#Mel Stride MP

[insidecroydon]

How the 'lifestyle choices' of Tory millionaires is taking the PIP

Is there no vulnerable section of society that this Conservative Government won’t try to undermine? In his latest column, ANDREW FISHER, right, looks into the latest attacks on disabled people Whenever Conservative governments are in trouble they reach not for solutions, but for scapegoats. For weeks, in the run-up to this month’s local elections, the Conservatives spoke of little else other than…

[davidhencke]

Mel Stride roasted over his " no undue delay" posture on compensating the 3.5 million 50swomen who had waited a decade to get justice

Mel Stride Not one MP in Parliament came to the rescue of Mel Stride, the work and pension secretary, when he made his initial statement on the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report which concluded that there was maladministration over the delay in communicating the six year delay to women in the 1950s and either Parliament or the DWP should compensate them. Essentially it was a holding statement…

[head-post]

UK Conservatives pick Rishi Sunak’s successor

Six candidates are vying to replace Rishi Sunak as leader of the UK Conservative Party.

The leadership race was announced on July 5, when then Prime Minister Sunak announced his intention to step down as party leader following the Labour Party’s victory in the general election.

The contest, which began on July 24, is expected to last three months and Sunak’s successor is expected to be confirmed on November 2.

Sunak will remain acting party leader until a successor is appointed.

The nomination of candidates began at 7:00 p.m. on July 24 and closed at 2:30 p.m. on Monday. According to the procedure, candidates need the support of 10 colleagues to pass on.

The Conservative Party said James Cleverly (former foreign and home secretary), Priti Patel (former home secretary), Tom Tugendhat (former security minister), Robert Jenrick (former immigration minister), Mel Stride (former work and pensions secretary), and Kemi Badenoch (ex-business secretary) were confirmed for the first round of the election.

The election process in UK

Under the rules, candidates will campaign and meet with party members across the country in August.

Each candidate needs the support of at least 10 other MPs to be nominated. The list of candidates will later be narrowed down to four people who will address the Conservatives at the party’s conference in the autumn. After that, the list will be narrowed down to two candidates. Finally, there will be an election among party members and the new Conservative leader will be officially announced.

Parliamentary elections were held in the UK in July, which ended in defeat for the Conservatives. The Labour Party won 411 of the 650 seats in parliament, while the Conservatives managed to win only 121 seats. Afterwards, Sunak announced that he would step down as leader of the Conservative Party as soon as a replacement was found.

The Conservatives have been in power in the UK since 2010.

Read more HERE

[forgot-how-catflap-works]

Meet the ghouls squabbling for power in the race to rule the Tories

Tory MPs are donning their robes and sharpening their sacrificial blades this week as they prepare to ritualistically cull a second candidate from the Conservative Party leadership race.��

Priti Patel was eliminated last week after securing just 11.9% of the vote, which already sounds quite embarrassing, then you do the maths and realise that’s a total of 14 votes. Considering the sheer number of controversies that litter her political career like dog shit in a play park, I’m amazed she didn’t perform better.  

(Formerly of the tobacco industry, Patel voted in favour of overturning the smoking ban because she recognises that mainly poor people use public spaces so, y’know, fuck ‘em.) 

Patel resigned as Home Secretary in 2017 after attending up to a dozen private, unsanctioned meetings with Israeli officials where departmental business was discussed while she was on holiday.

This gross breach of the ministerial code wasn’t enough to prevent her from being reinstated to the position under Boris Johnson’s government, where she dedicated herself to ruthlessly targeting asylum seekers, lobbying for pharmaceutical companies during the height of COVID, and bullying her staff. 

Next up on the chopping block appears to be Mel Stride MP who narrowly escaped elimination last round with a whopping 16 votes. 

(Launching his campaign, Stride said the Tories need to “build trust with the electorate again", presumably so they can get right back to abusing it.)  

Mr Stride served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury in Theresa May’s cabinet, when he spearheaded the controversial loan charge policy which – as of January 2024 – has been linked to ten suicides. He was then elected as chair of the Treasury select committee, effectively securing himself a position where he was the one responsible for scrutinising his own dastardly deeds and, unsurprisingly, finding nothing to be concerned about. 

