I pointed out in May, here, that the real value of benefits in 2011 would be reduced by 10% by 2020, 25% by 2033 and halved by 2062. This was the effect of the move to uprating benefits by CPI instead of RPI, assuming that RPI, used before 2012, reflected the real change in the […]

While I’m sweating away at updating the Future Benefits Model it’s probably worth saying three things: 1) Don’t bother downloading the current version of Benefits After The Act, except for historical interest. The next version will be quite different in impact. 2) It’s already clear that the 1% indexation will have a substantial impact, not […]

A quick advert to let people know that I’ll be traipsing around Britain during October and November offering courses on Welfare Reform and Means Tested Benefits and Welfare Reform and Older People. Courses will be held in Newcastle, Glasgow, Cardiff, Chester, Leeds, London, Birmingham, Peterborough and Exeter. If you’d like to know more click here.

One of my colleagues, David Palmer, thought further after my musings on perverse pension contribution incentives and wrote a note about the treatment of pension contributions in Universal Credit for the news update service of ucForward, our new benefits advice system that includes probable future benefit entitlements. Well worth reproducing here. “One of the unexpected […]

Long delayed by other work, scheme changes and thinking. My apologies. I’ve just uploaded my new paper Benefits After The Act; it brings the modelling of impacts up to date in-line with the draft regulations and other announcements and now starts from the 2012 benefit rules and rates. I’ve brought the older people material into […]

Instead of an hours-based exclusion from the benefits cap, as will be the case for the Housing Benefit based cap being introduced in April 2013. there will be a simple earnings threshold. If net earnings are higher than this figure, for single people or couples, then they will not be subject to the cap. The […]

Couples where one is aged below the qualifying age for Pension Credit will have to claim UC until the younger person reaches that age. Support for people with disabilities in UC is given subject to tests of work capability that follow those in Employment and Support Allowance. I’ve been trying to understand how that would […]

The government have published the first detailed draft regulations for Universal Credit and is formally consulting the SSAC about them. I’ve started building the detail into our Future Benefits Model (FFBM) and there are substantial changes to previous announcements. Some of them are simplifications, such as the earnings disregard rules now discarding the formula for […]

Benefit rates are normally increased – uprated – every year in April. Some are frozen at the moment but, we hope, only for a short time. Until this year they’ve normally been increased by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) using the annual change in the previous September. The idea is that this should allow people […]

My apologies for the silence here. I’m in the middle of a round of Welfare Reform training around the country (I just got home from Newcastle, via the Durham blizzard). I’m also updating my papers, merging the two into one combined document and updating the Future Benefits Model (FFBM) to a 2012 / 2013 baseline […]