Tag Archives: benefits

Clegg threat to block any further welfare cuts unless Cameron agrees to tax wealthy pensioners’ benefits

By Stephen Tall | Thu 25th April 2013 - 8:35 pm

It’s 18 months since Nick Clegg first publicly aired the idea that some universal benefits given to better-off pensioners should be means-tested — an idea that’s found favour with two-thirds of Lib Dem members.

There have always been three problems with the idea.

The first problem is that means-testing is bureaucratic and potentially expensive. However, there is an easy way around that: treat their cash value as income, and tax this income at the appropriate marginal rate, as proposed by CentreForum last year. Pensioners with annual incomes below the personal tax threshold would be wholly unaffected; those …

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Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron, nick clegg and pensioners | 44 Comments

Welfare reform: what should the Lib Dems do?

By Stephen Tall | Mon 8th April 2013 - 11:00 am

This much I think I know… Cuts to the overall welfare budget are inescapable: it accounts for too large a chunk of of public spending for it to be immune — certainly if the NHS, schools and overseas aid budgets are to be protected at the same time as spending is reduced.

These cuts would be happening whichever party was in power, though doubtless the precise methods would differ. The IFS’s verdict in 2010 on what they termed Labour’s “fiscal drift” was stark: “By the eve of the financial crisis … the UK one of the largest structural …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged nick clegg, norman lamb, paul burstow, steve webb, universal benefits and welfare | 25 Comments

The Liberal Democrat perspective on welfare reform that needs to be heard

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 3rd April 2013 - 1:30 pm

On Monday, I wrote about the good things Liberal Democrats are doing in Government and also expressed concern that nobody was out there giving the Liberal Democrat perspective in a way that would resonate with and encourage members and activists. I know that some of them felt a bit exposed. They were out there on a day when we were under media pressure, and nobody was giving them any air cover. It’s a balance, of course. There have been times when we’ve complained that our ministers are out there defending things we feel uncomfortable with. These things can be …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged media, tax and welfare reform | 33 Comments

Benefits, back-to-work and the unemployed: what Lib Dem members think

By Stephen Tall | Sun 31st March 2013 - 2:15 pm

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

70% say: withdraw unemployment benefits IF job offers refused without ‘good reason’

In principle, do you support or oppose withdrawing benefits from unemployed people who refuse offers of work without good reason?

70%

21% – Oppose

9% – Don’t know

The overwhelming view — held by 7-in-10 of those Lib Dems who responded — was that in principle withdrawing benefits …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged unemployment and workfare | 24 Comments

Benefits Uprating Bill: Andrew George and Charles Kennedy’s arguments AGAINST

By Stephen Tall | Tue 22nd January 2013 - 10:40 am

The Government last night won the vote for its Benefits Uprating Bill, with the third and final reading passed by 305 votes to 246. A fortnight ago, six Lib Dem MPs voted against or abstained from the Coalition line that benefits rises should be capped at the same rate as public sector pay (a below inflation 1% pa) for each of the next three years.

Andrew George, Charles Kennedy and other Lib Dems sought to move an amendment to the Bill, linking future welfare increases to the rise in average earnings. However, time expired before it was put …

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Posted in Parliament | Also tagged andrew george, benefits uprating bill and charles kennedy | 1 Comment

LibLink… Nick Clegg: Labour need to tell us what they would cut

By The Voice | Wed 2nd January 2013 - 2:41 pm

Nick Clegg has issued a challenge to Labour in today’s Times. Rather than, he says, oppose every single cut the Coalition has made, Labour should be saying what they would cut to pay for their policy priorities. If Labour want benefits to rise at the rate of inflation, then they need to spell out exactly how they would pay for it.

Firstly, he talks about what the Coalition has achieved for economic growth, and how it has been pragmatic on cutting the deficit, changing its plans as the global economic circumstances changed:

Here in the UK we have now paid off around

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged economy, labour, nick clegg and the times | 90 Comments

Teather: “Benefit cap is immoral and divisive”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th November 2012 - 11:20 am

Lib Dem MP for Brent Central Sarah Teather makes the front page of The Observer today for a powerful interview slamming the Government’s plans to bring in a benefit cap. I’m quoting extensively from it, below, but it’s well worth reading the whole piece here.

This is clearly an issue that touches Sarah deeply, not least because of the number of her constituents she knows will be deeply affected by the changes. What impresses me most, though, is the way she acknowledges the way the arguments are being …

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Posted in News | Also tagged featured, nick clegg and sarah teather | 76 Comments

There should be far more rebellions like the one yesterday

By Mark Pack | Tue 23rd October 2012 - 1:25 pm

A brief footnote to Stephen’s piece yesterday Government suffers defeat in Lords over ‘new poll tax’ changes to council tax benefits. Note what the rebellion was over:

An independent review of the changes to be carried out within three years of them being introduced.

