George Osborne clears path for tax cuts in Budget with £1bn benefits raid

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More than 600,000 disabled people will lose a portion of their benefits payments in a move that will save £1.2billion by 2020.



Benefits payments to the disabled are to be cut by more than £1billion in a move that could clear the way for George Osborne to cut taxes for the middle classes in the Budget.

Ministers on Friday announced that more than 600,000 disabled people will lose a portion of their benefits payments, in a move that will save £1.2billion by 2020.

It gives the Chancellor extra money, which insiders believe he could use to cut taxes in his Budget next week.

The decision to slash disability welfare payments by as much as £140 a week will be controversial, with campaigners last night warning that the cuts will be "devastating".

The disability benefit, known as the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), is one of the most expensive elements of the welfare Budget.

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, Britain's financial watchdog, Personal Independence Payments were forecast to cost £15.4billion in 2015-16.

It said that spending on the benefit is £1billion-a-year higher than had previously been forecast because more people made successful claims than expected.

Critics have previously warned that successive Governments have failed to reform disability welfare payments because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Tony Blair in 1997 faced protests outside Downing Street over plans to reform welfare payments to the disabled.

The current Conservative Government faced a series of demonstrations over plans to cut a fund which pays for carers to help disabled people in their homes.

In June last year a group of protesters attempted to storm the Chamber in the House of Commons.

Under the plans announced on Friday, people will be less likely to receive disabled benefits if they use aids such as a handrail or a walking stick to get dressed or use the toilet.

Currently, the rules require disabled people to have a certain number of "points" to determine how much money they can claim.

People need eight points to be paid the standard rate of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) or 12 points to get the "enhanced" PIP.

The chance announced yesterday means that from next year, people will only earn one point - instead of two - if they need aid to help them to use the toilet or get dressed.

It means that around 640,000 will see their benefits cut, the Government said.

Labour described the changes as a "huge blow" and said the Conservatives are "ignoring the views of disabled people, carers and experts in the field".

Liz Sayce, chief executive of Disability Rights UK, added: "This change is another unwelcome blow to disabled people's independence, and will impact on people's ability to work, enjoy family life and take part in the communities they live in."

I heard of a woman with multiple sclerosis who had her payment for personal aids cut on the grounds that she was unable to use her hands any more!

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Words fail me.

A society is known for how it treats its sick and disabled. - What does this say about the UK today?

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[Melisandre]

Awaiting the gas chambers next.

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Consultation ignored

The DWP launched a consultation in January 2015 to look at changing the rules relating to the way that aids and appliances are taken into account when assessing a claimant for PIP.

The response to the consultation was overwhelmingly opposed to any changes. Of 281 written responses received, just 11 thought that any alterations should be made to the PIP criteria.

As is now traditional with DWP consultations, these views were entirely discounted when a decision was made. Instead, the DWP did what it had been intending to do from the outset.

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Iain Duncan Smith quits over planned disability benefit changes



Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has resigned over "indefensible" changes to disability benefits.

It comes amid mounting controversy over £4bn of planned cuts to Personal Independence Payments, expected to affect 640,000 people.

Mr Duncan Smith said the cuts were "not defensible" within a Budget that "benefits higher earning taxpayers".

Earlier, a government source indicated the changes were going to be "kicked into the long grass".

The planned changes apply to the formula the government uses to calculate the daily living component of PIP, which will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and come into effect in January 2017.

Mr Duncan Smith, who was the Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003, said they were a "compromise too far".

"I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self-imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest," he said in his resignation letter.

"Too often my team and I have been pressured in the immediate run up to a budget or fiscal event to deliver yet more reductions to the working-age benefit bill.

"There has been too much emphasis on money-saving exercises and not enough awareness from the Treasury, in particular, that the government's vision of a new welfare-to-work system could not be repeatedly salami-sliced.

"It is therefore with enormous regret that I have decided to resign."

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said: "A senior government official has said there is surprise at Duncan Smith's decision because this policy was worked up by the Treasury and the Department of Work and Pensions.

"It was being defended this morning, and through today there was a decision to move away from it after discussion in government. One source suggested Iain Duncan Smith's involvement in the campaign to leave the EU may have been a factor in his decision."

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Did he jump or was he pushed? Has this anything to do with him standing with the OUT campaign?

And I believe Gidiot is having to rewrite his budget.

Possibly a smokescreen, there are some rather worrying stories emerging about a massive black-hole in earlier predictions that will require more austerity than we've seen to date, or unpopular tax rises. - But time will tell.

[dutchman]

Earlier today IDS was defending Osborne's cuts by claiming that PIP awards had trebled over the last twelve months!

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Iain Duncan Smith quit due to Treasury refusal to consider pensioner cuts

Iain Duncan Smith resigned from the cabinet because he was frustrated that Downing Street and the Treasury refused to consider controversial cuts to universal pensioner benefits, it has been claimed.

Friends of the former work and pensions secretary said he was fed up of being asked “again and again” for cuts to working age benefits and those for disabled people, while the money spent on older voters remained untouched.

Philippa Stroud, who co-founded the Centre for Social Justice with Duncan Smith and worked by his side implementing welfare reforms in government, said the minister felt the time had come to consider cutting pensioner benefits. She said his resignation should be seen as a “clarion call” to ministers to rebalance their cuts.

“It was not appropriate to be giving away tax incentives to the middle classes, freezing fuel duty and protecting universal benefits and pensioner benefits at the time that you were making cuts to disability benefits,” Lady Stroud told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. She said Duncan Smith had come into government to “deliver a social agenda ... to protect the poorest”.

He wanted to protect pensioners, she said, but the degree to which they were being supported at the expense of the poorest workers and disabled people had become too extreme.

She also argued the cuts were still going to fall on the DWP, despite yesterday’s backing down on the policy. “The way the Treasury score these savings is that £1.3bn is still sitting on balance sheet. They would be coming back for more.”

[rebbonk]

Earlier today IDS was defending Osborne's cuts by claiming that PIP awards had trebled over the last twelve months!

Adding to the confusion...