2400 Incapacity Benefit Claimants in Dundee to be Removed From Benefit Entirely

A study published yesterday by independent academic researchers from Sheffield Hallam University will make for grim reading for many of the 9880 claimants of incapacity benefit in Dundee. 

In the light of benefit reforms introduced by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government in Westminster, the researchers have estimated the effect of these changes place by place. 

They estimate that 2400 folk, nearly a quarter of the total, will be removed from social security benefits entirely and will need to rely more on family, friends and charity. 1400 will be transferred to claiming time limited Job Seekers Allowance as they search for work. They add that, 

"Although some incapacity claimants will re-engage with the labour market, there is little reason to suppose that the big fall in claimant numbers will lead to significant increases in employment.  Incapacity claimants often face multiple obstacles to working again and their concentration in the weakest local economies and most disadvantaged communities means they usually have little chance of finding work." 

Not only will this have a negative effect on the individual claimants and their families directly involved but it will also reduce the money that is available in the Dundee economy to buy goods and services.

This is bad news for claimants of Incapacity Benefit and bad news for our city.

Estimated impact of incapacity benefit reforms by district, county and region, 2011-2014

Place	Incapacity claimants February 2011		Estimated impact of benefit reforms 2011-2014
	number	as % of working age	Reduction in incapacity claimants	Removed from benefits entirely	Increase in JSA claims	Additional compulsory labour market engagement
Scotland	277,410	8.1%	115,000	65,000	36,000	100,000
Dundee	9,880	10.4%	4,300	2,400	1,400	3,500

Source Christina Beatty and Steve Fothergill, November 2011, "Incapacity Benefit Reform: The local, regional and national impact", Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research Sheffield Hallam University

Welfare Rights and Wrongs in Dundee

After nearly a year's deliberation, the Changing for the Future Welfare Rights Review Group on the city council have come up with a report. Unfortunately their report will not set the heather alight. 


This report will be considered by the Policy and Resources Committee on Monday evening.

In their strategy, the review group point out that:
 - many Dundee citizens are not claiming social security benefits to which they are entitled, 
- there are many 'Condem' government cuts to welfare benefits coming up over the next year or two and - that the combination of these factors already has a negative impact on the economy of our city. 

They also identify that many council staff might provide more comprehensive advice to the public and that better first time advice might reduce debts owed to the council in rent and council tax arrears. So far so good.

What  is inadequate is the level and range of responses by the Council. The report's preferred response is to redeploy our welfare rights advisers (based in the Social Work Department) to train other staff to improve their advisory skills. This small team of welfare rights staff are recognised as the elite social security  advisers in the city. If you had a social security appeal coming up, you would want one of these staff to advise you about the paperwork and represent you at the tribunal. These staff are also the only accredited advisers in the city in this particular field. So while this small and specialist team's resources are diverted into training others to provide better first level advice, the queue for help with the tribunals will just get longer. Additionally as more claims are submitted, it is inevitable that the volume of appeals in the city will grow. How will the already stretched Welfare Rights council staff and paid and unpaid staff in voluntary advice agencies manage? 

This report has nothing to say about these issues. 

More needs to be done to convince us that this strategy will really deliver. I think the existing specialist roles of the welfare rights service in the Council should be protected while also improving the quantity and quality of welfare rights advice in the city. 

At a time of continuing recession, economic insecurity and squeezed family budgets, Dundee deserves better.

Call for Action to Protect Council Employees Caught by Changes to Tax Credits

In George Osborne's Comprehensive Spending Review last week, there were a number of complex changes to Tax Credits. Tax Credits are paid by the government through the payroll, to workers on low incomes.

Under the new qualifying conditions, from April 2012, couple households with children will need to be engaged in 24 hours or more hours of work per week (compared to the current 16) and one of the couple will need to work at least 18 of the 24 hours. As claimants of Tax Credits with children (single parent or couple) can also receive 80% of their child care costs (to be reduced to 70% in April 2011) the length of working hours of employees in fractional or part time posts may mean that many Council employees are disqualified from access to these benefits. That is why Councillor Richard McCready and I are calling on the Council's Policy and Resources Committee to adopt our resolution to review the position of part time post holders working for the council who may be affected in these changes. Their resolution also call for working hours to be considered as the Council restructures in the light of the Con-Dem cuts.

Councillor Laurie Bidwell said:
A significant number of Council staff job share or undertake part time work. It will make a significant difference to couples with children if their working hours prevent them from continuing to claim Tax Credits and the related child care costs. While this change is more than a year ahead, it is not too soon for the Council to investigate the impact of these changes on its own staff and what maybe done to help staff retain their entitlement to Tax Credits. I think this is the least that the Council can do as a major employer. Maximising the income of staff from wages and benefits is not only good for our staff and their families abut also good for the economy of the city.

Councillor Richard McCready said,
The Council has a duty to ensure that employees are rewarded for their efforts and that parents are able to work to support their families. I am very concerned about these changes to tax credits. I also think that the council should be considering moving towards providing a Living Wage, set at around £7 an hour.