Yup, that shocking idea that after a new policy is introduced, we should leave it a little while and then someone should go and take a look how

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged council tax, featured and stephen tall | 13 Comments

Government suffers defeat in Lords over ‘new poll tax’ changes to council tax benefits

By Stephen Tall | Mon 22nd October 2012 - 7:25 pm

The Government has suffered a defeat today on changes to the system of paying council tax benefit. As part of the Coalition’s existing welfare cuts, council tax relief is being reduced and local authorities are being given the power to set their own eligibility criteria from April 2013. As the Financial Times reported last week:

The coalition has earmarked £100m for councils that promise to limit the sums poorer people must pay to around 8.5 per cent of the full council tax rate – less than half what some local authorities are considering. … Lord Best, president of the Local Government Association, will on Tuesday propose an amendment

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Posted in News | Also tagged council tax, lord richard best and tony greaves | 8 Comments

What Lib Dem members think about means-testing pensioner benefits & a freeze on benefits payments

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th October 2012 - 7:55 am

Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum before conference to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. More than 550 party members have responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Two-thirds back means-testing of some wealthy pensioner benefits

LDV asked: Nick Clegg has suggested introducing means-testing so that better-off pensioners would no longer be entitled to receive benefits such as winter fuel payments, free bus passes and television licences. Supporters argue that at a time of financial austerity such benefits for the wealthiest paid by general taxation are unfair. Opponents …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged pensioners | 13 Comments

Liberal Democrats to veto plan for benefits freeze

By Mark Pack | Sat 22nd September 2012 - 8:20 am

From The Independent:

Nick Clegg will veto George Osborne’s demands for a two-year freeze in most state benefits from next April and a further £10bn of welfare cuts…

The Deputy Prime Minister revealed he will block the Treasury’s demand for more cuts before the 2015 election to compensate for lower-than-expected growth. “Not a penny more, not a penny less,” he declared.

The message is reinforced Danny Alexander in The Guardian:

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Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander, featured, nick clegg and vince cable | 7 Comments

Nick Clegg says no to Tory plans for more welfare cuts

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 31st July 2012 - 10:58 am

Newspapers have been reporting for months that the Liberal Democrats were not prepared to sign up to Tory plans for £10 billion of welfare cuts in a spending review that would draw up plans for spending into the next Parliament. Today’s Independent says that Nick Clegg himself will ensure that this Government only produces spending plans for 2015-16. The electorate will then decide in the 2015 election whether they want to pursue further cuts in welfare or a heavier burden of tax on the wealthy.

The report says;

The Liberal Democrats’ opposition means the review will have to be watered down. Before the

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged 2015 general election, cuts, deficit reduction, economy, nick clegg and welfare | 10 Comments

The weekend debate: should benefits for pensioners be restricted?

By Mark Pack | Sat 9th June 2012 - 9:25 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

Nick Clegg and Iain Duncan Smith have both been arguing within the government for rich pensioners to have their benefits cut:

Nick Clegg is backing calls for cuts in pension benefits such as winter fuel payments and free bus passes. David Cameron is said to be adamant that the Tories should keep to a pledge made before the general election that the payments remain. But Clegg is understood to have told colleagues he wants the winter payments and free TV licences cut

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged iain duncan smith, nick clegg and weekend debate | 44 Comments

‘Workfare’: the depressingly sterile ‘left/right’ debate is a challenge to liberals to sharpen our thinking

By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th February 2012 - 8:50 am

Deborah Orr has a must-read article in the Guardian highlighting the inverted absurdity of this week’s row about the Coalition’s workfare programme, The slanging match over workfare is getting us nowhere.

She points out that the very essence of workfare is government intervention in the workings of the free market, the state urging private companies to offer work experience placements to the unemployed:

For the right, such hapless, inefficient intervention by the state is anathema. When the private sector is left to make its own arrangements, neo-liberals never tire of pointing out, it functions better, to the advantage of all.

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged deborah orr, featured, unemployment and workfare | 24 Comments

EXCLUSIVE: Majority of Lib Dem members back Coalition’s benefits cap

By Stephen Tall | Wed 8th February 2012 - 1:20 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

59% of Lib Dem members back benefits cap at £26,000 or lower

LDV asked: Under the Coalition government’s proposal the cap on benefits will apply to the total sum of all benefits a household receives, including income support, jobseekers allowance, child benefit and housing benefit. The government is setting the maximum at £26,000, the average earnings of a British family after tax. What do …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged house of lords and paddy ashdown | 20 Comments

Opinion: What price democracy in the Lib Dems?

