Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

If the current rate of case reviews continues at the present level, it will take 38 years to complete.

Because they are so far behind, many new claims for ESA are being simply shoved into the Support Group and reviews are being waved through.

This, the mess that they have made of trying to introduce Universal Credit and the transference of claimants from DLA to PIP has caused them to be spending more and not less as intended on sickness/disability benefits.

I think that the reasons that they will try to cut ESA will be to simply balance the books ie making sick and disabled people pay for their mistakes. If these proposals were in place today, affected ESA recipients would receive the equivalent of JSA + 50p.

To give people an idea of the severity of these cuts, the current rates of JSA for single people are £51.75 for people aged 18 to 24 and £71.40 for those aged 25 and over.

I was part of an advisory/consultation body to the Government on welfare reform. Time and time again the Government were urged to test out new systems and take things slowly.

They ignored many of our recommendations and went ahead anyway, believing that they knew best.

Despite all these obvious problems, Ian Duncan Smith is still spouting on that Universal Credit will be introduced on time. Even DWP staff are anonymously talking to the media about a lack of training, IT systems that don't work etc.

I've never known the social security system in this country to be in such a mess.

---------- Post added at 20:36 ---------- Previous post was at 19:15 ----------



This sounds like asylum seekers. They receive the normal JSA rates, minus 40%. To these people this is still a lot of money and is paid in full by the British taxpayer as these people haven't paid anything into the system and are not allowed to work.

Whilst I agree that the social security budget has to be brought under control, I don't think that targetting the most vulnerable in our country is the right way to do it. They could make a start by stopping the sending of Child Benefit abroad to the families of EU migrants for children that have never set foot in this country.

Action should be taken to deal with families where generations have never worked and where women have child after child expecting us to pay for it. Ultimately, I believe that in the most extreme cases the Government will have to consider forced sterilisation. Such families have become an underclass who contribute nothing to society or themselves. These people give genuine benefit claimants a bad name and need to be taught that having children is a privilage and not a right.

I also believe that all immigrants should be screened for diseases that are dangerous to us and costly to the NHS. For the first time in years, the number of cases of AIDS has increased, mostly due to immigrants arriving here with the disease.

Ascertainment should also be sought as to what immigrants* are going to BRING to the UK, as opposed to how we can help them- no matter how dire their circumstances are. We are not and can never be a world social security system. *The issue of EU immigrants is problematic, unless reform or withdrawal is considered.

The Government has decided that it is not only the unemployed who should look for work, but also most sick and disabled people, their carers and lone parents with a child over school age.

Where are all these jobs going to come from, especially if immigration is not brought under control??

I believe that the Government know that there aren't the jobs for all these people and just want to reduce their benefits.