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Benefits Campaign:
the Story So Far
by
John Mills, Liverpool City Council
(UPDATED STORY AWAITED)
March 9, 2000
LETS
and Benefits Update
Report
on House of Commons meeting with
Linda Gilroy MP
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by
John Mills
The
March 8 meeting with Linda Gilroy MP went
well. Linda said that she had spoken to
The Hon. Angela Eagle MP, Minister of Social
Security in the week.
She
suggested that something was being worked
on regarding LETS as we speak and would
very soon be announced and that we would
be excited about it!
We
raised the issue of mixed messages from
various sources about what this announcement
might be and suggested that written clarification
should be sought and given to us ASAP regarding:
-
· exactly what new disregard levels may
be
·
whether pilots are being considered (apparently
they may not be)
·
how it would be far more helpful in the
long run if any proposals are run past the
working group first before any announcements
were made (as Chris Hayes promised would
happen) so that we have an opportunity to
consult with Government about what may or
may not work within this.
Linda
Gilroy will be contacting Angela Eagle this
week to spell out these concerns and to
seek such a written response to them and
hopefully reasure us that consultation between
ourselves and Government will still take
place before any announcements are made.
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July
2000- LATEST ON LETS AND BENEFITS - New Early Day Motion
in H of C
by John Mills
The Benefits campaign continues with the Treasury stating
that "it will be working closely with the Department
of Social Security to consider, in the light of the
Budget measures, the case for acting further on recommendations,
including on piloting benefit rule changes on LETS as
part of the 2000 spending review".
We are trying to clarify
more specifically what this might mean for LETS participants.
Linda Gilroy is planning to hold an event for MP's to
attend in the House to highlight the role of LETS in
social inclusion followed by an adjournment debate in
the House. This may happen sometime in July, further
details to follow.
Linda has also tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM 783):
"That this House notes the conclusions of the report
of the Policy Action Team on Jobs that Local Exchange
Trading Schemes could offer the opportunity to acquire
valuable work experience and demonstrate a work ethic
to potential employers in the open labour market, but
that despite these potentially positive outcomes, existing
rules create barriers to participation; welcomes the
report's recommendation that benefit entitlements should
not in future be affected by participation in a LETS;
and calls upon the Government to follow the report's
recommendations to make the appropriate changes to benefit
rules with a view to ensuring that LETS are able to
play their full part in promoting social inclusion."
It is a matter of urgency for people to get their MPs
to sign this motion in support. Should any further information
become available I shall let you know.
The
fear of the impact on Social Security Benefits is still
preventing people from participating in LETS which is
why benefits legislation change has been the major priority
since
1996. LETSLINK Liverpool City Council and other concerned
parties formed a National Benefits Working Group which
has outlined proposals to Government to treat
LETS credits as exempt income / earnings.
The
proposals can not be seen as a risky precedent as in
the income support scheme alone there are currently
56 forms of income other than earnings that are disregarded
and 15 sums to be disregarded from earnings. Under the
proposal, claimants would still be required to remain
available for work and / or to work for less than 16
hours a week, even on therapeutic grounds, to secure
full entitlement to benefits. This proposal came after
painstaking work in 1997 and was championed in 1998
by Linda Gilroy MP in a 10 minute rule bill.But
what has happened since? Well, in November 1998 a delegation
of the national benefits working group met with Angela
Eagle MP the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Social
Security.
This
was the start of a wave of excitement for us as Angela
described a "broad enthusiasm" in Government circles
for LETS and Benefit changes with some traditional worries
beginning to be overcome. Informed circles were beginning
to say that 1999 was the year those benefit changes
were going to happen. It was only a matter of time.In
all the best disaster movies you are built up to believe
that everything is under control and nothing can go
wrong. And then of course they do. Chris Hayes the DSS
Policy Manager who had visited my area in Liverpool
as part of his nation-wide tour promising to return
with workable proposals left his job for a promotion
to Tony Blair's Office and when we tried to trace him
recently he has mysteriously disappeared from Government's
Central Computer! There are no sign of changes to guidance
on how Benefit Agencies should treat LETS and LETS credits.
The
Policy Action Team on Jobs that was due to report in
July only published their findings just before last
Christmas. Their recommendations are rather ambiguous
and LETSLINK UK alongside Liverpool City Council and
others have drafted a response to the report which hopefully
will see some clarification into just what may happen
regarding LETS and their effect on benefits.
I
believe that a likely outcome is to aggregate current
disregards over the year. This seems more likely considering
Angela Eagle's report view that current benefits legislation
does not need amending; only a change in its interpretation.
[Contact:0151 233 6739, livlets@cybase.co.uk]
EXTRA:
Another Early Day Motion planned
Local
Exchange Trading Schemes and Social Exclusion -
Linda
Gilroy, MP has drafted another EDM for the House of
Commons
Westminister,
March 8, 2000: That this House notes the conclusions
of the report of the Policy Action Team on Jobs that
Local Exchange Trading Systems could offer the opportunity
to acquire valuable work experience and demonstrate
a work ethic to potential employers in the open labour
market; but that despite these potentially positive
outcomes, existing benefit rules create barriers to
participation; welcomes the report's recommendation
that benefit entitlement should not in future be affected
by participation in a LETS; and calls upon the Government
to follow the report's recommendation that changes to
benefit rules should be made with a view to ensuring
that LETS are able to play their full part in promoting
social inclusion.
She
will contact us with any response and when a final draft
of the above proposed EDM is posted in the Commons.
See also: GOVERNMENT
SHOWS VISION
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