A little more detail on what I’m trying to do. As the real detail starts to appear about the new system(s) I want to add to our existing range of assessments in the FFBM some more human examples. As well as the existing scenarios, which use a range of incomes at standard intervals and averaged […]

The Parliament website shows Royal Assent for the Welfare Reform Bill is expected tomorrow, the 8th of March.

I’m soon going to have to change the subhead of the blog, when Royal Assent is given, but it means that I’m now going to start the really detailed work. As the draft and final regulations appear, I’ll be building them into our Future Benefits Model (FFBM) and assessing the impact that they will have […]

Apologies for the advert but I’m running some courses looking at Welfare Reform impacts around the country next month and in the autumn. There are two courses initially, Welfare Reform and Means-Tested Benefits and Welfare Reform and Older People. They’re being held in Cardiff, Chester, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham and London (or in-house) and you can […]

The pro-cap speakers in Parliament have consistently focused on one argument, why should people out of work be better off than those in work in the same situation? Although others have tried to point out that those in work also get benefits to support them, the point has not seemed to be grasped. I thought […]

Says it all; the Government has succeeded in overturning the increase in the period people can remain on contributory ESA. Not a good omen. -later- …. and indeed all the ESA amendments are overturned. Chris Grayling has also said that the Government will treat the benefits cap measure under financial privilege so that the Lords […]

I’m not very hopeful that the Commons won’t reverse all the Lords’ changes on Wednesday. In fact I’m sure that they will. Nonetheless I thought I’d run our Future Benefits Model (FFBM) to see the effects of leaving Child Benefit (ChB) out of the cap; and here are the results. If we take the capping […]

As Nick Clegg is pushing for an increase in personal tax allowances to £10,000 a year, on the basis that it’s a way of protecting the lowest paid workers, it’s worth pointing out that it’s not. The 2012 Income Tax personal allowance increase that’s already in the pipeline will be worth £2.42 a week to […]

The government had said that they were going to freeze maximum SPC for four years but this year they’ve cut it instead. As there doesn’t seem to have been any formal announcement about this, other than the figure being included, without special note, in the uprating statement in Hansard, I thought it was worth mentioning. […]

Before this afternoon’s consideration of the benefits cap in the Lords, the DWP have published a new impact assessment here which has a couple of puzzling pieces in it. In the new paper it says: Initially the intention is that that cap will be delivered by Local Authorities through Housing Benefit payments. Ultimately it will […]