Nearly half of UK households say that they would struggle to cope if their monthly outgoings rose by £99. We look at how you can create some financial 'breathing space' to help you out if you lose your job or become ill.
Government considers benefit reform
The Government is reportedly considering linking hikes in benefit payments to average pay rather than inflation.
Iain Duncan Smith has defended changes to the payment of benefits
The Government is reportedly considering linking hikes in benefit payments to average pay rather than inflation.
The automatic uprating could be axed and welfare payments frozen for two years, with any increases then linked to average pay, according to BBC Newsnight.
A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokeswoman said any changes to how benefits hikes are calculated will be looked at by the Government later this year.
The claims come as Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith insisted shifting to monthly benefit payments would help the poorest as he dismissed claims the move will push low-income families into debt.
He told MPs the new Universal Credit had been designed for the majority but would also help longer-term claimants by weaning them off fortnightly payments before they return to work.
The Tory minister also defended moves to encourage claimants who have limited internet skills to apply online, arguing it would be a "very good opportunity to get these people back into the 21st century".
MPs on the Work and Pensions committee were also told that waiters, hairdressers and any other worker that receives tips will have to declare them if they claim the new benefit. "Tips are counted as income," welfare reform minister Lord Freud said.
Under the Universal Credit there will be one single monthly benefit payment - rather than weekly or fortnightly as at present - and social tenants will have to pay landlords themselves.
In a report on Monday, the Social Market Foundation think-tank raised fears that the poorest households would face further financial difficulties by changes to monthly payments. It said attempts as part of the new Universal Credit system to encourage claimants to budget properly and make their own rental payments risk "backfiring".
But Mr Duncan Smith, who refused to move to another Cabinet brief in the recent reshuffle, said the current system was set around the "problems of a minority" while the majority of people went into the benefit system through temporary job loss. Most of those had been paid monthly, he added.
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77Comments
18/09/2012 08:30
18/09/2012 10:02
18/09/2012 10:16
I,m 58 and have worked all my life up until 4 years ago when i was made redundant.For 6 mths i claimed ub then was told my ub was stopped.I then claimed for income based benefit, but was refused that because my wife earned to much (she was only on low income).12 years ago i was diagnosed with an eye condition and put on the partially sighted register and the dvla revoked my driving licence..I received a disabled bus pass but when i tried to claim disability benefit (twice) they said basically i wasn,t disabled enough.I have had job interviews which went well, but as soon as they read about my condition they make some excuse like can you drive, which is blatantly obvious with my condition that i can,t,needless to say i didn,t get the job.We have tried to get help with poll tax,dentist etc but have been refused.So we struggle on with my wife,s wage with no help from this SH-- government whom i have never voted for and never will.But if i was a FOREIGNER who had never paid tax in this country they would throw money at me willy nilly.BRILLIANT EH..
18/09/2012 11:27
Yes let's base all workers income on what MP's receive,their expenses should be classed as income, does the ordinary man,or woman, get expenses paid for travel, food, entertaining, rent etc. do we get a massive pension for a few years work, do we get several months paid holiday?
These obnoxious, arrogant, greedy, lying, insulting people who are supposed to represent us all, once in power, just look after themselves.
I just hope you all remember what a disaster these people have created next election time , it won't be long before they open the "goodie" cupboard to lure you to vote them in again,Thatcher was a wicked tyrant but nothing compared to this bunch of evil crooks.
18/09/2012 09:11
These fookers,,,,,,,are,,,,,,making our country a third world one!! But please, keep going,,,,But make sure you look after every bugger else,,,,IE other countries,,,,,,,,,Forget about the people, in this country, some of which cannot even make ends meet,,,,,,fortnightly,,,,,never mind monthly. You lot are really good, at, demeaning people,,,,,,,,,,Did you think this all up, sitting in your private club,,,,Having a dram, and smoking a cigar?,,,,,Whilst the real workers in this country, have to stand outside for a smoke!!!!.
What an embarresment you all are.......Bring back another Cromwell.
18/09/2012 10:18
18/09/2012 11:11
Decent people who voted for these heartless b-------s on the back of their lies and deceit must be feeling sick.Their ditching of the Remploy workers was the last straw as far as I am concerned.Now they continue to attack the weak and the poor.These fatcats never seem to want to reign in their own excessive greed.They are still claiming more in expenses than before the scandal.Poorer people would love to live on an MP's expenses,never mind their salaries and perks.They are attacking and robbing the poor to cover up for their own drastic and useless policies.Why are they not linking their own pay/pensions to average earnings? I wonder.
