Reformed Benefit System for 2010+:

A serious review of the benefit culture in the United Kingdom needs to take place and the systems in
place of who and how people recieve there money needs to be investigated and checked. We
currently have one of the biggest welfare states in the world and it is the messiest and most
complicated problem the goverment will encounter in this term in my opinion. The problem stems from
the fact that it has been a long time since the last full benefit system review and the governments
(mainly Labour) have added many benefits and grants to the sytems since then. We now have loads
of choices of benefits and grants that anyone with the right savvy can gain with no real systems
implemented to check whether they really need them. I was shocked to read a story of an elderly
woman who recieved Winter Fuel Payments who didn’t really need them because she could afford
her energy bill. However, when she rang the department asking how to return the money they told her
to keep it as they had no system in place to ret urn it. Another problems lies within the departments
which are all seperate and seem to have no idea of the word communication. Wouldn’t it be better to
centralise the benefit offices.

So here I present a new idea for a Reformed Benefit System for 2010+:

SECTION A: The Benefits Themselves

SECTION B: The Tier System

SECTION C: Centralisation

SECTION D: Applications

SECTION A: The Benefits Themselves

Benefits in the current state is a very complex o peration.

Theres a lot of choic e. The major benefits include Basic State Pension, Child benefit , Disability Living
Allowance, Education Maintenance Allowance, Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), Local
Housing Allowance, Pension Credit, Student fi nance system and Working tax credit. Then there’s an
enormous amount of extra grants and payments that can be recieved.

By combining these benefits and grants people can rake in enormous amounts of money that well
exceed the money neccesaary for them to live and there legally entitled to it because the sytem
allows them too.

The first thing to do is repeal all ot her laws regarding the benefits system so the slate is clean and a
new set of benefits can be brought in. I would also rec ommned there renamed to simpler titles and
combined when there so similar to slimline processess and make it easier for people to understand.

Overall benefit rules then need to be added to state specific items such as punishments for mislcaims
among others and most importantly a clause that states to claim a benefit you must be a legal
resident living in the U.K. preventing anyone, native or not, from claiming benefits whilst abroad.

A new set of major benefits I would rec ommend would be:

Pension Allowance (Combines State pension and Pension Credit)

Still two pensions but recieved under one name. Part a would give everybody a set amount and then
a rolling earnings based Part b of the pension would be added on top.

Di sability Allowance (Reformed)

An indpendant doctor, not a GP, wo uld have to assess the individual and if neccessary a specialist
assesment aswell which would then be sent by them to the offices where they would individually
analyse the case and state your entitlement. There should also be a cirumvention that when peopl e
try to fraud the system, they report the individual and their blocked for 5 years from claiming any
benefits. If they need an attenddee these circumstances would be met but this should also consider
the Total Annual Spend.

Jobseekers Allowance
A maximum 6 month allowance of weekly pay with weekly checks, not fortnightly. Provide free
lessons in English and C.V writing and I. T Skills and provide training after six months. If a job is
offered, or they don’t show without reason or any other rule breaks then cut instantly and don’t
reprovide.

Scrap income support as the new benefits should provide all that is neccessary.

Minor benefits and grants:

Child Allowance (Combines Child Benefit and Working Tax Credit)

A combined allowance of the old Child Benefit and Working Tax Credit that has been tinkered and
toyed with so much it makes no sense. These trivial payments had been available to literally anyone
rich or poor. My propos al is a simple payment of a fix ed rate, ideally something like £20 for the first
child , £10 for the second and then no more. Also, the payment should only be for children below the
age of 11. This would also only be available to people who are under a certain Total Annual Spend of
an agreed liveable amount – around £20,000 for example.

Adoption Allowance
If you have adopted a child the Child Allowance should double to compensate for the fact. That’s it,
the person decided to adopt the child, they shouldn’t do it just for money.

Bereavement Allowance
Same rules kept

School Allowance
If the Total Annual Spend is below a said amount and they have more than one child then the
children excluding the first would be eligible for free school meals and uniform vouc hers could be
dispatched for all children in the summer.

Cold Weather Allowance

This is a special allowance only available for those who recieve Fuel Allowance in times or
emergency such as excessive snow or dangerous winters.

Fuel Allowance
Vouchers available to those under a certain bracket of the Tot al Annual Spend would have a
percentage of their fuel (gas and electric) paid for them.

Housing Allowance
Move to government not council and make it a £400 payment maximum dependant on neccesarry
requirements of tenants only avilable to those on low income compared to the annual threshold in the
diagram.

Student Allowance (EMA and Student Loans in one department)

Share the same information. Claim EMA and it rolls straight into University grants. EMA however
should be less, around £15 for all below £20,000 earners and thats it. It’s a bloated waste of money
anyway. The E.M.A system could be taken away altogether if it was deemed unneccesary.

Scrap Funeral Paym ents, The Laptop Scheme, Child Trust Funds, Community Care Grants,
Guardians Allowance, Di scretionary Housing Payment, Maternity Grant and Budgeting Loans
and many other farcicle paym ents I haven’ t yet found in the mass of paym ents on offer.

SECTION B: The Tier System

 I propose a new tier system to managing the nation’s benefits. Not only would it allow a fairer system
but it would help reform a culture and people could also easily see whether they are entitled to recieve
certain benefits.

The tier system would work like the diagram below. Theres the first tier which would include Income
and Major benefits. This would create a total house income unlike the Income now which doesnt
count your major benefits. This would then decide whether you are entitled to benefits in the second
tier which are optional and income assessed.

Minor Benefits and Grants

e.g
Working House Income
Benefit A
T.A.S
+
Major Benefits = (Total Annual
if T.A.S is lower than X you are
entitled to this benefit.

Benefit B
Spend)
if T.A.S is lower than Y you are
entitled to this benefit.

This would creat e a fair and easy way of assessing the real needs of the citizens of this count ry and
preventing people from claiming money they don’t require through previous loopholes. It also provides
an easy way to manage benefits and add or remove benefits later on if neccessarry or desired.

SECTION C: Centralisation

Another problem in the benefit departments of the goverment is the lack of communication and
understanding. All these different departments and phone numbers and websites and paperwork and
having to send ‘evidence’ that the goverment should really already have and it creat es a mess and
potentially wastes lots of money and time. I sugggest a good way of saving money would be to
centralise all the departments into one Department for Benefits, streamlining the goverment and
making it easy not only for the people that work there, but also citizens aswell who know theres one
place to call for all their needs and everything will be there with hopefully no hassles.

SECTION D: Applications

The one gripe often with many people is paperwork. People hate it, businesses hate it, things get muddled
and lost across departments and sending many letters to many differnet people is not very green. To save
money and the enviroment it would be possibler to have just one form. Providing the departments are
centralised, there could be just one simple book asking for all required information for the year in co-
operation with the Inland Revenue, and this infromation could all be put on the computer and it’s sorted. No
asking for evidence from people because it’s not in your department because it would be on the c omputer.
It could also be made available online making the process even easier.