David, Will and Charlotte discuss: New Administrative Earnings Threshold amounts; Plans to review PIP; UC Managed Migration to be brought forward for income related ESA claimants; Ending of the Work and Health Programme in Autumn 2024; Claimant anxiety.
New Administrative Earnings Threshold amounts
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/536/made
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-04-19/hcws418
Plans to review PIP
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-speech-on-welfare-19-april-2024
UC Managed Migration to be brought forward for income related ESA claimants
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-speech-on-welfare-19-april-2024
Ending of the Work and Health Programme in Autumn 2024
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/14640/html
Claimant anxiety
Additional support policy: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f2f3d3fa1851001a011727/additional-support-for-DWP-customers.pdfhttps://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2023-0791/043._Complex_needs_overview_V18.0.pdf
Benefits Newscast May 2024 – Transcript
David Stickland: [00:00:04] Hello. Welcome to our main Newscast this month. Charlotte Richards is joining Will and myself. We’ll have our usual mix of issues, developments, changes, stuff to share. We’ll share resources and sources and links so you’ll be able to find out more. You can click on the links to do that via our website. Will, perhaps I can start with you, and you can let us know one of the items that you’re bringing with you this month.
Will Hadwen: [00:00:32] Well, we can’t not talk about Rishi Sunak’s unexpected speech on welfare on Friday. And I’m going to talk about one of the things that he said, which we knew was going to happen fairly soon, which was an increase in the Administrative Earnings Threshold. Now, since then, the legislation has been laid, and we know that that’s going to come into force on the 13th May. But the way that it’ll work, it will affect you from the assessment period that starts on or after the 13th May. That’s when you’ll have to reach the new Administrative Earnings Threshold. And it also can’t affect you until your claimant commitment has been changed. So your claimant commitment has to be updated to reflect the fact that you’re now required to look for more hours or pay. Right. So people shouldn’t fret about it too much until then. But obviously if you can find more hours or pay in advance of the change, then that’s going to help.
David Stickland: [00:01:37] Okay. So in terms of the claimant commitment are you saying then it will affect people from the assessment period that starts on or after the 13th May, but only if what they’ve been called in to have the claimant commitment looked at ?
Will Hadwen: [00:01:53] Yeah. So once their claimant commitment changes in the assessment period in which it changes. So just to give you the figures as well, it’s £892 in net earnings, if you’re seeking to rely on your, your own earnings alone. And if you have a partner and you can use your partner’s earnings to reach the threshold, it’s £1437 and also a reminder that it is employed earnings only. You can’t use self-employed earnings to meet this. It affects people who are in the all work related requirements group. So if you don’t have to look for work because you care of a disabled person, you have limited capability for work. This doesn’t affect you.
David Stickland: [00:02:37] Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned that. So we yeah, we ought to reiterate that lots of people won’t be affected by this. It’s only if you’re available for work and that all work related requirement group like you say. So other groups we ought to, you know, be careful to check for other circumstances that might mean that people would be exempt from this in the first place. Right? It’s only if they don’t have some other circumstances which might affect their work requirements. Yeah. Great. Okay. So those figures again £892 for if it’s a single person and for couples £1437. I think that’s what you said.
Will Hadwen: [00:03:14] That’s correct. And that’s based on 18 hours minimum wage, 29 hours the couple rate or I’m sure from the government’s point of view, they think this is all very reasonable because of help with childcare costs, etc. but we know that in practice getting that help really difficult, getting childcare in place that meets your requirements really, really difficult. So I think this is going to cause a lot of worry for people, especially parents.
David Stickland: [00:03:44] Yeah. And it’s part of a bigger picture, isn’t it? I mean, we’ve been seeing seeing sort of increases in the administrative earnings threshold for a while, along with a whole bunch of other stuff that we might be discussing, I guess. All right. Cool. Thanks Will. Charlotte, let’s turn to you next. What’s the first item you’ve got on your list?