By Linda Jack | Thu 2nd February 2012 - 6:02 pm

Over the past 21 months I have had many moments when I have felt close to despair about the behaviour of our parliamentarians. Sometimes, like voting in favour of tuition fees, they can rightly point to the Coalition Agreement – endorsed overwhelmingly – as Nick Clegg observed at the time – by a North Korean like Special Conference. Other times, like voting against party policy on Legal Aid and Welfare Reform – there is no such defence. Last night calls into question the fundamental values and principles of our party, not just in terms of flying in the face of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged federal policy committee, gareth epps, Joan Walmsley, legal aid, meral ece, Ming Campbell, paddy ashdown and welfare reform bill | 133 Comments

Lib Dem MPs win concessions ahead of benefits cap vote

By The Voice | Tue 31st January 2012 - 7:35 am

Lib Dem MPs, including the party’s deputy leader Simon Hughes, look set to obtain concessions from Iain Duncan Smith to win their support for the Coalition’s controversial welfare bill, which will introduce a benefit cap of a maximum of £26,000. Here’s how The Guardian reports the news:

The government is expected to make a series of concessions in the coming days on it controversial £26,000 household benefits cap to win over wavering Liberal Democrat MPs. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, is expected to agree that a discretionary fund should be established to ease the burden on families

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged iain duncan smith, liam byrne, mark thompson and simon hughes | 7 Comments

Lib Dem peers help inflict Lords defeat over Coalition’s benefit cap plan

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd January 2012 - 8:43 pm

The BBC reports the result of tonight’s defeat for the Coalition in the House of Lords over the controversial government plans to introduce a £500 a week benefit cap:

The government has been defeated in the Lords in a vote on its plans for a £26,000-a-year household benefit cap. Lib Dem, Labour and crossbench peers backed a bishop’s amendment by 252 to 237 that child benefit should not be included in the cap. Critics argued that imposing the same cap on all families, regardless of size, would penalise children. The government said it was “very disappointed” and the vote “clearly

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | 61 Comments

The Independent View: The benefits cap policy is based on myths

By Alison Garnham | Sun 22nd January 2012 - 5:35 pm

The benefit cap was announced by George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference in October 2010. It means families will not be able to receive more than a total of £500 in benefits each week – regardless of local rental values or how many children are in the household. As the crucial votes on the cap take in the House of Lords on Monday, it’s important that the myths on which the cap policy is based are exposed.

Myth 1: The cap is just for out of work claimants of benefits

Ministers fostered the impression that this is about ensuring working families …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged welfare reform | 31 Comments

LDVideo: Nick Clegg on the benefits cap – “Work should always pay”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 22nd January 2012 - 12:45 pm

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg appeared on BBC1′s Andrew Marr show this morning, and stuck up for the Coalition policy that there should be a £500 a week benefit cap:

“It surely can’t be fair, can’t be right, that you can be earning more on benefits than someone going out and earning £35,000, which is the equivalent if you were to go out and work.”

You can watch an excerpt below:

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged andrew marr, nick clegg and welfare reform | 24 Comments

Opinion: the problem of Welfare Reform

By Iain Roberts | Sun 1st January 2012 - 5:41 pm

Ed Miliband has stirred up some New Year’s controversy, not least amongst his own supporters, with the news that Labour is to speak out more strongly against the perils of so-called “benefit scroungers”. Labour are no doubt concerned at consistent polling evidence suggesting that opposition to benefit cuts are out of step with the views of the public.

In reality, there’s little difference between the positions of the different parties, nor much change in the position of any individual party over the last couple of decades.

Across the mainstream political spectrum, few disagree that handing out state benefits too freely causes …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged ed miliband and universal benefits | 44 Comments

14 Liberal Democrat rebels help defeat housing benefit cuts in the House of Lords

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th December 2011 - 9:26 pm

Fourteen Liberal Democrat peers, including the former party Chief Whip Archy Kirkwood and the former interim Chief Executive Ben Stoneham, joined a successful rebellion in the House of Lords today. The vote, on part of the Welfare Reform Bill, was over the proposal to cut housing benefit payments from people who have spare bedrooms in their property.

