At last the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) has revealed the details of their appalling new system that assess claimants that are in the severe disability group.
As we know every person’s circumstances are different depending upon their diagnosis and entry to this group may be based on and is not exclusively
Having medically precise definitions that are not connected with the benefits system :
Having information that only a claimant or carer will know however a specialist will still have to provide details:
Having availability of specialist services and access to said services where the claimant lives
And unbelievably no clear criteria given at all.
There is also great concern that their distinct lack of clarity on the overlap between the Severe Disability Group and the light-touch review system for PIP will cause claimants to be wrongly assessed and treated.
We can only imagine how disastrous this will be for severely disabled people which gives me great concern for their well-being.
God help us they certainly have no regard for the lives and well-being of extremely vulnerable people.
Many claimants and disability charities are sharing their concerns that the creation of their planned separate group of severely disabled claimants will be directed purely at reducing future payments for those that they allege are not as severely disabled.
And there lies the real reason for the creation of this new group. It’s all about the money and how to take away as much as they can take away from vulnerable people to line their own greedy pockets.
New claimants with mobilising issues will be the largest group hit by the proposed changes to the work capability assessment (WCA) planned for 2025, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has predicted.
Those that have severe mental health conditions will also be hit hard.
The OBR has estimated that by 2028-29 there will be;
Approximately 371,000 additional claimants placed in limited capability for work (LCW) group and not the limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) group. This is happening because of changes being made to the mobilising descriptors.
Approximately 230,000 additional claimants will be placed in LCW group rather the LCWRA group because of the upcoming changes to the substantial risk regulations.
Approximately 29,000 claimants will be placed in the intensive work search group rather than the LCW group because of the future changes that are being made to the ‘getting about’ points score.
It was confirmed as evidence to the Commons Work and Pensions Committee in parliament last month that the DWP is still intending to introduce the changes to the WCA in 2025 and that they will only affect new claims.
It is also estimated that by 2029, over 600,000 people will miss out on the additional payments that they would have if they were still in the LCWRA group.
As a result of these changes it has been reported that almost a quarter of a million claimants many of the those with mental health conditions, will knowingly have their health and wellbeing put at risk.
It has also been estimated that only one or two percent of these claimants will actually be able to find work because most of these claimants either aren’t well enough. Also many workplaces cannot make the required alterations to their workplace to make it disabled friendly.
These changes have been implemented to save them money, to give more tax cuts to those that are already getting a good deal.
To take away a person’s vital payments and to make them look for work that they won’t be able to do is unbelievably cruel.
How many of these already extremely vulnerable people will be sanctioned or forced to do tasks that they aren’t capable of.
It’s unacceptable to treat people like this and all of us should be angry about this I know that I am.
There’s no price that can be put on a person’s life but this cruel and calculated government will continue to throw as much hatred as they can before the next general election.
They don’t care and no one should expect them to either.
According to the latest DWP statistics that have been released reveal that 522,690 UC claimants have been sanctioned in the previous year to July 2023.
They show that in July 2023 49,000 new sanctions were applied.
These figures are very concerning with 6.48% of the claimants sanctioned is now almost reaching the peak rate in October 2022.
According to the statistics 96.5% of sanctions were applied for failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview.
However these statistics don’t reveal the claimants reasons for not attending or participating in mandatory interviews.
One of the most common reasons for the above is not receiving any communication from the DWP that would inform them of these appointments. For more information about this please see a previous blog post titled ‘The case of the missing letters’
Other reasons for non attendance include illness, childcare commitments and not being able to physically attend an appointment.
Of course claimants can appeal these decisions but it isn’t easy to do and many still don’t know that they can do this.
It’s also important to know that sanction decisions are made by work coaches and are often based upon opinion not fact.
For example if they explain to their work coach that they couldn’t attend because of illness, the work coach will decide if this is a good enough reason to do so.
