(no subject)
I've been thinking more about The Budget recently, and combined with some stuff i've read analysing it i'm getting more annoyed by it. Other than the obvious cruelty within it, it's occurred to me that some of the cost-saving ideas probably won't actually work.
The two changes that i've focused on the most are to DLA (disability living allowance) and LHA (local housing allowance) as those are two that effect me directly and therefore i know a bit about.
With DLA, reassessment seems pretty silly considering the fraud rate stands at 0.6% - lower than any other benefit. It would be a case of paying doctors with no specialist knowledge to assess someone whose own specialists are probably the best equipped to judge their level of disability. Of course this isn't just reassessment - it will be like ESA where the doctors will be paid to turn people down for DLA - they're aiming to take away DLA from 20% of claimants. This will cause a rise in DLA appeals (of which there's already a lot) - which cost money.
With LHA it generally sounds like instead of HB covering the cheapest 50% of rents in the area they're aiming for the cheapest 30%. Competition for the cheapest rents is already high so most people end up having a home with rent higher than their HB and then pay some of the rent themselves out their remaining benefit (this is the case with me). The trouble as i see it is that the cheapest places to live are places with the least demand - aka places away from where there are jobs going. For example in Lincoln the cheapest rents are on the very outskirts of the city in big council estates - a 45 minute bus journey away from any source of work. This is not going to encourage people to get off benefits and into work - there's no work nearby and once bus fares to a job are counted in it's more cost-effective to stay on benefits! Drug use and crime will also increase in a community such as this.
And THEN there's families who will be evicted due to not being able to pay their rent. This then costs the local councils money because they are required to find them emergency accomodation.
And then there's ESA (although this isn't the fault of The Budget or even the current government i see this as something that will not actually save much (if any) money. The number of ESA applicants who are successful stands at less than 50%, causing a lot of costly appeals (including mine). And then all failed applicants and 90% of successful applicants are 'supported' into work - but what's the point of this when there's not enough jobs to go around?
And then to top this all off i think the costs to the NHS will rise - stress and poverty are well-known to be damaging to health. And crime may rise due to desperation.
I'm thinking about how potentially this could effect me (if i were to assume that i'll have the same health issues when these changes are implemented). The rate of housing benefit i'd be entitled to would fall (my calculations estimate that HB would leave me about £35 per week to pay myself), and if i were also in that 20% whose DLA were denied (quite likely on the basis of it being "invisible disability" - mental illness and ME sufferers are thought to be likely to be affected the most) then i'd be left with £15 a week (although this would be £35 if i were to win my ESA appeal) after paying my rent.
Nice.
The two changes that i've focused on the most are to DLA (disability living allowance) and LHA (local housing allowance) as those are two that effect me directly and therefore i know a bit about.
With DLA, reassessment seems pretty silly considering the fraud rate stands at 0.6% - lower than any other benefit. It would be a case of paying doctors with no specialist knowledge to assess someone whose own specialists are probably the best equipped to judge their level of disability. Of course this isn't just reassessment - it will be like ESA where the doctors will be paid to turn people down for DLA - they're aiming to take away DLA from 20% of claimants. This will cause a rise in DLA appeals (of which there's already a lot) - which cost money.
With LHA it generally sounds like instead of HB covering the cheapest 50% of rents in the area they're aiming for the cheapest 30%. Competition for the cheapest rents is already high so most people end up having a home with rent higher than their HB and then pay some of the rent themselves out their remaining benefit (this is the case with me). The trouble as i see it is that the cheapest places to live are places with the least demand - aka places away from where there are jobs going. For example in Lincoln the cheapest rents are on the very outskirts of the city in big council estates - a 45 minute bus journey away from any source of work. This is not going to encourage people to get off benefits and into work - there's no work nearby and once bus fares to a job are counted in it's more cost-effective to stay on benefits! Drug use and crime will also increase in a community such as this.
And THEN there's families who will be evicted due to not being able to pay their rent. This then costs the local councils money because they are required to find them emergency accomodation.
And then there's ESA (although this isn't the fault of The Budget or even the current government i see this as something that will not actually save much (if any) money. The number of ESA applicants who are successful stands at less than 50%, causing a lot of costly appeals (including mine). And then all failed applicants and 90% of successful applicants are 'supported' into work - but what's the point of this when there's not enough jobs to go around?
And then to top this all off i think the costs to the NHS will rise - stress and poverty are well-known to be damaging to health. And crime may rise due to desperation.
I'm thinking about how potentially this could effect me (if i were to assume that i'll have the same health issues when these changes are implemented). The rate of housing benefit i'd be entitled to would fall (my calculations estimate that HB would leave me about £35 per week to pay myself), and if i were also in that 20% whose DLA were denied (quite likely on the basis of it being "invisible disability" - mental illness and ME sufferers are thought to be likely to be affected the most) then i'd be left with £15 a week (although this would be £35 if i were to win my ESA appeal) after paying my rent.
Nice.