Former Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat limped a single vote ahead of Stride in the first round. Tugendhat is notable only in how boring he is, and hasn’t even breached the ministerial code once (that we know of). Total amateur. His strategy appears to be to fly below the radar, presumably in the hope the other candidates will destroy each other and he can rule over the ashes. 

(Having already lost one leadership race to Liz Truss of all people, Tugendhat looks like a surefire bet to lose another.) 

A former soldier, Tugendhat holds some classically conservative positions like increased military spending, opposition to the European Court of Human Rights and wanting a cap on immigration but these days that’s a mild salsa. He appears moderate compared to the others, and lacks the brain rot and crypto-fascist brainworms that UK conservatives have been steadily importing from America over the last decade. The most interesting thing about him is that he had to change his campaign slogan because the acronym spelled TURD. 

Now we’re done with the dregs, let's take a look at the front runners starting with weed smoking, Warhammer playing, porn enjoyer James Cleverly. That makes him sound much more interesting than he is. Having previously filled both the Home and Foreign secretary positions, Cleverly has long had leadership aspirations.  

(Cleverly once had to apologise for an “ironic joke” about spiking his wife’s drink with rohypnol during a Westminster reception, apparently being both a weird creep and not understanding the definition of irony.) 

Another paint-by-numbers Tory, he stirred up a fuss a few years ago by saying that gay football fans should show "a little bit of flex and compromise" when visiting Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He added that it was "important when you're a visitor to a country that you respect the culture of your host nation." Cleverly it seems considers a seven year prison sentence for being gay little more than a cultural quirk rather than something queer football fans might have legitimate concerns over. Basically saying reign it in lads, no need to be homo in public. 

Landing in second place during the last vote is former Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch who claimed in a speech last year that transgender people could transition “too easily”. This is supported by the fact that waiting times for an initial assessment are as high as seven years in some parts of the country, so that definitely tracks. Badenoch clearly knows what she is talking about. 

(Speaking on the Spectator podcast, Badenoch said the Tories need to “stop acting like Labour”. I can only assume she misinterpreted the narrowing ideological gap between Labour and Tories as a softening in her party’s ranks rather than a calcification of right wing leanings in Westminster.) 

Characterised as an “anti-woke” politician, she has also supported conversion therapy for trans people. Speaking like someone who has never actually heard themselves talk, she also claimed that providing gender affirming care for trans kids was a “form of conversion therapy” intended to turn gay kids trans. It’s ironclad reasoning and, as a trans dyke, I value above all else the perspective of a cisgender, hetrosexual woman in all matters relating to queer issues. If anyone is going to lay down the law on who gets to be gay and in what way, it should be her. 

Badenoch bravely announced during a recent campaign video that she was unafraid of fictional character Doctor Who. Furthermore, as a woman of colour, she believes that Britain is not institutionally racist, so we can all stop worrying about that now. What a relief, I was starting to get really concerned about it. You know, what with all the institutional racism that’s been going around. But turns out that was a false alarm, which is probably why she also said “I don’t care about colonialism”. 

Badenoch came out swinging on the subject, making claims broader than my fat ass in order to minimise the brutality of Britain's well-documented colonial history. 

"There was never any concept of 'rights', so [the] people who lost out were old elites not everyday people,” she said in some leaked WhatsApp messages. It’s a relief to know that the three million people who died in the 1943 Bengal Famine were all elites. 

Lego figure cosplayer Robert Jenrick is the current frontrunner, having secured 28 votes in the first round. Jenrick served as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government under Boris Johnson where he dedicated himself to pulling political favours for luxury property developer and Tory party donor Richard Desmond. The move allowed Desmond to avoid paying a community council levy of £40 million which could have been used to fund schools and health clinics. 

(Courting the far right voters who flocked to Reform in the last election, Jenick resigned from his position as immigration minister, saying the policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda didn’t go far enough.)

Grenfell United, the pressure group dedicated to securing justice for the victims of the Grenfell fire refused to meet with Jenrick in 2020, saying: "Your perceived focus on the interests of property developers over the needs of an impoverished local community has soured our opinion of you.” 