Also in the event that an appointment letter hasn’t been received by the claimant the onus is on the DWP to prove that it’s been delivered.
Of course they can’t prove this, indeed I’ve helped in cases when the letters hadn’t been sent in the first place and I actually saw them still in a claimants paperwork.
It’s especially concerning that we are going through a cost of living and energy cost crisis. The prices of everything appear to be rising daily and many essentials are no longer affordable.
The cost of turning heating on is also impossible for many, and as we are heading towards what will be an extremely cold winter being sanctioned is unnecessarily cruel.
Despite the right wing media portraying the amount of Universal Credit is too much in reality payments are already barely enough to survive on.
It’s also vital to know that debts such as council tax debt repayments and suchlike are garnished from UC payments before they receive them. This leaves claimants with barely enough to buy the very basics needed.
As a result of this an ever increasing amount of people, working and not working are becoming dependent upon food banks. Food banks are also struggling to keep up with the increasing demand because of the cost of living crisis, leaving many that used to donate food unable to do so anymore.
Sanctioning already vulnerable people in the midst of a very serious cost of living crisis and a cold winter is beyond cruel.
Taking away a person’s very means of survival is totally unacceptable, with the ramifications of this lasting a long time, some never recover from it.
We need to start campaigning against sanctioning again because there’s never been a more important time to do so.
Wilko has today announced that they have entered into administration which has put 12,000 jobs at risk.
Sadly Wilko’s have found themselves unable to find emergency investment which could have saved 400 shops across the UK.
Sadly it’s likely to be the end for the business which has been trading since 1930.
In an interview conducted by BBC News the firm’s boss, Mark Jackson, has been quoted as saying ‘management had “left no stone unturned” in its attempts to save the company.
“But we must concede that with regret, we’ve no choice but to take the difficult decision to enter into administration,” he said.
What happens next?
If Wilkos fails to find another business to buy any of the shops or parts of the business out of administration they will become the biggest High Street casualty this year.
It’s expected that Administrators are to be appointed later on Thursday (today), however it will continue to trade as normal for now.
GMB union told BBC News that the collapse was “entirely avoidable”.
National officer Nadine Houghton said: “GMB has been told time and time again how warnings were made that Wilko was in a prime position to capitalise on the growing bargain retailer market, but simply failed to grasp this opportunity.”
Although the business has been struggling for some time, the depths of its problems emerged last week when it announced its intention to appoint administrators.
This gave Wilko 10 days to secure a rescue. However, it was unable to strike a deal within that timeframe.
Wilkos have had a significant level of interest which had included indicative offers that would have met all their financial criteria to recapitalise the business
But without the surety of being able to complete the deal within the necessary time frame and given the cash position, they’ve been left with no choice but to take this upsetting action.
Why is this happening?
Wilko has been struggling with sharp losses and a cash shortage for a long time now.
They had already borrowed £40m from Hilco which is a business restructuring specialist. The company had previously cut the amount of employees, had overhauled it’s leadership team and sold off a distribution centre which was vital to the running of the business.
Whilst most Wilko’s stores are in High Street locations this has proven to be very costly for them as many, not all customers have moved to shop at bigger retail parks and out-of-town locations.
The pandemic also changed the shopping habits of many combined with the cost of living crisis which is having a massive impact on high street shopping.
Sadly Wilko’s has also faced strong competition from rivals such as B&M and Home Bargains as shoppers are now seeking out bargains.
Sadly Wilko’s failed to adapt their business to the changing shopping habits of their customers which is one of the reasons why the business has entered into administration.
Richard Lim, chief executive at Retail Economics a retail consultancy commented saying that a combination of rising costs, lower customer demand and fierce competition is what ultimately pushed Wilko to “breaking point”.
“Against the backdrop of seismic shifts in consumer behaviour and the intense pressure on margins, the business was too slow to react to these mounting challenges and paid the ultimate price,” he said.
The company, founded in Leicester, is still owned by the same Wilkinson family..
