by Gareth Morgan on June 21, 2023
Those with long memories may remember the days when the means-tested benefits system offered real help to those with mortgages. Payments to lenders contributed, sometimes generously, to the liability of borrowers for interest payments. There has never been any help towards capital repayments within the benefit system. Things changed in 2018. Mortgage interest help, as […]
by Gareth Morgan on March 15, 2023
Today’s childcare announcements in the budget are welcome, they are more helpful than the current support. The changes will make a real difference. Piloting incentive payments for childminders, increasing funding to nurseries providing free childcare, and changing minimum staff-to-child ratios from 1 staff member for every 4 children to 1 to 5 may help increase […]
by Gareth Morgan on March 6, 2023
There has been increasing discussion and interest, recently, in the idea of using existing data, particularly from benefit claims, to determine or automatically award other benefits for people who are entitled. It would be a very attractive way of solving, or reducing, the enormous under-claiming of many benefits. After all, its proponents say, if we […]
by Gareth Morgan on October 6, 2022
The driver for limiting benefits increases, instead of linking them to inflation, appears to be presented as an argument that it’s not fair for working people to receive a 5% pay increase while people on benefits will get around 10%. That seems to be a very simple and easy comparison to make and might appear […]
by Gareth Morgan on August 9, 2022
There’s been some discussion recently about the use of pension savings, after the age of 55, to help meet the cost of living increases that are affecting many people. You can see some of this discussion on Henry Tappers blog about pensions (a highly recommended read): The cost of living crisis – and the value […]
by Gareth Morgan on April 3, 2022
This is a quick update to my posting of two years ago, looking at the real gains (and for whom) of the increase in the National Living Wage (NLW). You can read that in my blog at https://benefitsinthefuture.com/national-living-wage-cui-bono/. Once again, this year, the government have proudly told us that the substantial increase in the NLW […]
by Gareth Morgan on November 3, 2021
With some very, very boring but pretty important numbers The government has been playing around with the tax and benefit system quite a lot this year. They have increased and decreased rates, tapers, thresholds and other factors with, apparently, wild enthusiasm. All of the announcements have been, predictably, treated as stand-alone elements with those that […]
by Gareth Morgan on June 24, 2021
The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee is inquiring into the effects of the 2016 changes to the way in which pensions could be used and how to protect pension savers. They have looked at scams already (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmworpen/648/64802.htm) and are now, in their 2nd part of the inquiry, looking at the options open to […]
by Gareth Morgan on March 13, 2021
DWP responses to my suggestions for changing the assessment of earnings. It’s some time since I posted to this blog, not because nothing of interest, or worthy of comment, has been happening, but simply because, like many others, I have been busy. In that, I am lucky; far too many people have been without work, […]
by Gareth Morgan on October 19, 2020
Very pleased that the Work and Pensions Select Committee has recommended that the DWP assess my proposed model of assessment of Universal Credit, which could sort out irregular assessment of earnings and remove the need for a 5 week wait for the first payment. You can read the report at https://committees.parliament.uk/work/135/universal-credit-the-wait-for-a-first-payment/publications/ . It’s pretty wide […]