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Ben Baumberg Geiger's avatar

Interestingly, the OBR 2024 Welfare Trends Report (that I blogged about at https://inequalities.substack.com/p/obr-new-welfare-trends-report) did sound more sympathetic to my interpretation above - they say "The greater generosity of incapacity benefits relative to unemployment benefits has not changed materially in this period [since 2018-19], but the large gap may be a more important consideration for potential claimants when cost-of-living pressures are more acute." Figure 3.7 (and the discussion around it) also mentions that the lack of the Severe Disability Premium in UC (compared to ESA) is another issue to be aware of.

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Fran's avatar

Very interesting. Got sent here by Stephen bush at the ft. I used to work for a charity helping people with their finances and tbh I only ever met one client who managed to balance their budget on JSA/standard UC alone (the trick is never take a bus, don’t have bedroom tax/LHA, never buy new shoes, don’t have internet, tv or a mobile phone). We would encourage people go for LCW/LCWRA/PIP because of the massive difference it works make to their income, and it’s so hard not to care when people are struggling to feed their kids and keep the bailiffs from their door.

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