The peers voted to restrict these cuts to people who have two or more spare bedrooms, excluding the controversial category of people with one spare bedroom – which, under the rules as proposed, might in fact not have been that spare. Concerns had also …

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Posted in News | Also tagged archy kirkwood, ben stoneham, housing benefit and welfare reform bill | 31 Comments

Malcolm Harrington: proposals will be of “considerable benefit” to cancer patients

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th December 2011 - 6:59 pm

During the week we ran a post criticising the government’s response regarding cancer patients to the Harrington review. Subsequently Malcolm Harrington, author of the eponymous review, has in a letter to The Guardian given a different view from that given in both the post and the paper’s own coverage of the story:

This issue is an incredibly important and sensitive one for many people. Contrary to your article, I believe the government’s proposals would significantly improve on the current system and would be of considerable benefit to those who face the real personal challenge of a cancer diagnosis and

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged malcolm harrington and welfare reform | 7 Comments

Opinion: Government must not force work activities on Cancer patients

By George Potter | Wed 7th December 2011 - 11:55 am

The main form of financial support for the long term sick and disabled is the Employment Support Allowance (ESA).

Once upon a time, cancer patients undergoing radio or chemotherapy intravenously were placed in the support group of ESA where they received unconditional support. However, those receiving radio or chemotherapy orally were placed in the Work Related Activity Group of ESA where they were forced to attend work related interviews and complete other work related activity or face having part or all of their support withdrawn.

My mother died of cancer. A large part of her treatment consisted of oral chemotherapy. Oral because …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged employment support allowance, malcolm harrington and work capability assessment | 24 Comments

Opinion: Our Parliamentarians must fight for our benefits policies

By George Potter | Sat 3rd December 2011 - 4:46 pm

It was rather disappointing last week reading Jenny Willot MP’s article on LDV last week about the Harrington report and about the motion on the Employment Support Allowance (ESA) which was unanimously passed at autumn conference.

The article seems to imply that, by accepting the Harrington recommendations, the government is complying with the ESA motion and that a big round of applause is in order. We spotted a problem, passed a motion about it and then our ministers and MPs fixed it. Job done right?

Well, no. Despite that being what the article seems to imply, the situation is far from resolved.

By fully …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged employment support allowance, jenny willott, legal aid, malcolm harrington, welfare reform and welfare reform bill | 11 Comments

Opinion: Oh, what is the point?

By Alex Marsh | Sat 3rd December 2011 - 3:28 pm

Having followed the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and then watched Danny Alexander interviewed on Newsnight on Tuesday I have to say my initial reaction was “oh, what is the point?”. That was a reaction to both substance and process.

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, as the IFS analysis demonstrates, hits the poorest hardest and those on middle and higher incomes less hard. Most would call that regressive. I’m sure some bright spark can come up with an argument that if you look at the data from a different direction – on the basis of expenditure not income, for example – then it isn’t …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged children's tax credit, deficit, george osborne and housing | 59 Comments

Jenny Willott MP writes: Harrington – better assessments, better outcomes

By Jenny Willott MP | Thu 24th November 2011 - 3:24 pm

At our Conference in September, the Liberal Democrats unanimously supported a motion calling for changes to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) which accompanies it.

Speaker after speaker stood up to condemn the system left by Labour which subjected sick and disabled people to an ineffective, demeaning assessment process that was not fit for purpose. Many will remember the powerful speech by Shana Pezaro who condemned the WCA process as ‘utterly failing many people’.

The motion welcomed the first annual review of the WCA by Professor Malcolm Harrington, and the progress the Coalition Government has already …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged ATOS, employment support allowance, malcolm harrington, shana pezaro and work capability assessment | 13 Comments

Laws advises Clegg: oppose Tories’ “arbitrary and vindictive” benefits cuts

By Stephen Tall | Sun 6th November 2011 - 1:10 pm

The Financial Times this weekend reported what it labelled ‘one of the fiercest and most fascinating political battles of the year’ — a battle which looks set to pitch David Laws and Nick Clegg against George Osborne and the Labour leadership.

The issue concerns the amount by which the Coalition should increase benefits: based on September’s inflation figure, this should be 5.2%. The Tories are pushing for a below-inflation settlement, but Mr Laws — co-editor of The Orange Book, and firmly identified as an economic liberal — is urging the Lib Dems to reject such a move:

Mr Laws, considered

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged david laws, george osborne, iain duncan smith, nick clegg and welfare | 7 Comments

Opinion: Why you must lobby Parliament over welfare reform

By George Potter | Sat 22nd October 2011 - 2:25 pm

A few weeks ago, our autumn conference passed a motion on the Employment Support Allowance (ESA). This motion was passed near unanimously and party policy is now for us to push for significant changes to the government’s welfare reforms.

The reason behind the new policy is that the government’s changes, as currently formatted, would put two million long term sick and disabled people through a system which treats them like scroungers and cheats rather than vulnerable people in need of support. At present, 11,000 people a day are being put through a deeply flawed assessment process, which gets the decision …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged employment support allowance, liam byrne, welfare reform, welfare reform bill and work capability assessment | 26 Comments