Jenrick also served as Minister of State for Immigration where he took aim at the greatest threat to our nation: unaccompanied asylum seeking children. During a visit to an intake centre in Kent last year he reportedly told staff to paint over a mural depicting cartoons and animals, saying it was a “law enforcement environment” and “not a welcome centre”. 

Finally, someone had the courage to put those kids in their place. If they wanted to experience even a single moment where they felt safe, or like they weren’t completely alone in this terrifying and hostile world, they shouldn’t have crossed the bloody channel should they? They need to learn that actions have consequences, unless of course you’re a Tory politician then you can basically just get away with whatever and certainly not have your political ambition stymied in the slightest. That would be unfair.  

With such political titans in the running, Labour should be quaking in its boots. This gaggle of ghouls is among the finest we could hope for, and the fact that they each crave power enough to run the highest office in the land should in no way concern anyone. As the old adage goes: Power corrupts, but only if you’re a little bitch. 

Which of these unscrupulous, foreigner hating, homophobes will proceed to the next round? Tory MPs will be casting their vote today in order to separate the wheat from the chaff, and trim the eligible candidates down to four. 

This three month slog is only just beginning, so buckle your pants because we have to put up with this fucking circus until November.

[eaglesnick]

“After your older, two things are possibly more important than any others: Health and money.”  Helen Gurley Brown

The hot air around the state pension, the triple lock, and affordability continues. And is all a smoke screen for the fact that Britain has one of the lowest state pensions in the OECD.

Last year we had this headline:

State pension triple lock ‘utterly unaffordable’ and will 'bankrupt UK', Tory MP declares."  (Mirror: 21/11/22)

Yesterday we had:

“Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride admits triple lock is 'not sustainable’ in the long-term."  (itvx: 12/09/23)

And

“Treasury officials are discussing a one-off break from the pensions triple lock that could save £1bn by preventing a bumper 8.5% increase in the state pension next year."  (Guardian: 12/09/23)

You would think the government was literally giving away money to pensioners if you took the right-wing press and Tory politicians seriously. (Starmer is no better)  The truth is very different.

In 2018 it was reported that the UK had:

“He lowest pension rate in the developed world… pensioners in the United Kingdom suffer from the worst deal of any OECD country, receiving just 29% of a working wage when they retire. To put this into perspective, the OECD average is 63% and the average for EU member states is 71%. Elsewhere, the pension rate in the United States is 49%, while in China, which is home to more than 1.4 billion people, the rate is 83%, OECD data shows."  (weforum.org:23/02/18)

That was five years ago. Little has changed since then.

“The UK spends very little on state pensions compared to other European countries and has the highest percentage of pensioners in poverty, despite tax reliefs on workplace and private pensions,… The UK government only spends 4.7% of GDP on state pensions, much less than many other countries in Europe."  (Trustnet:10/11/22)

So next time you see a politician wringing their hands and sadly bemoaning the fact that the triple lock for pensioners is unaffordable know that the tears shed are of the crocodile variety and nothing could be further from the truth.

[mariacallous]

Liz Truss is fighting for her political survival, with Conservative MPs threatening to oust her and even allies warning she has just days to turn around her premiership despite ripping up her economic strategy and appointing Jeremy Hunt as chancellor.

The beleaguered prime minister will attempt to shore up her crumbling support by gathering her cabinet ministers at No 10 on Monday evening and then embarking on a series of meetings with mutinous Tory MPs before the next budget in a fortnight’s time.

After crisis talks at Chequers over their new fiscal plan on Sunday, Hunt insisted that Truss was still “in charge” despite her increasingly perilous position, as he warned of further public spending cuts and failed to rule out more U-turns on her disastrous mini-budget including scrapping the 1p cut to the income tax base rate.

Ministers will wait anxiously for the markets to open – the first test of whether Truss’s decision to sack Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and tear up her mini-budget will be enough – amid fears that sterling could head towards parity with the dollar and rising bond yields put upward pressure on mortgage rates.

Labour leader Keir Starmer increased pressure on Truss, calling on her to make an urgent Commons statement on Monday, with party insiders saying they would do everything possible to force her to come.

“The prime minister says she is in charge but the evidence this weekend suggests she is in office but not in power,” he said.

