I'll be interested to see how the changes to Universal Benefits (or whatever it's called) trickles down. I'm on some "mommy boards" and the way people work the system truly amazed me. And it's a reflection of the UK and how kind it is.
Not really. The new welfare system is based on ideas by the long standing (real Labour) MP Frank Fields, to stamp out child poverty. He was ("New" Labour) Blair's Minister of Welfare Reform and presented this new welfare state idea to Blair. But Blair preferred Brown's "Tax Credit benefit" idea and called them "a vote winner". Frank Field called Blair/Brown's Tax Credit benefits a "poverty trap" and resigned his ministerial post but remained on the Labour's back benches.
About five years after that new welfare payment called Tax Credits came in, the UK's annual welfare bill, for the first time ever, was more than the governmnent took in income tax, the UKs gold reseves were sold and the coffers were empty. The Tax Credit benefit bill alone is billions every year.
The Labour government started looking at changes to cut the welfare bill. They brought in medicals for those who claim they are sick and/or disabled for benefits and appointed an outside firm called ATOS for these medicals. I read on one of the welfare forums that they then started to look at Frank Field's welfare reform ideas and ran a trial.
New Labour lost the election and the next government and govermments' after that (Conservatives and Liberals) ran with the real Labour Frank Field's welfare ideas to stamp out child poverty and this is the new system. Universal Credit is just part of these welfare reforms.
Another novel idea under the welfare reforns is that younger people who marry pensioners on another low income benefit that was created called Pension Credit, will no longer be able to get those benefits too and will instead have to work to keep their pensioner spouse. It's also starting to look like that this new benefit will be removed too, along with the short lived "Tax Credits" benefit that is ending
All these welfare reforms took a while as it needed new laws. Frank Field helped with this but said he had no intention of leaving (the real) Labour even though he was helping the Conservatives and the Liberals change the welfare state to his ideas.
All the MPs for all parties, then voted and decided to cap the UK's ever growing annual welfare bill. New governments coming in will be the ones to decide which benefits they will cut or end, to stick to that cap.
Under the welfare reforms, the income based benefits are going to be based on minimum earnings instead of hours worked.
e.g. Parents with one teenage child can claim Child Tax Credit to help keep their child if their joint earnings are below the poverty cap for one child of about 26k, as there is no requirement for them to earn any money or to earn more money, nor to work a full week, nor to work every week. Whereas the replacement benefit Universal Credit, has a minimum income requirements for the parents and in this case, both parents would be expected to work at least 35 hours per week, every week and earn at least the minimum hourly wage (£7.83 x 70) x 52 = £28,501). Their MIR is £274.05 per week, per parent.
Both parents would then be keeping their own child instead of asking the welfare state to do that as they now earn more than the poverty cap for one child.
If one or both parent claimants wants to be self employed, their benefit claim will be based on either their wage or their own MIR, whicher is the highest. Whereas under the old Tax Credits system, their benefit claim would be based on what they earn from SE, even if that was just say about £30 a week for the 16/24/30 hours a week they claimed to be working and they had been doing SE for years and not increased their wage.
