Guess Work?

Planning for retirement can be a nightmare and many opt for the first option offered because they believe financial 'experts' should know the most suitable products available.

Like many women in my age group, I gave little thought to the day when I reached the official age for retirement from full-time work and concerned myself with supporting my family. What little spare cash I had available was consumed by childcare costs, so I was older when I finally realised a private pension, no matter how small, was a sensible idea. I was wrong. Gordon Brown robbed me of my 'rainy-day' pension and it hardly pays for a hair cut once every six weeks.

There are 1.8 million people in later life living in poverty. Michelle Mitchell, charity director general of Age UK says: "Claiming pension credit can make a huge difference to someone's income and quality of life. The government needs to start an awareness programme and move more towards a system where the DWP pays entitlements rather than an individual having to work their way through the benefits maze."

An awareness programme wouldn't encourage today's pensioners to claim what many see as 'charity' and should they be persuaded to make a claim, thousands give up when faced with the paperwork involved because they consider the means test system an invasion of privacy.

A good friend of mine tried the process a few years ago. Firstly she completed the DWP's online pension credit assessment which said she may be entitled to some help, so duly encouraged she sent for the paperwork and returned it completed. After four months she telephone to ask why she hadn't had any response only to be told she wasn't entitled to anything because her income was £1.12p a week over the qualifying amount. When she asked if she could receive the adjudication and reasons in writing she was told, in a less than pleasant manner, that 'it didn't work like that' and she could re-apply in 12 months.  She hasn't. The thought of going through the process again is too daunting. Instead she sold her car and used the profit to help with every day bills.

Last autumn she was dreading the onset of winter and the prospect of ever-higher utility bills, but fortunately the winter here this year has been unusually mild, so she will manage to keep her head above water.

Heating bills are a pensioner's greatest worry and nobody should have to go without warmth in a country which professes to be caring.

I've no suggestions as to how government can make benefit entitlements less humiliating, but there is a new website which I'm told is 'user friendly', so if you know of anyone who may qualify for financial help point them towards it. Even better, if it's at all possible, give them help if necessary and don't forget - this website is not a replacement for the official paperwork. They may well need help with that too.

It's reported billions of pounds of benefits go unclaimed each year, according to figures from the DWP. Pensioners are one of the largest groups failing to claim. If the DWP knows that surely they must know who is entitled to them or are the figures purely guess work?

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The Wizardry of Os-borne and Cameron's Bricks

A guest post by John Souter.

A DWP spokesperson said: ‘Our Housing Benefit reforms are not designed to force people out of their homes. They are about restoring fairness to a system which has spiralled [sic] out of control and ensuring that benefit claimants make the same choices about affordability as everyone else.

‘Nearly two thirds of people currently in receipt of the Shared Accommodation Rate would be entitled to the one bedroom rate if they decided to live in self-contained accommodation. This shows that many of these people actually choose to share accommodation with others.

‘People in the most vulnerable situations will remain exempt, and those not exempt can be considered for extra help from the additional £130m is being made available through the Discretionary Housing Payment scheme to help smooth the transition of the Housing Benefit changes.’

Snake Oil Double Speak.

The £130 m is a promised maybe – the Discretionary Housing Payment must be reviewed every three months and is not guaranteed whether the same conditions still exists or not – the discretionary part is constant.

“Not designed to force people out of their homes” – a blatant lie.

And when challenged they cannot explain why it will not force people out of their homes when it’s already doing so.

‘People in the most vulnerable situations will remain exempt.” Another blatant lie – they refuse to define what or who they class as vulnerable.

A severely disabled woman had to take her local authority to the High Court because they refused her a bedroom allowance for the carers she needed to be with her overnight, they would only award her a single bedroom rate. She won and got back her £70 pw allowance, but her local authority is considering whether to appeal?

Here’s the rub, the L A is thinking of spending a fortune from its rates revenue (your money) in legal fees to take a case to appeal when in fact it only acts as an agent for the government? Makes you wonder just exactly how much we pay to be governed by incompetents.

The new DWP mantra is, we give you an upper limit based on 30% of the average cost for your area. If your existing rent is more and you cannot afford to pay the difference – move out and into a one bedroom slum.

They always quote the London rates, but if you check the local rates some are less than 40% of London’s.

This affordability maxim doesn’t just apply to the few shysters who managed to play the system on £20k to a supposedly £150k rent bill – (though its worthwhile remembering it was the same DWP that allowed these shysters to manipulate the old system! Just imagine somebody trying to get a Rolls on Motability – on second thought don’t. Given the DWPs record of competence you’ll probably find somebody has) – but to get back to the point; this will/does apply to people who have lived and invested in their rented home for years and, only when they come to retire on state pensions, or small private pensions which makes them applicable for housing and council tax benefits, will they be confronted with the ‘affordable’ option to up sticks and move.

Perhaps we should call it the Compulsory Geriatric Ghetto Option. But that’s unfair, because it will affect the young, middle unemployed, or underpaid, single parent families and old equally – to qualify; all you have to be is struggling.

This is Cameron’s Big Society ________ Now let’s get on with sorting out the NHS. There’s a lot of dividends floating in that.

John Souter

08/06/11

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Silence Is Not A Wise Decision Mr Moore

He's such a quiet man few know he exists.

Michael Moore MP represents the electorate of part of the Scottish borders, namely Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk.  He is a member of the Liberal Democrats.

