Here are two different cases concerning universal credit and work. Both prove the point extremely well that universal credit and the work conditionionality contract linked with this is comple…
Source: You cannot serve two masters.. Universal credit and your employer.
Sanctions imposed on thousands of benefit claimants for not taking part in the DWP’s so-called “back-to-work” schemes are unlawful, a court has ruled. Three Court of Appeal judges upheld an earlier decision by the High Court, potentially paving the way for millions in refunds to people who had their incomes cut while they were unemployed. After […]
via Benefit Sanctions Handed Out To Thousands Of People ‘Unlawful’ — Same Difference
Two organisations representing workfare providers have told an inquiry that sanctions should not be applied to benefit claimants who already have jobs.
Source: Universal discredit – the workfare sector comes out against in-work sanctions
By Kate Belgrave
Homeless women with children end up in impossible situations when dumped in temporary housing miles from their jobs.
In this story, homeless mother of two Alicia Phillips explains how the housing crisis and an expensive commute from Boundary House – an isolated temporary accommodation hostel in Welwyn Garden City – are destroying her work and training options.
Alicia says that Waltham Forest Council told her she’d have to give up her job as a nursery nurse in London if the commute from Boundary House was too expensive and difficult.
This is how single mothers are punished in austerity. They’re put in single rooms in isolated temporary housing that is miles from any realistic sort of opportunity. They’re actively relegated to a poverty trap. So much for Stephen Crabb’s fantasies about the government’s commitment to getting women out of that trap.
Alicia, who has a daughter aged two…
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With many thanks to Welfare Weekly.
Tens of thousands of sick and disabled people are struggling to cope with changes to disability benefits, with more than 125,000 people turning to the charity Citizens Advice for help and advice in the past 12 months alone.
New figures published by Citizens Advice reveal that 500 people a day have turned to the charity for help with Personal Independence Payments (PIP) since the start of 2016, up 36% on the previous year.
Around 13% of these are people who are in work, as Citizens Advice warns that many sick and disabled people rely on disability benefits to be able to retain employment.
Since the introduction of PIP in April 2013, over 630,000 vulnerable people have turned to Citizens Advice with enquiries about PIP, and it’s is quickly becoming one of the most common issues people need support with.
Last month, the Public Accounts…
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Ministers have been unable to provide answers to key questions
There are large gaps in the Government’s understanding of the effect its cuts are having on people with mental health problems, a worrying new investigation has shown.
Ministers have admitted they do not have a full record of which specialist mental health services have closed under their watch – and that they are unsure of the effect of key social security cuts on people with mental health problems.
The holes in the Government’s knowledge came to light after an investigation by Labour’s shadow mental health minister Luciana Berger, who submitted a series of parliamentary questions on the topic.
She was stunned when ministers were unable to provide basic data about the effects on their policies.
The Government was unable to say how many people with mental health problems had lost out from the closure of the Independent Living Fund last year, which helped disabled and sick people to live more independent lives.
DWP minister Justin Tomlinson said the information requested was “not held by the Department for Work and Pensions and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost”.
Ministers at relevant government departments were also unable to say how many specialist inpatient services for older adult mental health patients had closed since David Cameron came to power, and how many consultant psychiatrist posts were vacant in the NHS.
Originally posted on Britain Isn’t Eating: People on benefits are being shut out of the rental market Source: The Welfare stigma which is leaving the poorest homeless
via The Welfare stigma which is leaving the poorest homeless — sdbast
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has proposed scrapping two benefit regulations that offer vital protection to disabled people facing the controversial “fitness for work” test.
In response to a freedom of information request, DWP has sent Disability News Service (DNS) a document titled Appeals Strategy – Post Election Planning, which was drawn up by civil servants just before last year’s general election.
The document lays out 11 policies that could be considered by ministers if the Conservatives won the 2015 election.
Read about them here: http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/secret-dwp-proposal-to-scrap-esa-substantial-risk-rules-would-breach-right-to-life/
A disabled woman who had the car that allows her to do her job taken away after a “degrading” capability assessment, has had the decision overturned on appeal.
A tribunal took just 10 minutes to decide Denise Haddon, who cannot walk more than 20 metres without severe pain, should never have had her benefits downgraded.
She was given less than a month’s notice that the vehicle that gives her independence would be taken away after an assessment for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), introduced by Iain Duncan Smith.
And the Mirror can reveal the decision was taken by a ‘trainee disability assessor.’
When we first published Denise’s story in December , the Department for Work and Pensions said the assessment had been carried out “correctly”, and insisted she no longer qualified for Motability assistance to pay for the car.
And even though the decision was thrown out ‘indefinitely’ by a judge, a solicitor and a doctor last month, they insist the original assessment was made “based on all available evidence at the time.”
When asked if they still believed Denise’s assessment had been carried out correctly, they refused to answer.
read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/disabled-woman-essential-benefit-reinstated-7805150
Benefit tales 