A poll by Opinium for the Trades Union Congress using the MRP method to estimate constituency-level results, projected a 1997-style landslide for Labour, with the party winning 411 seats.

It suggests the Conservatives would lose 219 seats to end up on 137, with the Liberal Democrats on 39 seats and SNP on 37, with 10 cabinet ministers including Jeremy Hunt, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Thérèse Coffey losing their seats in a general election, along with former prime minister Boris Johnson.

Meanwhile, plotting at Westminster continued with a group of senior Tory MPs, many of them supporters of Rishi Sunak, planning to meet on Monday night for a dinner hosted by ex-Treasury minister Mel Stride, amid speculation that as many as 100 no confidence letters have been submitted to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee.

The veteran Tory MP Crispin Blunt was the first to go public in calling for Truss to step down, saying he did not think the prime minister could survive the current crisis. “I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed,” he said.

The former minister, who was the first MP to call for Iain Duncan Smith to quit as party leader back in May 2003, told Channel 4: “If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change, then it will be effected. Exactly how it is done and exactly under what mechanism … but it will happen.”

Another backbencher, Jamie Wallis, who entered parliament in 2019, broke cover and joined the call for Truss to quit, confirming to the Guardian that he had submitted a no confidence letter.

“In recent weeks, I have watched as the government has undermined Britain’s economic credibility and fractured our party irreparably. Enough is enough. I have written to the prime minister to ask her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of this country,” he said.

Later on Sunday, Andrew Bridgen told the Daily Telegraph: “We cannot carry on like this. Our country, its people and our party deserve better.”

As she tries to stave off open rebellion, Truss will this week continue her meetings with small groups of Tory backbenchers as she desperately tries to convince them to back her, while Hunt will hold a series of roundtables on the economy for MPs.

However, Downing Street insiders acknowledged the prime minister’s position was extremely fragile. “Her decision to bring Jeremy on board buys us some time. The budget will look very different now. But we’re taking one day at a time,” one said.

Another government insider suggested that it would be “one helluva gamble” for Tory MPs to try to oust the prime minister when there was no obvious successor to take over from her. But one leading rebel said: “I don’t see how Liz can survive. Jeremy is a good man but her credibility is below zero.”

The executive of the 1922 Committee will meet on Wednesday, as usual, with members expected to discuss the precariousness of the prime minister’s position. However, officers of the committee are expected to meet today. Sources close to Brady have suggested he would feel compelled to tell Truss to stand down or face defeat in a vote.

The group’s treasurer, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, told the BBC that the rules that keep Truss safe in office for a year could be ditched if enough Tory MPs support it. “Of course we have the power to change the rules,” he said.

However, he added that such a move would require the backing of a substantial number of Tory MPs. “We will only change the rules if it is very clear that a large majority, by which I mean probably 60% to 70%, of the party want the rules to be changed.”

The new chancellor, appointed after the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng in a day of chaos on Friday, has spent the weekend trying to offer reassurance that the government had control of the economy.

Yet Hunt painted a grim picture of what it would take to stabilise it after a turbulent few weeks during which the government scrapped plans to cut the 45p top rate of income tax and freeze corporation tax. He is also understood to be considering pushing back by a year plans to cut a penny off income tax next April.

“We are going to have to take some very difficult decisions, both on spending and on tax,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. “Spending is not going to increase by as much as people hoped and indeed we’re going have to ask all government departments to find more efficiencies than they had planned. Taxes are not going to go down as quickly as people thought, and some taxes are going to go up.”

Treasury sources admitted that even defence spending, which Truss had promised to increase by 3% of GDP, and the health service would face cuts. The Office for Budget Responsibility is understood to have identified a black hole in the public finances of £72bn – even greater than the £62bn outlined by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last week.

Truss’s remaining allies hope that Hunt’s appointment, and Truss’s dramatic U-turns on tax, will buy her enough time to get through to the budget on 31 October. Tory MPs are also struggling to coalesce around one obvious replacement.

Sunak, who came first among MPs in the leadership contest, remains the favourite, although Penny Mordaunt, who came third is understood to be sounding out colleagues and defence secretary Ben Wallace, popular among Tory members but who did not run last time, could also be a candidate for an effective Tory coronation.