When Woolworths ceased trading in 2008 they were quick to fill the gaps in the high street that were left.
Why am I writing about this in my blog?
Wilko’s has long been a staple of the high street, and is still used by many to buy essential household products. It’s accessible for those without cars and are usually easily accessed by public transport.
Retail parks are catered towards car drivers and aren’t easy for non car drivers to access.
Many of the 12,000 employees have worked there for many years and hold their work colleagues in great regard. It’s going to be an awful shock for them when they enter the world of unemployment and the cruel DWP system.
The DWP won’t have any sympathy for them and the stress that they put upon claimants is unbelievably cruel, forcing many to rely upon food banks to survive.
My thoughts and sympathies are with all Wilkos employees and their families, including their customers that relied upon the company for their shopping requirements.
It’s indeed a sad day for the high street, one that won’t be forgotten by many.
Wilko has today announced that they have entered into administration putting 12,000 jobs at risk.
Sadly Wilko’s have found themselves unable to find emergency investment which could have saved 400 shops across the UK.
It’s likely to be the end for the business which has been trading since 1930.
In an interview conducted by BBC News the firm’s boss, Mark Jackson, has been quoted as saying ‘management had “left no stone unturned” in its attempts to save the company.
“But we must concede that with regret, we’ve no choice but to take the difficult decision to enter into administration,” he said.
What happens next?
If Wilkos fails to find another business to buy any of the shops or parts of the business out of administration they will become the biggest High Street casualty this year.
It’s expected that Administrators are to be appointed later on Thursday (today), however it will continue to trade as normal for now.
GMB union told BBC News that the collapse was “entirely avoidable”.
National officer Nadine Houghton said: “GMB has been told time and time again how warnings were made that Wilko was in a prime position to capitalise on the growing bargain retailer market, but simply failed to grasp this opportunity.”
Although the business has been struggling for some time, the depths of its problems emerged last week when it announced its intention to appoint administrators.
This gave Wilko 10 days to secure a rescue. However, it was unable to strike a deal within that timeframe.
Wilkos have had a significant level of interest which had included indicative offers that would have met all their financial criteria to recapitalise the business
But without the surety of being able to complete the deal within the necessary time frame and given the cash position, they’ve been left with no choice but to take this upsetting action.
Why is this happening?
Wilko has been struggling with sharp losses and a cash shortage for a long time now.
They had already borrowed £40m from Hilco which is a business restructuring specialist. The company had previously cut the amount of employees, had overhauled it’s leadership team and sold off a distribution centre which was vital to the running of the business.
Whilst most Wilko’s stores are in High Street locations this has proven to be very costly for them as many, not all customers have moved to shop at bigger retail parks and out-of-town locations.
The pandemic also changed the shopping habits of many combined with the cost of living crisis which is having a massive impact on high street shopping.
Wilko’s has also faced strong competition from rivals such as B&M and Home Bargains as shoppers are now seeking out bargains.
Regrettably Wilko’s failed to adapt their business to the changing shopping habits of their customers which is one of the reasons why the business has entered into administration.
Richard Lim, chief executive at Retail Economics a retail consultancy commented saying that a combination of rising costs, lower customer demand and fierce competition is what ultimately pushed Wilko to “breaking point”.
“Against the backdrop of seismic shifts in consumer behaviour and the intense pressure on margins, the business was too slow to react to these mounting challenges and paid the ultimate price,” he said.
The company, founded in Leicester, is still owned by the same Wilkinson family..
When Woolworths ceased trading in 2008 they were quick to fill the gaps in the high street that were left.
Why am I writing about this in my blog?
Wilko’s has long been a staple of the high street, and is still used by many to buy essential household products. It’s accessible for those without cars and are usually easily accessed by public transport.
Retail parks are catered towards car drivers and aren’t easy for non car drivers to access.
