 |
access key options 
skip navigation what's new home site map search
disability benefits consortium home page
about us | appeals support | benefits | contact us | frequently asked questions | links | make a donation | membership | publications | services | tax credits | what you can claim
Work and Pensions Committee seventh report of session 2006-07 - benefits simplificationThis report concludes the UK benefit system has an "unacceptable level of dysfunctional complexity" which causes considerable operational difficulties and can contribute to financial hardship for claimants.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) alone administers around 40 benefits, allowances and grants, many of which have different eligibility criteria and governing rules. The tax credits system and other bodies add a further layer of complexity.
It found that there are recurrent problems of interaction between benefits, conflicting rules and entitlements which are affected by other parts of the benefits system. The process of administration can contribute further to complexity. Many rules reflect administrative constraints and poor administration causes problems.
It suggested that there are opportunities for merging some benefits, aligning the rules of eligibility and, where means-tests are necessary, the information required from claimants. The committee also favoured easier access for claimants with easily navigable on-line claim forms.
The Committee was disappointed that the Government has not set out a clear vision for a simplified system and asks that it should consider the case for radical reform, such as for a single age working benefit.
They note the role played by the Pensions Commission in assessing the options for UK pensions and propose the establishment of a Welfare Commission that can undertake a full examination of the possibility for fundamental change.
The government has responded to this report in its Third Special Report - Benefits Simplification: Government Response to the Committee's Seventh Report of Session 2006–07.
Disability Alliance gave both written and oral evidence to the committee. You can view our written submission in our Response to Work and Pensions Committee inquiry into benefit simplification.
Our oral submissions included the following:
On the interactions between benefits. These..
“actively work against people thinking ‘This is something that I can manage and achieve’ because of the concern around losing benefits or losing income and not fully understanding the situation.”
On the need for more universal (rather than means tested) benefits within the benefit system.
“I think that is where with means-tested benefits the problems arise, because they look to exclude people from entitlement, and the interactions between means-tested benefits, universal benefits and contribution-based benefits … If there were more universality within the benefits system, trying to include people, and, as I said earlier on, the DWP looking to identify entitlements rather than relying on people to identify those entitlements themselves, you could make some gains but that requires the political will.”
On failure to publicise housing benefit as an in-work benefit.
“..the information could be better to help people understand that you can keep housing benefit when you move into work, because I think people think it stops automatically because it is passported with a means-tested benefit.”
On students and benefits
“there are opportunities to go back to first principles and align some of the certain, basic definitions, and how they work around work and students’ earnings, some of these kind of things, because there are variations across benefits which we struggle to understand, let alone the staff who are working there and let alone the people who are actually trying to claim the benefits. Students is a good one: the miasma of rules around support for a part-time student across the benefits system is staggering really If people are going to be encouraged to go and study, it would make much more sense if there were certain basic definitions. We do not understand exactly why there are such wide differences across benefits. It would make sense, we think, if discrete areas were addressed in some of those issues.”
On the minimum wage.
“It is incongruous if one year someone can do a certain number of hours a week and keep a certain level of earnings but be unable to do the same the following year. This is exactly the position disabled people have found themselves in with the recent increase in the minimum wage.”
On a single working age benefit.
“We would want some very robust modelling of winners and losers in terms of particularly disabled working age adults, because they are one group who have been moving more deeply into relative poverty over the last ten years compared to people with children and compared to older people. There are issues around universality of disability benefits which we think could help to bridge some of that gap. So we are not against it in principle but we would be, as I say, very keen to see some robust modelling to make sure that the actual effects on disabled working age adults were taken care of.”
Note: for pdf files you will need to download adobe acrobat reader. To convert the pdf to alternative formats or for more information on accessibility go to access adobe.
