welfare spending in the forthcoming budget, describing spending as “out of control”. Over the next six years, spending on incapacity and disability benefits for working age people is projected to rise to £63bn – a real-terms increase of almost 48%. However, some MPs are wary of any squeeze that would only save money in the short term.

Kendall repeatedly took aim at the rhetoric used by a series of Conservative figures. While former chancellor George Osborne talked about “shirkers”, Rishi Sunak denounced a “sicknote culture”. When he was work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride said some people did not work because they felt “down and bluesy”.



Chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves will be making ‘tough decisions’ on welfare spending. 

“All of the talk about strivers versus scroungers or shirkers – I think the people who really shirk their responsibility were the people who last sat in this office because they wrote off millions of people who actually want to work,” Kendall said. “It matters deeply for individuals and their ability to have a decent life for themselves. It matters to our economy because it is the major thing holding back growth. But it also matters to the public finances as well.”

Plans to curb welfare spending come with the Tories criticising the government for reaching a series of pay deals designed to end strikes. A backdated pay offer for train drivers was announced last week: it followed the chancellor’s £9bn package to increase public sector pay and a major increase offered to junior doctors.

Stride said his party would “take no lectures from the government, who have failed at the first hurdle to signal that they will get a grip on welfare spending”.

“Labour have made their priorities clear – taxpayer-funded above-inflation pay rises demanded by their union paymasters and scrapping welfare reform that could save the taxpayer £12bn – all while axing winter fuel payments for pensioners. Without taking much-needed action to make the welfare bill sustainable, Labour will once again ramp up taxes.”


In a frank assessment of the challenge she faces, Kendall said she was “under no illusions” about the size of her task. She said the current system “is broken. It’s not working. But I know that our work coaches are full of passion and ideas about doing things differently.”

Kendall suggested there would be serious reforms to jobcentres, freeing them up from monitoring benefits and linking them with the NHS to help those struggling to work for health reasons. “We have got to put jobcentres back to where they were initially meant to be, which is a public employment service,” she said. “That isn’t how they are. Their overwhelming focus is on monitoring, assessing and policing benefits. We’ve got 16,000 work coaches and we want them to do what they say on the tin.”

She also committed to a review of universal credit, new plans to tackle economic inactivity led by local areas and mayors and a “youth guarantee” ensuring every 18-21-year-old could get training, an apprenticeship or support to find work. More details of her plans will be unveiled in a white paper in the autumn.

Kendall would not be drawn on whether she was pushing for the Treasury to end the two-child limit on benefits that most experts believe is a driving force behind child poverty. However, the Leicester West MP said that the government’s child poverty taskforce had met for the first time last week and that the issue was a priority.

“I have got one in three kids in Leicester growing up poor,” she said. “On one of my last visits to one of my primary schools, they’d had to go out to find a young boy who had not been at school. When they found him at home, all he had was a bowl of salad cream for breakfast. I know in my bones how appalling the situation is.

“I will only make a commitment when I know that we can deliver on it. The last Labour government did incredible things to tackle poverty, but it was so easily overturned by the Tories. We are determined that our strategy will not only take immediate action, but this time it will last.”

I had letter from my local Nottingham city council saying the UC migration from ESA to UC will start from January 2025.