Many of the 12,000 employees have worked there for many years and hold their work colleagues in great regard. It’s going to be an awful shock for them when they enter the world of unemployment and the cruel DWP system.
The DWP won’t have any sympathy for them and the stress that they put upon claimants is unbelievably cruel, forcing many to rely upon food banks to survive.
My thoughts and sympathies are with all Wilkos employees and their families, including their customers that relied upon the company for their shopping requirements.
It’s indeed a sad day for the high street, one that won’t be forgotten by many.
I’m writing this in anger that I haven’t felt for a long time. I try to keep calm and be proactive but this has got to be one, yes only one of the worst things that I’ve read recently.
Sadly this didn’t come as a surprise, it’s a big slap in the face for the general public and proves the point that we don’t have a government in charge of the country. Instead we have a cartel allowed to do whatever they want without any repercussions.
The public should, quite rightly be angry about this. Hunger is a great distraction though and those that are have to prioritise finding food to feed themselves and their families.
It’s an obscene that British Gas profits have soared by a staggering 889% to a record £969m. At the same time Centrica, its parent company, has also revealed a £6.5 billion profit in the first six months of 2023.
It’s hard to imagine having that amount of money isn’t it and I ask the question ‘How can any organisation like British Gas be allowed to profit like this?’
The government should be asking them to cut their prices instead it gets worse British Gas have reported its highest ever first-half profits of almost £1bn.
The energy regulator Ofgem is worse than useless though and clearly isn’t’tn’t on the side of the public. It blatantly sat back and allowed British Gas and Centrica to recoup costs from household bills, keeping in mind that they are already struggling.
British Gas and Centrica aren’t even trying to hide this though, this year’s earnings for the six months to June 30 have increased dramatically compared with operating losses of £1.1 billion a year earlier.
Meanwhile their operating profits increased by £2.1 billion from £1.3 billion a year ago whilst the general public will have no choice but to struggle.
It’s criminal and should be dealt with accordingly.
According to new DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) plans existing PIP (Personal Independence Payments) claimants may lose their right to be in the support group.
Under these new plans they could also lose their LCWRA ( Limited capability for work and work related activity) status and be transferred to the universal credit health element.
Once there they may be required to carry out work-related activities, as early as 2026.
The government also announced plans in March to axe the work capability assessment (WCA).
Under the new proposed plans, claimants who get any element of PIP and who claim UC will automatically be eligible for an additional health element.
Sounds good doesn’t it…..
Shockingly at the time of writing the new system won’t automatically recognize any claimant as being unable to carry out any work-related activities.
Claimants might find themselves forced to undergo voluntary and mandatory work-related requirements by an appointed work coach.
Once there they could be subject to benefit sanctions if they don’t meet the mandatory requirements as set by their work coach.
At the time of the new plans announcement the government made a statement that current claimants would not begin being transferred to the new system until 2029 at the earliest.
Apparently only new claimants were said to be affected initially, with the system being rolled out by geographical area between 2026 and 2029.
Despite this announcement evidence given to the commons work and pensions committee by the DWP contradicted the above claim.
Conservative MP Nigel Mills asked: “What happens if I get a called for a new PIP assessment every couple of years and I get one of those in 2027? Does that drop me into the new rules or do I stay under the old ones?”
A senior DWP official responded:
“With the way we will roll this out, we start from 2026 with new claims only, but we will do it in a geographical, staged way. It would depend which area you were in in 2027. Yes, some people might come in under the new rules, and that means they would automatically get your UC health payment and would automatically get the support.”
As an ever increasing proportion of England and Wales will be moved to the UC health element beginning in 2026.
This suggests that thousands of existing PIP claimants when subjected to a review of their award will find themselves being forced onto the UC health element earlier than 2029.
So once again the DWP are lying.
However this does give us time to start campaigning against the new proposals but this needs to start now.
We need to prevent the DWPs plans to subject existing claimants to the attention of work coaches with targets to meet even though they deny this.