18/09/2012 09:40
18/09/2012 09:51
18/09/2012 10:26
Real world Smithy - internet skills need a computer and broadband access - immediate and long term costs. OR use the local library - the one suffering cuts, reduced internet facilities and very often payment with a time limit.
Bloody hell please let me organise a month's authentic experience as a claimant for all MPs. The same MPs who maximise their expenses claims and practice 'legal' tax avoidance. Maybe a month as a claimant should be considered necessary training for any MP and senior civil servant above a certain level.
18/09/2012 09:21
18/09/2012 11:00
The man is an idiot, how can you afford to use a computer when you are not receiving any income. The libraries are closing, so where doe's anyone go to get access to a PC. If they stopped giving extra cash to the alchoholics and drug addicts to allow them to carry on with their habits, there would be more cash in the system. Also if this goverment stopped the 12 Billion Pounds in foriegn aid to countries and dictators who dont need it and spent it on our own poor, we would not be in this mess in the first place. As for counting meagre tips as income is insulting to those on the minimum wage, i dont see the MP's and Councilors declaring their freebies. It's always the same old mantra's the politicians roll out to excuse their own imcompetance. The whole lot of them are Carpet Bagging Parasites.
18/09/2012 08:59
so he considering linking future increases in peoples benefits to that of average pay, Not being on benefits myself, and not having had a pay increase now for almost 3 years (and I am not the only one who is working experiencing this) I get the feeling this is another ploy by this creature of a man to stir up contempt against the people who through no fault of their own find themselves living on benefit.
He should resign, god even his boss wanted him to move.
18/09/2012 11:31
18/09/2012 11:18
Here we have more evidence that this government as a whole, as well as Ian Drunken Smith in particlar have absolutely no clue whatsoever about real life, tucked away and cossetted in their ivory towers. So let me spell it out for them. While it may be a good idea for salaries to be paid monthly, paying benefts monthly is a totally moronic idea, because beneft amounts can in no way be compared to salaries. If you pay a benefit monthly, it will all be gone in bills, food for about 2 or 3 days etc, in one go because of the cost of living in rip-off Britain, and there willbe nothing left for food, etc for the remaining three weeks and six days of the month. Obviously, there is no basis for this latest hare brained scheme of IDS's, it's just another way he has come up with to hammer people who have no defence. And of couse it goes without saying that freezing benefits will push people further into poverty. And no -"Dave" - they can't just go out and get a job. Your policies have ensured that there are none to go to, and the ones that do exist, people are scared to death of losing, becuse THEY know there are no others to go to.
18/09/2012 11:13
I think many on this board is missing the main point on this benefit matter, many working class people have been turned against those that are on welfare benefit, this government and previous government sold off many of Britain without injecting back into Britain, have neglected the British people by the influx of immigrants and migrants taking our jobs at low wages, this list goes on but, this benefit change if you all vote for it will as it has with many other things bring far more problems later then you realise, it is not the unemployed and the benefit system that needs to be changed but the governments attitude as to jobs being created and those jobs being given to the Britons and not the migrants that enter Britain and then later end up on welfare benefit, this government is hell bent on making life in the 21 century as it was in the 17 or 18 century while they in government continue to live of all of us and dictate as to what is best for all of us while they continue living in their cuckoo land.
18/09/2012 09:33
There are Skivers and Dodgers at both ends of the spectrum, rather than just go after the easy ones and alienate innocents at the same time why not go after those at the top as well. We see stories about the odd case but there is no real visible effort being made to go after those skipping out at the top.
18/09/2012 10:18
18/09/2012 12:12
they will save a lot of money if they STOP immigrants coming here just for benifits and state handouts , this government should be seeking to look after the pensioners who have paid into the system for years are not getting a fair deal because we listern to the EU its not the bloody EU thats paying these immigrants and giving them first class housing for nothing
so come on the government get you fingers out and listern to the people THAT PAY YUR WAGES ( we put you in and we can put you out )
18/09/2012 10:30
MP,s do not live in the real world they are mostly upper class,people with higher education than us little people who do the less glorified jobs like working as waiters,hairdressers and manual workers who are on minamum wage,or those on benefits.These are the ones who find it hard to pay bills on a fortnightly basis as it is.To say that being paid monthly would not put people in more hardship is nonsence,how are ones who are on low incomes wait for 4 weeks on money to come in,most pay their debts fortnightly, are the people that they owe money to willing to wait an extra 2 weeks for their money?This is putting more people under pressure but once again the MP,s are not worried as most of them have money to spare and not worried about the door getting knocked by someone looking paid and telling the people that it's not their fault that the goverment wont pay them for a month when you have made a ccontract to pay up every 2 weeks.So there you are more people in more debt because some **** wants to make everyone to be paid fortnightly..
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