Charlotte Richards: [00:04:04] Another announcement that came via the speech last Friday on the 19th from Rishi Sunak is about a consultation to do with PIP, which they’re going to be publishing within it said within the within coming days is what they said on the 19th April. So expect to see something soon, where they’re going to look at changes to the eligibility criteria, the assessment process and the types of support that can be offered. So really big potentially big changes to PIP. We don’t know what they might be yet. PIP’s been around for more than ten years. Well, 11 years now. Almost. Exactly. So this will be potentially a big change to it. So they seem to be concentrating or was focusing a lot on mental health conditions. Right. And they are saying that in 2019, the average number of new PIP claims per month was 2200 a month in England and Wales. Where the main condition was anxiety and depression. But this is more than doubled to 5300 per month as of last year. So significant increase since the pandemic maybe. Who knows? It could be linked in with it. But there seem to be focusing on that and saying we need to look at other ways of supporting people with mental health conditions other than via PIP, maybe not through by giving them cash. It was as it was put in the speech, so remains to be seen what the changes might be. So we’re still under the same rules at the moment, but changes are potentially afoot, I’d say so.
David Stickland: [00:05:54] Other ways of supporting people/other ways of reducing the number of claims kind of basically at the same time, it’s fairly, straightforwardly. Yeah. And I guess we ought to be clear. I think you have been we’re not talking about changes that are happening right now. We’re talking about the beginning of a consultation. Yes. Right. So that will unfold potentially. And then we’ll see the results of that. And it could lead to something or other or which is all unknown.
Charlotte Richards: [00:06:25] Right. Who knows. Who knows at the moment. Yeah. So as you were at the moment with the PIP descriptors exactly as we’ve known them for a good long while but, you know, look out for what might come in the future. We don’t know yet. Right?
David Stickland: [00:06:39] So, yeah, continue to think about it in terms of 8 points. 12 points, reliably most of the time. All of the things that we’re doing when we’re working with people on an individual basis, because all of that remains true, and it will be a matter of keeping abreast of of any developments on this story.
Charlotte Richards: [00:06:56] Exactly.
David Stickland: [00:06:57] Great. Thanks. Okay Will what’s next, I wonder, on our list.
Will Hadwen: [00:07:05] Though still on the speech. He said a lot in a short time. I noticed that he talked about Managed Migration and, and I think all benefits advisors listening would have picked up on that as well, which is we’d been told repeatedly that people on Income Related ESA who didn’t get Child Tax Credit wouldn’t get letters until 2028. That’s now changed, has been brought forward. And now we’re told that all letters will be issued by the end of December 2025. So that is a significant change. It brings it forward. It means that people that we weren’t previously worried about we’re now very worried about and just to emphasize this isn’t really so much about the amount that people get because some of those ESA claimants are better off on UC, some are worse off but leaving that aside, the anxiety that is caused to a disabled person having to change benefit and cope with a completely different system that’s online, that is monthly. It’s huge. We’re already seeing a lot of people asking about it, worrying about it. Besides themselves not not able to sleep. I’m not exaggerating. This is what I’ve seen from clients in the last few days and I think just as a whole, it represents the harm that this speech has done. But as advisors, it also means that for us, we’re thinking, oh, okay, wow, we’re going to be absolutely deluged. And we already are.
David Stickland: [00:08:45] And so in terms of advice and our role perhaps previously we’ve been saying to people getting Income Related ESA without Child Tax Credit, we’ve been able to reassure people until this speech, we’ve been able to reassure people that things should remain as they are or you wouldn’t expect there to be a change to Universal Credit until what was 2028. But we’re no longer able to give that assurance. And so we’re now moving to whatever else we can do to help people with that process of transition under the Managed Migration, which is going to be, as you say, it was the new date is by the end of December 2025. Right. So thinking about all the things we can do to help people which you and some of our other trainers are covering on our Managed Migration course, but that’s going to continue, we’ve been doing that for the last number of months I guess. People will have been coming across other client groups that have been affected by the Managed Migration, but we’re going to see that continuing on a quicker scale than perhaps we previously thought.
