Action Blog
Viewing entries tagged with 'welfare rights'
A bolt out of the blue - 12 month limit on Contributory Employment and Support Allowance
The government keeps sending thunderbolts to hit people of working age who find they have to resort to welfare benefits. The latest bolt came out of the blue and caught everyone by surprise. Suddenly, without warning, letters started dropping through peoples’ doors to say that their Contributory Employment and Support Allowance would end on 30 April. So what is Contributory Employment and Support Allowance, what’s happening to it and what action can be taken?
The waiting game
So, here I am, still waiting . There has been movement but not very quickly.
Waiting for the call
So, here I am, waiting. They could ring today, or they could ring in March, or any time in between. I suppose they will call me sooner rather than later as my name begins with an ‘A’ and they are doing it alphabetically.
There but for fortune
I heard a quote on the radio last week whilst eating my cornflakes: 'People who get up every morning to go to work don't want to see the curtains closed in the houses of people on benefit'. Can you guess who said it?
It’s law!
It's law, we fought for it, we're not all winners but we have all won.
Who says rules are rules?
Isn’t it annoying when a petty official says, ‘Well I’m sorry. Rules are rules, so that’s it!’? - Is it? Should I thus go forth and multiply as implied?
The parable of the poor weaver’s holiday
In my last blog I explained that the women’s state retirement pension age will increase from 60 to 65 between now and 2020. From 2024 to 2046 the state pension for all will increase to 68. The age at which some benefits can be claimed, such as Pension Credit, Winter Fuel Payment and increased Housing and Council Tax Benefit will also rise. I tried to paint an optimistic picture of the changes, but the following audacious reply from ‘Yours Sincerely, Disgusted, Barnoldswick’ suggests that my ‘spin’ didn’t work.
Upping the age - and the spin!
For as long as I can remember, us hard-done to men have worked all day and then come home to the hunting and lighting the fire right up to the age of 65. Meanwhile our womenfolk, who have the far easier tasks of having babies, bringing up children, cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing have been able to retire at 60. Life has been so unfair until 1 April this year and the start of State Pension age equalisation. In our wildest dreams, we men thought equalisation meant reducing the male retirement age down to 60, but wise politicians recognised that wouldn’t have been in our best interests. The change itself has been well publicised, but what does it mean?
What do you want? - A fist, a truncheon or a nightmare?
The three main political parties have published their manifestos prior to the coming elections. All address issues of State Retirement Pension, Winter Fuel Payments, Tax Credits and getting people off benefits and back into work. Here’s what they are saying on these issues in a nutshell:
‘Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour.’
These words of the great Antarctic explorer Earnest Shackleton have been at the forefront of my thinking in the last week. Welfare rights work can be so exhilarating when things are going right and so frustratingly disappointing when they are not.
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