The government and their hench people will never stop persecuting disabled and poor people for their very existence.
Many have the view that they deserve to be persecuted like this. They’ll never change their opinions but we can fight them all the way.
Fitch Ratings a top credit ratings agency has warned the government that mortgaged homeowners in the UKare now more at risk of falling into arrears than in any other major developed country.
They also warn that the share of mortgaged homeowners missing more than three months of mortgage payments is most likely to double in 2023 to 1.5% as a result of high rates being charged to borrowers.
These figures are based upon the current number of residential mortgages in the UK which adds to approximately 135,000 households facing mortgage repayment arrears.
Research conducted by Fitch reveals Thar banks in the UK are more exposed to the housing market than in any of the 10 developed markets ranked by Fitch which include Canada, the USA, Germany, Australia and Italy.
A statement issued by Monsur Hussain at Fitch reveals “The UK scores the worst in terms of borrower risks.”
Fitch have also forecasted that the Bank of England will most likely raise the Bank Rate to a peak of 4.75%, up from 4% currently by May this year.
Jessica Hinds, director of economics at Fitch, said: “We have seen much bigger increases in mortgage rates, the Bank of England started tightening much earlier, and we have shorter mortgage terms than in other countries.”
Rather shockingly British borrowers fix for short periods of time either two or five years, buyers in the US commonly fix for around 25 years.
Mr Hussain from Fitch went on to say that in the year to November 2022 the average mortgage rates in the UK jumped by 4.5 percentage points compared to 3.5 points in the US.
As a result of this the UK’s housing market has come under immense pressure after mortgage rates increased dramatically when Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget was revealed inciting chaos in financial markets.
Even though rates have since started to fall concerns about the cost of living crisis and ever increasing energy bills have deeply impacted employment stability and less money available to pay mortgage and everyday household costs.
This has already had a massive effect upon mortgage repayments and is undoubtedly resulting in many being forced to sell their homes with many being repossessed and then becoming homeless.
Although this might not be seen as an important issue for some it is indeed a massive problem for not only people becoming homeless but for local authorities that are already massively underfunded being forced to bear the burden of this.
I can’t see this getting better and a housing recession could well be on the cards in the near future.
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I’d like to say I was surprised upon hearing about a new sanction trap for Universal Credit (UC)) claimants but I’m not, afterall it’s not exactly the first time they’ve done this to unsuspecting claimants.
This time it’s been disguised as supposed help to move claimants into work.
The new scheme which has surprisingly been condemned by members of the DWP staff union PCS despite jobcentre workers are being offered a £250 ‘incentive’ to implement it.
The newly named Additional Jobcentre Support scheme requires UC claimants being forced by the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) to attend their allocated Jobcentre 10 times over a two week period.
Claimants that are unable to attend or failing to participate in one session will highly likely to lead to a sanction.
Undeterred however by the cruelty of this new scheme the DWP are being ‘trialed’ at 60 jobcentres across England and Scotland.
As already proven by myself and many other like-minded campaigners these so called trials are usually the start of a national roll out regardless if they’re successful or not.
To add incentive to roll out this terrible scheme the DWP are offering a £250 bonus in the form of a voucher “to recognise and reward jobcentre teams who furthest exceed their aspirational targets.”
These vouchers will be given to each member of staff in the best performing jobcentres.
No explanation has so far been given as to what the alleged “aspirational targets” consist of and if this involves taking people off benefitif claimants have failed to comply for whatever reason. Nor has the DWP commented if it involves sanctioning claimants or forcing claimants into unsuitable and insecure work.
The PCS union, which represents DWP staff commented saying that they have no doubt that the main purpose of the scheme is to make life harder for claimants, saying:
“Our members will see through this pilot for what it is – a government hellbent on making it more difficult for people to claim benefits and which will increase the risk of poverty for those customers who fall foul of this pilot. Asking more customers to travel more often into jobcentres does nothing to help our staff or their workloads and does nothing to help the customers find the work that they need.”