Will Hadwen: [00:09:55] Yeah, absolutely. And so one of my concerns is, is there the capacity to support those people who will struggle to claim online because the DWP have acknowledged that this claimant group is going to particularly struggle with online claims.
Charlotte Richards: [00:10:12] Yeah, definitely. It has come out of the blue, hasn’t it? This we’ve been for the last couple of years been reassuring people it’s not going to happen for years. Don’t worry, don’t worry. And all of a sudden yeah it’s changed as of Friday.
David Stickland: [00:10:26] So for service managers and commissioners and thinking about the, the the the footfall if you like, through our doors either physically or virtually is going to be something to think about isn’t it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. So what’s what else is left on our list? Either of you who’d like to go next? What else have we got? Another 5 or 10 minutes, perhaps.
Charlotte Richards: [00:10:53] I’ve got something about the ending of the Work and Health Programme, which, after everything that was being spoken about, about getting people with health conditions and disabilities back into the world of work, they’re actually ending the Work and Health Programme in autumn this year, autumn 2024. At which point there’ll be apparently no specialist provision for disabled people from about November. So I know so, you know, the encouragement is that everyone should be we should be supporting people in whichever way we can back into the world of work, even if they have health conditions. And yet that’s been cut. So just a bit of news, really, nothing we can do about that.
David Stickland: [00:11:40] And so, Charlotte, for people who may be wondering what that is and what it means in practice that that is a voluntary program, right, that people can engage with, with the health condition, looking to move into work and to get support from the Job Centre.
Charlotte Richards: [00:11:56] Yeah, yeah. All the kind of thing that the DWP say they’re promoting, that they’re there to provide all this support. And. Yeah, it’s just actually being quietly cut. So. Okay.
David Stickland: [00:12:12] So it might be that it’s all a bit miserable and depressing this month. I don’t know if there’s anything else that either of you have got on your list that you want to share before we start to think about finishing. Will, is there anything left on your list?
Will Hadwen: [00:12:25] Well, I’ve just been thinking over the weekend and, you know, for several months, actually about how we managed anxiety in our clients because it’s really a big problem and it’s rising and it’s not just amongst disabled people, but in terms of that particular client group. I think some of the things that we can say is that for now, PIP is the same. For now. The Work Capability Assessment is the same. Don’t do anything until you get a Migration Notice unless you have had an advisor talk to you, go through your UC and confirmed that it is worth more. So it’s basically a stay put message for most people, but of course do seek advice if you think you might be better off on UC. And the same goes out to clients who are worried about the Administrative Earnings Threshold. If you’re not sure if it applies to you, try to get advice. I know that’s difficult because of the pressure on advice services, but sometimes you might actually fall into a different conditionality group.
David Stickland: [00:13:29] Yeah, I think it’s really important. It’s a good point that you know much of what we’re talking about right now. It is stuff which is going to raise people’s anxiety levels, isn’t it? But it’s also important to remember, like you say, that this won’t necessarily affect everybody, not in any way and some of it we’re talking about announcements. So we’re not talking about changes as such, but we’re talking about sort of announcements of consultations and certainly not changes that are, that are happening imminently. Or it might be stuff that doesn’t apply to people because of other circumstances, like you say, because of a caring role or because of a health condition. Yeah, it’s well worth remembering that and reassuring people where we can. Okay, cool. Well, I think we’re done. It’s, it’s a short month. I think for us, this this month in terms of news and stuff. Thanks to you both as ever, thanks to everybody for, listening in. Of course, we have other courses on our website. You can take a look at as well as our advice service. So if you’ve attended training with us in the last 12 months and you have a difficult case or a question you’d like to raise, please let us know. Thanks. Thanks both. Once again, all the best. See you. Bye bye bye.