Benefits

The damaging impact of the government's proposed cuts to social security benefits has been highlighted in evidence submitted to a Birmingham City Council inquiry. The worst impacts will be felt on child poverty, people on low pay, young homeless people, disabled people, and people living in social housing.

The aim of the Council's inquiry is to understand what the implications of welfare cuts might be for communities and individuals in Birmingham, and whether there will be an impact on social cohesion in the city.

Anonymous 'sources' have told the BBC Newsnight programme that the government is considering ending the automatic annual increase in benefits in line with inflation.

According to the report, senior government figures are proposing a two-step change to the payment of benefits. At first there would be a freeze to a wide range of working-age benefits to last for two years. After that a new link would be introduced between benefit payments and increases in wages. The change would not be implemented quickly, but could be in place by 2014 – in time for the next General Election. Potential savings are 'simply mind-boggling' – as much as £7 billion a year.

But one benefit not being targeted is the state pension. Pensions are currently protected by a 'triple lock', rising each year by either inflation, earnings, or 2.5 per cent – whichever is highest.

Many local authorities are worried about a looming shortage of money for local schemes replacing Social Fund provision, according to campaigners.

The Social Fund currently helps people with needs that are difficult to meet from regular income. It provides maternity, funeral, cold weather and winter fuel payments; and a discretionary element covers community care needs, budgeting loans and crisis loans. From April 2013 key parts of the scheme will be replaced by new local arrangements, delivered by upper-tier local authorities in England and by the Scottish and Welsh Governments. Money for local schemes will not be ring-fenced.

Benefits cheats should have their photographs pinned to ‘every lamp-post in the streets where they live’ in order to shame them, according to a senior official in the Department for Work and Pensions.

Terry Moran, DWP chief operating officer, told civil servants at a London conference he wanted to shame fraudulent claimants into stopping claiming. He said he was ‘distressed’ by healthy people who claim disability benefits illegally. Moran is the official principally responsible for introducing the universal credit programme.

He continued:

‘If I had my way I would put their photograph on every lamp-post in the street where they live because it is a very distressing thing for genuinely disabled people to see the reputation of disabled people damaged in the way that is by those people. We have got to do something about it constructively.’