about disability rights uk advisers benefits coalition on charging contact da disability benefits consortium home links membership policy and campaigns search shop site map skill website support da tax credits what's new

Dynamic Benefits: Towards Welfare That Works

A Policy Report by the CSJ Economic Dependency Working Group

16 September 2009

This report, by the Centre for Social Justice, proposes to reduce unemployment and benefit dependency by replacing the current unwieldy 51 benefit system with a new Universal Credit Scheme.

The Universal Credits scheme would be a single benefit with two components:

• Universal Work Credit, for those out of work or on very low wages. This will combine jobseeker's allowance, income support and incapacity benefit/employment and support allowance
• Universal Life Credit, to cover additional living expenses for all those on low incomes. This will combine housing benefit, council tax benefit, disability living allowance, working tax credit and child tax credit.

To encourage employment and remove disincentives to work the report proposes a single universal benefit withdrawal rate of 55% on post-tax earnings above the earnings disregards. The household earnings level below which all benefits are retained would also be raised.

Incapacity for work

Dynamic Benefits is primarily concerned with incentives into work. It sees the route out of poverty as being through work. It assumes that those claimants who currently fit into the work-related activity group for employment and support allowance (ESA) will eventually be encouraged to find work.

Page 290 of the report states

"We are able to split the payment of extra living costs to those who are disabled (whether or not they work), with an adjustment of work expectations for the subset of those disabled who truly cannot work. There would be no direct financial losers or winners from this proposal. However, it would mean that those currently on ESA/DLA who are able to work despite their disability, would be entitled to appropriate extra payment, while also being expected to seek work, and be given all the necessary support to do so."

The report offers little, in its 369 pages, for those claimants in the ESA support group. There is no suggestion that their benefits will be raised.

There is no mention of ensuring people who are eligible but do not currently claim benefits like DLA would be fast-tracked into securing additional support through a simplified system. DA believes that benefit take-up must be tackled to address poverty.

There is also no mention of how, in the face of the current economic downturn, the CSJ would ensure jobs were available or how disability discrimination would be tackled in employer recruitment policies an issue which affects many disabled people.

You can download the full report and a summary from the Centre for Social Justice Website.

More information

• centre for social justice website

back