is incapacity benefit going to means tested?

Ewan154

Hi,
Hear on sky news that incapacity benefit going to means tested, does anyone know if this is true? It said on the news that people with saving over £16,000 will not get incapacity benefit.


I have savings over £16,000 and I am very worried:eek:

dmg24

No one knows anything yet. I would check again after the Spending Review tomorrow.

soolin

I think like a lot of things we will know more once the full review details have been announced.

The charity I work for is certainly gearing up to there being a lot of changes affecting benefits paid to people with disabilities though. We have already been formally told already that most of our funding we get to provide services will stop in 4 weeks time.

TOBRUK

As the others have said, no one will know exactly until the announcements today. Whatever you have heard from sky news or any other source so far have been speculation and none of us can predict what the changes will be.

Even after the announcement today I don't think we will be given the whole details for a while yet. I wouldn't be surprised if all benefits become means tested. I also wouldn't be surprised if some benefits will be merged and made simpler. Who knows maybe the limits of savings before payments are affected will possibly lower!

With DLA I wouldn't be surprised if the criteria before becominig eligible will change from what they are currently and therefore many will not be entitled to the lower rates - even the rates may change completely.

One thing I do know, I won't be surprised by any of their proposals and we will all find life a lot harder. I really don't think many people realise how hard things are going to become in general.

But hey, that is only my opinion!:D

cyberbob

As incapacity benefit doesn't exist as a new benefit and all people claiming this are being moved over to ESA the short answer is I doubt it as fewer and fewer people are on this benefit it wouldn't save much money anyway.

Personally I will be avoiding all news today so I can miss all the pointless speculation. Then tomorrow I will have a look and find out what actually is going to happen. There's little point getting worried over speculation it's better to wait for the facts.

24skins

Yeah, I agree with all the above - even though the announcements are being made today it'll take a little while for them to be analysed and made sense of. Don't panic right now.

TORBRUK wrote:

With DLA I wouldn't be surprised if the criteria before becominig eligible will change from what they are currently and therefore many will not be entitled to the lower rates - even the rates may change completely.

Again, just my opinion, but I've thought this for a while. The prediction made a few months back that there will be a 20% reduction in DLA paid out doesn't seem to make any sense right now, as there's nowhere near a 20% fraud rate. The obvious way to make a saving would be to move the goalposts and reduce the number of people who can actually claim DLA.

TOBRUK

I agree 24skins, and how could they predict making 20% savings ... where did they get this figure or percentage of faudulant claims. These figures were plucked out of the air without anything to back them up, and unless someone is caught how can they predict these savings?!

The only way to get near the 20% is to move the goalposts and make it harder to claim for these benefits.

One thing that amuses me (if you can call it that!) is that all these people who are dishing it out will never be in our position, in fact more than half the cabinet are millionaires and they will never feel any hardship .... yes Cameron, as you say ... we are all in this together!!

cyberbob

I see there will be a time limitation for those claiming ESA who are deemed capable of work. That's the most obvious one so far. (OK I lied I ended up watching some news Doh)

Ewan154

Hi,
Will Employment and Support Allowance be means tested?

TOBRUK

Well there isn't much detail with benefits ... it was announced that there would be a single universal credit - does this mean infact that IB/ESA, job seekers and IS will converge into one?!

I can't find anywhere any of the details - perhaps it will be a while before the details of each benefit is explained.

Well, I was surprised that cold weather payments are to be increased and be permanent!

TOBRUK

Ewan154 wrote: »

Hi,
Will Employment and Support Allowance be means tested?

It wasn't announced. All that was said was that there would be a reform on benefits with a single universal credit. From this I take that there will only be one benefit other than DLA which will stay.

There won't be an immediate change as they haven't worked it out yet. These changes he stated would be made over the next two terms of government so within 8 or should I say 10 years as they have extended government term to 5 years!