On Sunday night Mordaunt used an article in the Telegraph to call on her party colleagues to back the embattled prime minister, saying the country needed “stability, not a soap opera”.

“There is a talented team of energetic and dedicated public servants at every level of government in this country. They are matched by leaders in just about every field of human endeavour. They know the problems we face are difficult and complex,” she said.

“The national mission though is clear, as the prime minister said. That is what we should all focus on now. It needs pragmatism and teamwork. It needs us to work with the prime minister and her new chancellor. It needs all of us.”

Truss starts her most difficult week in power yet faced with speculation that she could be gone by the end of it. “Lots of my colleagues are facing wipeout at the next election and they may conclude that it’s better to try to get rid of her now and spend the next 18 months rebuilding,” one MP who supported Truss said.

Robert Halfon, a senior Tory backbencher, warned that a general election now would be a “bloodbath” for his party. He said Truss should apologise to the British people for “the mess of the past few weeks”, warning “it has to happen pretty soon, I can’t give you hours or days”.

[harpianews]

Four remain in Tory leadership contest, Mel Stride out

BBC The Conservative leadership race has been narrowed to four candidates after former Cabinet minister Mel Stride dropped out of a vote of Tory MPs. This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published soon. Please refresh the page for the full version. You can receive breaking news on your smartphone or tablet bbc news app. You can also follow e @BBCBreaking on Twitter…

[sa7abnews]

Tom Tugendhat: I can replicate Starmer and lead Conservatives to power in one term

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/06/tom-tugendhat-i-can-replicate-starmer-and-lead-conservatives-to-power-in-one-term/

Tom Tugendhat: I can replicate Starmer and lead Conservatives to power in one term

Tom Tugendhat has insisted he can replicate the recent electoral feat of Keir Starmer and lead the Conservative Party back to power in just one parliamentary term. It came as Tugendhat, the shadow security minister, joined James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, in announcing he wants to be the next Conservative leader. Nominations in the party leadership contest opened at 7 pm on Wednesday and close at 2.30 pm on 29 July. Candidates will need the support of 10 MPs in order to make it onto the ballot paper. According to the rules of the contest, Conservative MPs will then need to narrow down to four candidates, who will make their case to party members at the Conservative conference this autumn. The four candidates will then be whittled down to a final two, with the winner chosen by party members and announced on 2 November. ***Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest election news and analysis.*** Tugendhat, the former security minister, was questioned over whether during he believed he could win an election as leader in just five years’ time. He told BBC Breakfast: “Yes, it is possible to do that. You’ve got to restore trust. You’ve got to demonstrate delivery and you’ve got to be able to listen to the British people to make sure you understand where the challenges are. “But you can look at what Keir Starmer achieved, frankly, he went from his worst electoral result to his best in five years. We can do the same but we need to be united. We need to regain the trust of the British people and we need to be ready to deliver.” Tugendhat’s comments came after shadow home secretary James Cleverly became the first Conservative to declare his candidacy for the party’s leadership on Tuesday Cleverly, who held a number of senior roles in government, revealed his decision in a video on social media. In the post, which saw him return to his childhood home in southeast London, Cleverly said the Conservatives needed to “re-establish our reputation as the party who, in government, helps grow the economy, helps people achieve their goals, their dreams, and their aspirations”. Several Conservative MPs are expected to announce they are running for their party’s leadership over the coming days, including shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick and Dame Priti Patel.  Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here. Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest election news and analysis. The post Tom Tugendhat: I can replicate Starmer and lead Conservatives to power in one term .

[novumtimes]

