#pension payment

[sharemarketinsider]

New Rules for GPF and Pension Payment: Ensuring Timely Payments for Retiring Government Employees

[cassolotl]

UK government planning to scrap a major disability benefit

I'm only just scraping by and the government are proposing to take away PIP (a disability benefit), which would be HALF of my income wiped out.

"Reforms to personal independence payments (PIP) could include stopping regular cash payments, and instead offering claimants one-off grants for things like home adaptations." -- "Disabled people face end to monthly benefits cash", BBC News, 29 April 2024

And:

"The plans, which will be consulted on over the coming months, also include proposals to “move away from a fixed cash benefit system”, meaning people with some conditions will no longer receive regular payments, but instead access to treatment if their condition does not involve extra costs." -- "People with depression or anxiety could lose sickness benefits, says UK minister", Guardian, 29 April 2024

That's what the NHS is supposed to be doing...

Genuinely absolutely terrifying.

Can anyone living in the UK join in with an (hopefully!) overwhelming cascade of unique emails to their MP opposing this? WriteToThem.com makes it very quick and easy.

They're proposing to replace it with one-off grants that the individual can apply for, which is absurd and horrifying, so feel free to point out how that won't work as well!

Here's what I'm writing, and do not just copy-paste my letter/email, because that makes it less legit. Do your own thing, even just one sentence telling your MP that you're opposed is enough if that's all you can manage. Whatever you want to say is what your MP needs to hear.

Dear [MP's name], Today I learned that the government plan to scrap PIP, and maybe replace it with something like a one-off grant application process, before the next election. ("Disabled people face end to monthly benefits cash", BBC News, 29 April 2024: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0ry09d50wo) PIP is about half of my income (about 44%). I don't spend it on occasional large purchases, I spend it on countless things that are more expensive for me than they are for other people. PIP is in place to acknowledge, as it says in the above article, that disabled people's lives are more expensive than non-disabled people's lives by hundreds of pounds per week. ("Previous research from Scope suggests households with at least one disabled adult or child face an estimated average extra cost of £975 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households." That's £225 per week, and the maximum amount of PIP you can get is £184.) So firstly, it could be argued that PIP doesn't even cover the additional expenses of the average disabled household. And next, the cost of implementing an alternative system would be worse for disabled people, totally unsuited to its purpose, and more expensive to run. Worse for disabled people: Currently PIP acknowledges that being disabled takes a lot more work to maintain a comparable standard of living, and as it's an amount of work that the claimant cannot sustainably do, they are given money so that they can pay someone else to do it. These costs are distributed across all living expenses, in addition to occasional one-off purchases of e.g. mobility aids. Having to apply for one-off payments for expenses would be more work on top of that, so if the disabled person isn't able to do it (which is very likely) they will either have to work less in their day jobs in order to spend more time applying for one-off grants, or they will have to also apply for one-off payments to pay someone to apply for more one-off payments. This is self-evidently a waste of energy and time, and totally impractical, as well as being counter to the entire point of disability benefits. It would also be extremely undignified for the disabled people, and arguably against human rights (right to private life and dignity), to have to justify each purchase to the government. Totally unsuited to its purpose: One off-grants are not suited to ongoing higher expenses such as having to buy more prepared food (e.g. carrot batons are more expensive than raw carrots and go off much more quickly). Does this policy assume that disabled people's PIP is only for things like wheelchairs and walking sticks? More expensive to run: The system for PIP applications is already fairly backlogged, in that my last application took over 6 months to complete. I was awarded PIP for 10 years. If every application for a one-off grant had to be accompanied by an application of a similar scale that wouldn't be workable, so presumably an initial PIP application like the current system's would still be required to qualify for the system in the first place, and then following that, numerous smaller applications for money (e.g. for taxis, pre-chopped veg, painkillers, specialist clothing, etc.) would be carried out per person per month. The disability benefits system would have to be scaled up significantly, and it would be much more expensive. It is far cheaper to give people a set amount of money based on their needs; it's the same money that you would be giving them in grants anyway, but without having to process each purchase/one-off application. I implore you to oppose this proposal. It is blatantly unworkable to the level of absurdity, but more importantly it is inhumane. I look forward to your reply detailing your stance. Many thanks in advance. Yours sincerely, [My name]

But, again, if you can't manage anything long or complicated like that, your best is good enough. Even if they're not all perfectly written and detailed, we want to bowl them over with sheer quantity of emails.

[manchesterau]

theyre so married

[alwaysbewoke]

[wolfisland]

$780. xd

[ineffectualdemon]

Reminder if you need send back a reconsideration notice on your PIP or any paperwork to the DWP:

1. Send it so they have to sign for it so you get notified when they receive it

2. If you do not get notification that they have received the paperwork within 48 hours call them. They will backdate it to the day they received. So you need the delivery notification so you can say "you received it on [Date]"

[magiclovingdragon]

I saw this post on facebook from an organisation that helps people with their PIP applications last night

I have my PIP reassessment tomorrow, they know I have anxiety and today I have received 3 phone calls, every 2 hours from a withheld number… I haven’t answered. I fully suspect its the DWP trying this tactic and even despite my thinking that, its still succeeding in triggering my anxiety

Update: Turns out it was PIP phoning, it was one of the first things they said to me on my phone assessment. Supposedly the 4 phone calls (another happened after I made this post) from a withheld number were to remind me for my appointment today but they sent me a text during the day inbetween 2 of the calls and you’d think they’d leave a voicemail so yeah its crafty and the worst part is it worked, today its not only triggered my anxiety but its also made my fibro & ME flare up today with increased pain and fatigue (not helped by me not getting any sleep last night), its flared my ibs and gave me a migraine after the call ended

[bluemoonrabbit]

Got my Japanese pension refund! Couldn't have come at a better time.

