Bedroom tax or spare room subsidy? Social Security and welfare

Arguments in favour of universal benefits

Why Britain will suffer if the welfare state pays out only to poor people | Neal Lawson:

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Universal credit in danger of failing, official Whitehall review says

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/24/universal-credit-danger-failing-whitehall-review

Implementing Universal Credit: will the reforms improve the service for users? | Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Implementing Universal Credit: will the reforms improve the service for users? | Joseph Rowntree Foundation:

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BBC News - RPI inflation changes 'may hit pensioners'

BBC News - RPI inflation changes 'may hit pensioners':

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BBC News - Planned 1% benefits rises cap backed by MPs

BBC News - Planned 1% benefits rises cap backed by MPs:

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NHS targets 'may have led to 1,200 deaths' in Mid-Staffordshire - Telegraph

NHS targets 'may have led to 1,200 deaths' in Mid-Staffordshire - Telegraph:

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Universal Credit: Q&A

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11735673

April 2013: NHS reforms: From today the Coalition has put the NHS up for grabs - Telegraph

NHS reforms: From today the Coalition has put the NHS up for grabs - Telegraph: "What was now clear was that the regulations effectively forced CCGs to put all services out to tender to the private sector and forbade them to favour the NHS as the provider.
After a public outcry and criticism from the House of Lords at the way the Government had slipped in the Section 75 regulations at the eleventh hour, Hunt had them hastily rewritten. But most experts agree that there was no meaningful change. GPs are allowed to keep some services within the NHS, but only in particular circumstances, such as when no private sector provider comes forward to bid. Everything else is up for grabs. It will take time for this change to slowly spread throughout our healthcare system, but it will."

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How has the coalition reformed welfare?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s02xg

Good stuff in this on welfare reform and benefits and the Thatcher legacy

Welfare reform - excellent podcast. Jones vs Young

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/04/the-view-from-22-north-korea-and-asias-arms-race-and-owen-jones-vs-toby-young/

Listen from 13 mins 20 seconds for a debate that sums up many different points of view on the current issue of welfare reform. Very useful for edexcel unit 3.

To what extent has Cameron been ideologically inconsistent on welfare etc?

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/26933

Gove U-Turn on EBC Feb 2013 round up

summary: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21363396

expert opinion: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19561148

explanation and looking ahead: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21365373

Mid term review Jan 2013 Coalition and Welfare

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20969484

JOBS AND WELFARE

Original coalition agreement pledges:

• Introduce payment-by-results in welfare-to-work
• Make benefits conditional on "willingness to work"
• Re-assess incapacity benefit claims
• Support unemployed people keen to start new businesses
• Simplify the benefits system

What coalition says it's achieved:

• Reforms will save £19bn per year by 2014-15
• Benefits cap to apply from 2013
• Universal Credit to simplify benefits system "radically"
• Number of people on incapacity benefits cut by 145,000

Where it accepts it has missed targets:

• Jobseeker's Allowance claimants "facing the most significant barriers to work" were to have been put onto the new welfare to work programme "immediately"; this commitment is now to refer them within three months. Similarly, the target for jobseekers under 25 has shifted from six months to nine

Labour's verdict on coalition so far:

• Benefits reforms hitting working people not "scroungers"
• Welfare-to-work programme less effective "than doing nothing"
• Welfare bill £13bn higher than planned
• Universal Credit late and over-budget
• Number of long-term unemployed young people doubled
• "Genuinely ill" people suffering from changes to incapacity benefits

Coalition's mid-term 'to do' list:

• Push forward with Universal Credit and the Youth Contract
• Introduce the Personal Independence Payment for disabled people
• Provide start-up loans and business mentors to unemployed people
• "Protect key benefits for older people"

BBC business correspondent Jonty Bloom says: Unemployment rose after the coalition came to power but has been falling back recently, and is now at about the same level as at the election. This is quite a surprise with economic growth so slow unemployment would normally have risen much faster. No one is quite sure why it hasn't shot up but despite the government shedding hundreds of thousands of staff in the public sector the private sector has continued to create work.

Mid term review Jan 2013 Coalition and Pensions/Elderly

from  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20969488

PENSIONS AND OLDER PEOPLE

Original coalition agreement pledges:

• State pension to rise each year by the highest of earnings, prices and 2.5%
• Phase out default retirement age and raise state pension
• Compensate Equitable Life policy holders
• Protect winter fuel allowances, free TV licences, free bus travel, and free eye tests and prescriptions for older people

What coalition says it's achieved:

• "Triple lock" plan on state pension now in place
• State pension age to increase to 66 by 2020 and 68 by 2028
• Age-related universal benefits protected
• Default retirement age abolished
• Payments to Equitable Life policy holders have begun

Labour's verdict on coalition so far:

• Winter fuel allowances being cut
• Pensioners will lose out after tax changes

Coalition's mid-term 'to do' list:

• Expand automatic enrolment in workplace pensions
• Reform public sector pensions
• Carry through planned changes to state pension age
• Continue to protect age-related universal benefits
• Increase incentives for pension savings

BBC political reporter Justin Parkinson says: The coalition says its changes to the system, including raising the retirement age for men and women, are aimed at making the pensions system "sustainable". The "triple lock" guarantee for increases in payments gets top billing in this section of the audit. The protection of benefits like the winter fuel allowance is vaunted. But there are increasing signs that the universal element of age-related benefits will be targeted after the next election.

Iain Duncan Smith: universally challenged | Comment is free | The Guardian

Iain Duncan Smith: universally challenged | Comment is free | The Guardian:

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Housing benefit

Factcheck: How many families are claiming £100,000 per year in housing benefit? | Full Fact

Strivers vs skivers. A false dichotomy?

Skivers v strivers: the argument that pollutes people's minds http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/09/skivers-v-strivers-argument-pollutes

Is the welfare state dead?

The Welfare State, 1942-2013, obituary | Aditya Chakrabortty

Benefits 1% cut unfair says Labour

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20942887