Priti Patel becomes fifth to declare Tory leadership bid

Dame Priti Patel has said she will stand to be Tory party leader, making her the fifth Conservative MP to throw her hat in the ring. She joins Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader. She wrote on Twitter: “I am standing to be the new Leader of the Conservative Party. We must unite to win! “I can lead us in opposition and unite our party and get us match fit for the next election, with unity, experience and strength.” I am standing to be the new Leader of the Conservative Party. We must Unite to Win! I can lead us in opposition and unite our party and get us match fit for the next election, with unity, experience and strength. #UnitewithPriti #UnitetoWinhttps://t.co/40VhD95mj3 — Priti Patel MP (@pritipatel) July 27, 2024 She said she could deliver the “experienced and strong” leadership needed to unite the Tories’ disparate factions, in an article for The Telegraph on Saturday. As leader she would use the “huge talent pool…of Conservative Party members” to “solve the big challenges that Labour, the Lib Dems and Reform don’t have answers to”, she wrote. She said the party was a “grassroots movement” that should work from from the bottom up rather than from the top down. She wrote that “rebuilding trust with an electorate who have stopped listening to us will be tough” and that the party must “reflect honestly on what went wrong” while avoiding a “soap opera of finger-pointing and self-indulgence”. Dame Priti became an MP in 2010 and served in Cabinet positions under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, as international development secretary and home secretary respectively. In her article she echoed language used by Mr Johnson as she wrote of turning Conservative values into “oven-ready” policies and getting the party “match fit” to win. Mr Johnson will not endorse any candidate in the Conservative leadership contest, The Telegraph reported earlier, citing an unnamed ally of the former prime minister. Dame Priti is a longstanding Eurosceptic and prominent figure on the right of the party. As home secretary she launched a points-based immigration system and signed the agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers to the country. She resigned as home secretary after Liz Truss became Tory leader. Shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch, the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Mr Sunak, and former home secretaries Suella Braverman are expected to put themselves forward before nominations close at 2.30pm on Monday. Contenders need a proposer, seconder and eight other backers to stand. The parliamentary party will narrow the field down to four, who will make their case at the Conservative Party conference, which runs from September 29 to October 2. The final two, picked by the parliamentary party, will then go to a vote of party members in an online ballot that will close on October 31 with the result announced on November 2. Dame Priti is the least popular contender, at minus 28 points and seven points respectively, according to polling by Savanta carried out between July 19 and 21. Mr Tugendhat is the most popular potential contender among both the public, at minus three points, and 2024 Conservative voters, at 21 points, the research shows. Mr Cleverly is second in the running, Savanta’s findings suggest, at minus nine points with the public and 19 points among 2024 Conservative voters. Source link via The Novum Times

[influencermagazineuk]

UK General Election Live Updates: Scottish Secretary Clarifies Betting Controversy

Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland and The Rt Hon Alister Jack MP, OGL 3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3, via Wikimedia Commons Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, a key Tory cabinet minister, disclosed on Tuesday evening that he had placed three bets on the date of the general election, with one being successful. However, Jack insisted he had not breached any gambling rules. "I had no knowledge of the date of the election until the day it was called. As I have said previously, I placed no bets in May and am not under investigation by the Gambling Commission," he stated. This revelation comes amid an ongoing investigation by the Gambling Commission into the conduct of several Conservative politicians regarding suspicious bets on the general election date. Russell George, a Tory member of the Welsh parliament and associate of Sunak’s aide Craig Williams, is the latest to be scrutinized. George has expressed his willingness to fully cooperate with the investigation while temporarily stepping back from his shadow cabinet role to avoid distractions. Liz Kendall, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, faced tough questions on Good Morning Britain about the gambling scandal, council tax rebanding, and potential changes to tax-free allowances on pensions. Kendall emphasized Labour’s transparency, noting that the party was informed of only one case involving a Labour candidate, and praised Keir Starmer for his swift response. Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride defended Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's management of the betting scandal, asserting that Sunak had acted appropriately. Stride reiterated that those found guilty of breaking gambling rules by the Gambling Commission would be expelled from the party. He also criticized Labour for suspending Kevin Craig, highlighting that Craig had bet against himself in his election, which he deemed equally problematic. The scandal has overshadowed the ongoing election campaigns, putting pressure on political parties to address internal compliance and ethical issues. The Labour and Conservative parties are both under scrutiny as they navigate the fallout from the gambling investigations, aiming to maintain voter confidence. Stay tuned for more updates as the situation develops. Read the full article

[insidecroydon]

High Court ruling is a huge stride for fairer treatment by DWP

Failed in their duty: the DWP failed to provide a blind man with accessible information A Croydon man has won his High Court case against the Department for Work and Pensions which asserted that they failed to provide blind people with accessible communications about their benefits – the Government department sending him more than 20 hard-copy letters that were either delayed or simply…

[davidhencke]