Due to the indecision of the electorate last year and the infliction of a coalition government foisted upon the British electorate, he is also Secretary of State for Scotland and thereby represents Scotland within the UK government hierarchy.

Scotland has never had a Secretary of State - or what was known as a Scottish Secretary before that sobriquet became unfashionable - who has the slightest interest in the wellbeing of the Scots.  Their main aim is to stifle any controversy which would affect the Union.

However, Mr Moore has a responsibility to the folk in Scotland.  Part of that is his support of Scottish business in UK government tenders.

Some months ago the UK government tendered for organisations which could prepare unemployed people for work and find them suitable jobs.

The Glasgow based Wise group, a not-for-profit organisation, applied due to having one of the most successful track records in the UK of gaining employment for challenging clients.  They also fulfilled the tender requirement of 30% of the work being undertaken by the voluntary sector.  There is no other organisation in Scotland who can surpass the Wise Group's success - I keep a close eye on private businesses who insist they access work for those who many would class as unemployable - and the Wise Group do very well.

Mind you, if our education system was completely overhauled we may have more success, but that's another post altogether.

Now you would think the Wise Group were in a perfect position to assist people acquire work in Scotland wouldn't you?  Not according to the UK government who have given the contract to Working Links which said it would give 6% of the work to voluntary organisations and the other winner was Ingeus, with plans to involve the voluntary sector in 8%.  Neither company has any record in Scotland and in comparison with the Wise Group they have little interest in the voluntary sector.

As Scots we would think that immediately Michael Moore would be asking questions of the UK government's decision to award the contracts to companies based outside Scotland and with less worthy records than the Weir Group. He would have been battering the knocker on No 10 if he was really concerned.

Not so.  Mr Moore has been silent. Dumb. Speechless.  No explanation given by him  to the Weir Group about why the contracts went to companies why didn't fulfill the 30% voluntary sector specification.

The DWP now says a 30% or more involvement from the voluntary sector was an important part of the process but never a contract requirement.  Is that so?  Do I hear Michael Moore asking questions?  In this case the DWP know they are guilty of drafting tender documents in a misleading manner.

If cost was the main concern why did the tender not make it clear at the outset with the words 'the contract will be given to the lowest bidder'.

I have no idea if the the Wise Group's tender cost more than others yet it is of importance and relevance that the UK government issue tenders with particular specifications, yet ignore their specs and explain them away by the 30% voluntary credential requirements 'was an important part of the process but not a contract requirement'.

There has been a meeting with the Works and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling, Michael Moore and the bidders for the Scottish contracts but it failed to resolve the issue of the voluntary sector involvement.

Mr Moore has been woefully quiet on Scotland's behalf.  Is he thinking silence is a better option for his party's Holyrood electoral success?

Note:  All day I've had difficulty accessing the Wise Group site. I've tried access on Firefox too but with no success.  Perhaps you will have more luck.

Update:  The Wise group intend to take legal action.

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Tax and Pensions

Tax and pensions are not exciting news to many of us, but I would like to bring your attention to a few matters concerning the subjects.

Firstly, are you aware you could have paid too much tax this year?  The new HMRC computer system has sent the wrong code to thousands of us.  Although HMRC has admitted it is aware of the problem, it is mainly leaving it up to individuals affected to contact it to right the situation.

Here are 10 tips from the accountant Smith and Williamson to help you check your PAYE tax code is correct.

There are notable basic changes in the State Pension, particularly in the rise of ages at which it can be claimed.

The 'qualifying years' have also been altered.  Currently men normally need 44 and women 39 to receive the full basic state pension.  However, if you reach State Pension age on or after 6 April 2010, you will only need 30 qualifying years.

Quite a change.  In the past men and women had to work most of their lives to receive a full pension - there was little allowance given for anyone wishing to undertake further education and even less for women who wanted to take a few years off to have a family.  That now appears to have been addressed, but the monetary value of the state pension needs to be indexed linked to earnings.  For too many years it was not and that caused distress to many pensioners, who were also suffering from Gordon Brown's raid on their well planned pension pots.

Check out your eligibility.  It's never too early to know the future.

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Carers - Our Forgotten Workforce

I'm sure all of us knows at least one person who dedicates time to caring for someone but did you know that anyone caring for a loved one for a minimum of 35 hours a week receives £53.10 Carer's Allowance?

It is estimated there are six million unpaid carers in the UK who look after sick and disabled family and friends. In Scotland the number is 660,000. Their work saves the Scottish economy £5bn, almost the same as the cost of running the NHS in Scotland.

The Commons Public Accounts Committee has published a report which points out that around one-fifth of carers who receive benefits say they experience difficulties claiming.

Publishing the report, Edward Leigh, committee chairman, said: “Millions of people devote a large part of their time, often for many years, to caring for family or friends who are ill or disabled. But the value of the service they provide is not reflected in the quality of the DWP’s arrangements for providing them with financial support.”

He continued: “Carers who apply for benefits should not have to wade through official written guidance and communications that can range from the hard-to-understand to the downright incomprehensible. And they should not have to be jumping through unnecessary hoops to apply for benefits and allowances.”

This is one benefit which should be easily accessible. Carers are invaluable to our society and they should not have to tolerate the indignity of a sub-standard service from the Department of Work and Pensions.

Source: Herald

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