However as I have already stated this isn’t the first time that the DWP have issued financial targets to incentivise cruelty.
Previous examples of this are ‘Sandras Stars’ which consisted of a Jobcentre manager giving DWP employees a star on a leaderboard for every employee that ‘offloaded’ sanctioned a claimant.
And who could also forget this example back in 2015. Of course they denied that this happened but the truth was all too obvious.
If there’s one thing that the government likes doing the most is implementing cruelty to the poorest and most vulnerable the very people.
The government and their henchpeople the DWP target social security claimants the most because they’re less likely to fightback and demand they’re treated fairly.
Most are worn down with the constant compliance requests that they’re hounded with.
They know that people claiming any form of social security are already paying the highest price for the cost of living and energy bills prices.
Many are primarily focused upon trying to get by from day to day and are less likely to know their legal rights and how to appeal DWP decisions.
Let’s hope that the PCS DWP staff members rebel against the mandate given to them from the government and their managers. If they do they deserve our support.
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The charity the Dogs Trust has reported a huge rise in the number of people trying to rehome their pets.
The RSPCA have also seen that animal shelters and rehoming organisations have also seen a massive rise in animal rehoming saying that they are ‘drowning’ in animals as the cost of living and energy crisis continues to hit hard.
According to figures given by the Dogs Trust the number of pet owners attempting to rehome their dogs had risen hugely last year and continues to do so. Many shelters are now experiencing long waiting lists. Also seen is an increase in setting up pet food banks to help prevent people from having to re-home their pets.
Between 1 January 2022 and 31 October 2022 the Dogs Trust received 42,000 inquiries from dog owners about rehoming which is a rise of almost 50% on the same period in 2021. Sadly these figures show no sign of decreasing.
Amanda Sands, centre manager at Dogs Trust Leeds, said she had never seen such high demand in three decades of working at the shelter.
There’s people bringing in their dogs that at one time would’ve said: ‘I will never give my dog up.’ And they meant it,” she said. “And now they’re faced with the situation where they have no choice. To have to say goodbye to your friend, it’s unbearable. It’s unthinkable.”
The Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH), in conjunction with ITV’s Tonight programme, surveyed more than 60 animal shelters across the country about how they were responding to the cost of living crisis.
The figures showed 92% of shelters were seeing more people wanting to hand over a dog compared with pre-pandemic levels, and 88% were seeing more people wanting to hand over cats.
More than half were planning on opening pet food banks to respond to the crisis, and 30% were thinking about providing low-cost or free veterinary care.
Sadly these numbers are increasing as people can no longer afford to buy food for their pets. They are also finding it near impossible to pay for any vet bills that may occur.
The RSPCA also reported in 2022 a 24% increase in pets being rehomed as shelters report that they can’t keep up with rehoming requests.
Also back in 2022 75 families were using a food bank at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital in Grimsby every week.
Mark had been using the food bank for several months to help pay for specialist dog food for his staffordshire bull terrier Roxy. This has helped him save £60 a month on food. “She’s part of the family. We’d sooner go without ourselves then give Roxy up,” he told the Tonight programme.
Meanwhile a YouGov and Dogs Trust poll that was made in conjunction with the Tonight programme found that 48% of dog owners were saying they now are now finding it more difficult to provide their pets everything that they need because of the cost of living crisis.
Understandably vet bills topped the list of concerns which was followed by the rising cost of dog food and pet insurance costs.
Roll forward to 2023 I can only imagine that these figures are rising. It’s difficult to find a foodbank that provides dog and cat food although there are some that do.
No one wants to rehome their pets, it’s a decision that is usually made when they’ve exhausted all other means of providing the essentials for their pets.
As the cost of living and energy cost crisis continues there’s no doubt that the most vulnerable will undoubtedly pay the highest price.
The poor side of life 