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Thursday 17 February 2011

Welfare Reform Bill introduced to Parliament

The Welfare Reform Bill was introduced to Parliament on Wednesday 16th February 2011. This Bill will legislate for the biggest change to the welfare system for over 60 years.

The wide range of reforms being introduced are intended to make the benefits and tax credits system easier and fairer by creating incentives to get more people into work, protecting the most vulnerable in our society and delivering fairness to those claiming benefit and the taxc payer.

The main elements of the Bill are:

  • the introduction of Universal Credit to provide a single streamlined benefit that will ensure work always pays
  • a stronger approach to reducing fraud and error with tougher penalties for the most serious offences
  • a new claimant commitment showing clearly what is expected of claimants while giving protection to those with the greatest needs
  • reforms to Disability Living Allowance, through the introduction of the Personal Independence Payment to meet the needs of disabled people today
  • creating a fairer approach to Housing Benefit to bring stability to the market and improve incentives to work
  • driving out abuse of the Social Fund system by giving greater power to local authorities
  • reforming Employment and Support Allowance to make the benefit fairer and to ensure that help goes to those with the greatest need
  • changes to support a new system of child support which puts the interest of the child first.

More details about the Bill and supporting information can be found at the DWP website and you can track its progress through Parliament on the Parliament website.

A number of organisations have raised concerns about the impact of this Bill and there have been many campaigns to raise awareness of the possible impact on people’s lives. We recently featured the one month before heartbreak blog which is highlighting the concerns being felt about the changes to the Disability Living Allowance.

Community Care have analysed the Bill and found that of £3.9bn of cuts earmarked through the bill for 2014-15, £2.5bn will come in cuts to disability living allowance and employment and support allowance, the replacement payment for incapacity benefit.

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