[yourheartinyourmouth]

we borrowed money like five months ago from one of husbeast’s friends for car repairs.

the money from my cashed out pension FINALLY came in (three months late, of course. yay state bureaucracy bullshit) and we JUST FINISHED PAYING HIM BACK AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

[feckcops]

Why the trope of the benefit “scrounger” has returned

“Everything is dark. A siren yelps, drums kick in, police in riot helmets march up a stairwell, and a man – his head out of shot – zips up a black stab vest marked ‘DWP’.

“It’s Tom Pursglove, a Tory minister of the Matt Hancock aesthetic (Foxtons Tintin), tabard strapped over his suit, standing beside a tree. Brow furrowed, he quasi-quotes Liam Neeson’s ex-CIA maverick in the 2008 film Taken: ‘We will track you down. We will find you. And we will bring you to justice.’ ...

“This is the Department for Work and Pensions’ latest campaign warning against welfare fraud. It was tweeted from the department’s account last Thursday morning, with a take-on-Taken caption: ‘At DWP we have a very particular set of skills that we use in conjunction with the police to tackle fraud.’

“The focus on benefit cheats is disproportionate to the reality. Fraud amounted to just 3 per cent of welfare payments in 2020-21, or £6.5bn. This looks even less significant when you compare it with tax fraud: the ‘tax gap’ between what is owed and what is collected (of which fraud is a large part) is at 5.1 per cent, costing the government £42bn a year. Fraudulent Covid loans, meanwhile, cost the UK £17bn – most of which the government does not expect to recover.”

[deeisace]

In the paper today, something or other about how in April min wage is gonna be £11

Oh thank you Tories for putting it up by like 20p extra than it normally goes up by every year, thank you soooo much for an extra fiver a week

Not even that, actually, to my mind min wage generally goes up by like 50p a year, or it has done in the past, and that's a jump of, wait for it, 58p

woooow (incredible sarcasm)

[confettihipster]

at dinner my dad was like did i ever tell you about the time i met robert maxwell and anyway long story short is that my dad did not meet robert maxwell he went to an oxford city game and maxwell was screaming at birmingham city fans out his limo window which low key iconic tbh. if i owned a football club i would 100% be drinking champagne in the limo and shouting at people??? the mitrovic on the coach in the millwall car park video. he really is the only man

[reflectionsofgalaxies]

.

[news-buzz]

Decision made on free bus passes for pensioners | Personal Finance | Finance News Buzz

Despite fears the concessionary bus pass scheme for pensioners would be scrapped amid changes to the Winter Fuel Payment, the Department for Transport confirmed it will not axe the scheme. Transport Minister Simon Lightwood confirmed that the Government has “absolutely no plans” to withdraw the scheme when Conservative MP Graham Stuart asked if there were plans to continue to fund the…

[adj4mp]

Winter Fuel Payments, Pension Credits and a Political Mistake

The Winter Fule Payments has been a catastrophe in the PR handling of the problem.

Maybe it will save money

Yes most people won't notice the difference

Yes the media have made things worse

But the UK government missed a trick.

The Winter Fuel Payments which many people rely upon to get through the winter are becoming means-tested. It's being done in the cheapest way imaginable because it's been done to save money, it's being attached to Pension Credits. If you qualify for Pension Credits and recieve them as the vast majority of those who rely upon the winter fuel payments do then you'll get the same payment.

But there are hundreds of thousands of pensioners who would qualify for these credits who either haven't applied or when they last applied were above the threshold. And there are a whole bunch of people who're right on or above the cut-off to whom the payment would make a huge difference to their Christmas budget.

The Government dragging their heels and trying to excuse their way out of it maybe wasn't the direction they should have gone, this was in some ways a political opportunity.

For my money what should have been said:

"We understand the frustration and upset this decision has caused to many people. We've heard the pain this has caused. We encourage everyone who thinks that this payment will make a difference to apply for pension credits as soon as you can, if you get that you'll still receive the fuel payments. "We're also giving the Department of Work and Pensions officers and case workers discretionary power to accept people who are near the threshold temporarily, these people will be given pension credits until March as well as the Winter Fuel Payments giving us next spring and summer to review the policy and the impact as well as giving everyone more than a month or two to plan around this change to their finances"

I feel a statement like this would have turned the tides of public opinion and provided many with the motivation to actually apply for the pension credits they might not know they qualify for.

It would provide the government with data to assess the requirements for receiving pension credits and perhaps even encourage them to make it a progressive benefit that fades out rather than with a hard-line border

And the discretionary power doesn't need to be huge to still work, the upper-income limit for pension credits is around £11,400 per year and the Winter Fuel Payment is £300, allowing discretionary payment up to £12,000, which isn't a huge difference would be enough to empower people and get that better Public Relations the current government is lacking.

[wingerworthwritersassociation]

The Wool Coat of the Wolf.

Axing Universal Benefits: Is it Socialist? At work a friend asked me for an explanation of the universal winter fuel payment the current Government is abolishing. He asked if it was socialist/Marxist policy. I am known as an anti-conservative at work. The presumption is that I vote Labour. I hold up my hand, guilty. Yes, I have voted Labour in the past. But I have never voted for the Labour…