Category: Welfare Reform

By Posted on Posted in Welfare Reform Tagged with ,

Back in October 2014, the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) ran a consultation on the government’s proposal that Universal Credit claimants must wait seven days before they are entitled to benefit. NAWRA surveyed its members and 183 organisations from across the country provided evidence. Daphne Hall (Lasa) collated all of our evidence and submitted a response to SSAC. In our our submission we stressed in the strongest possible terms our complete opposition to this proposal. What came over time and …

UC waiting days Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Campaigns, PIP, Welfare Reform Tagged with ,

Patrick Hill writes: “Since the introduction of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), there have been increasing reports from advisors across the UK that the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) has not been added to income based benefits such as: Employment Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support.  Nor have there been claims made to those income based benefits that might become payable due to entitlement to SDP.   When Universal Credit (UC) begins to take a firmer hold, and includes people with disabilities, an additional amount recognising a …

SDP – get it while you can! Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Welfare Reform Tagged with ,

Neil Bateman writes: Many thanks to everyone who supplied examples of poor practice around MRs by DWP staff.  They were very effective.  Please continue to send me examples of bad practice in the light of the following: The DWP accept that there have been widespread problems and have now issued Gatekeeper Memo 03.15.38 in an attempt to tackle the problems.  The main text of this is set out below.   I hope this helps people to challenge poor practice, but better still. I …

Mandatory reconsideration Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Campaigns, Welfare Reform Tagged with ,

NAWRA has submitted a response to the Social Security Advisory Committee consultation concerning the government’s intention that ‘surplus earnings’ from the previous six months should be taken into account when a person reclaims universal credit (UC). The proposal suggests that any ‘surplus earnings’ – defined as earnings more than just £100 (less than £25 per week) over the ‘nil UC threshold’ – will be used to reduce future UC payments if the claimant returns to UC within six months. NAWRA …

Universal Credit – past earning consultation Read more »

By Posted on Posted in PIP, Welfare Reform

The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) are writing to David Cameron and Nick Clegg to raise their concerns at changes to PIP, particularly the introduction of the 20 metre qualifying distance for the enhanced rate of the benefit. They, and NAWRA, believe this could cause large numbers of people to miss out on fundamental support. The DBC news story can be found here and you can sign the letter via this link