Labour MP takes up scandal of the 9.8 million men who got free national insurance credits while women got nothing

Lloyd Russell – Moyle MP : Pic Credit: Labour South East A Labour MP is challenging Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, to ” correct the imbalance ” that allowed up to 9.8 million men to claim free national insurance contributions from the state while 50s born women were stopped from claiming anything. He is the first MP to raise this issue, disclosed on this blog three years ago,…

[olko71]

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on https://yaroreviews.info/2024/02/final-scheduled-cost-of-living-payment-being-paid

Final scheduled cost-of-living payment being paid

Getty Images

By Kevin Peachey

Cost of living correspondent

Eight million people on means-tested benefits are now receiving their final cost-of-living payment to help with high prices and bills.

The £299 payment will go directly into bank accounts of those eligible before 22 February without the need to claim.

No further payments of this kind are scheduled and charities are urging the government to consider more support.

However, questions have been raised over whether such payments were the best way to help struggling households.

Scam warning

This payment of £299 is the last of three instalments that totalled £900 that will have been paid within a year.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said: ”The economy has turned a corner, and with inflation falling we are providing millions of the most vulnerable households with another significant cash boost.”

Those on low incomes and receiving benefits such as universal credit are eligible, but they should be wary of scams in which fraudsters use the opportunity to try to personal details.

They often purport to be from government bodies. Some are designed to capture financial information.

On legitimate payments, there will be a reference on a recipient’s bank account of their national insurance number, followed by DWP COL, or the reference HMRC COLS for those who are eligible through tax credits.

What are cost-of-living payments and who gets them?

Five hacks to help save money on your food shop

After this final instalment, no further cost-of-living payments are currently scheduled, with some pressure on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to announce more support in next month’s Budget.

“Our data shows that the cost-of-living payments do offer some respite to people, but this is short lived. Historically high energy bills, unaffordable housing and other spiralling costs are keeping people in crisis,” said Morgan Wild, of Citizens Advice.

“The government has responded with temporary support but we need more than quick fixes. Long-term commitments are needed to raise people’s incomes and standard of living.”

The government has pointed to a 6.7% rise in benefits and an 8.5% rise in the state pension, as well as an increase in the financial support provided to those on benefits who rent privately, which all come into effect in April.

A committee of MPs recently questioned whether the payments were sufficient to help those in financial difficulty owing to high bills and prices.

In November, a report by the Work and Pensions Committee said the money only provided a temporary reprieve for some, and may have been better used for increasing benefits instead.

This is not the only cost-of-living payment. More than six million people with disabilities received £150 during last summer. During the winter, over eight million pensioners received an extra payment of up to £300, primarily to help with energy bills.

Are you affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

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Am I eligible for the money?

The money will be added automatically into the account which is used to receive benefit payments

The reference will be DWP COL, along with the claimant’s National Insurance number

To qualify for a payment, you must receive one of universal credit, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, income-related employment and support allowance, income support, working tax credit, child tax credit, or pension credit

You will need to have been entitled to a payment for one of these benefits between 13 November and 12 December, or payment for an assessment period ending between these dates

Low-income pensioners who are eligible for, but not claiming pension credit, can still qualify for the cost-of-living payment if they make a successful backdated pension credit application

Those who qualify solely through tax credits will receive their cost-of-living payment with the reference HMRC COLS

Related Topics

Department for Work & Pensions

Money

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Cost of Living

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[thxnews]

Major LHA Boost for Welsh Renters Announced

In a significant legislative move, the UK Government has announced an increase in the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), set to substantially benefit around 82,500 renters in Wales this April.  

Enhancing Housing Support in Wales

Boosting Financial Stability The increase in LHA is a key part of a £7 billion investment over the next five years, aiming to make private renters on Universal Credit or Housing Benefit approximately £800 better off annually. This boost is particularly significant in Wales, where a large number of households will see enhanced financial stability due to this change.   Alleviating the Cost of Living Accompanying this increase in Local Housing Allowance, there is also a National Insurance cut, which is projected to save households with two average earners nearly £1,000 per year. Together, these combined measures form a crucial part of a comprehensive strategy, specifically designed to alleviate the growing cost of living pressures that many are facing.  

Detailed Impact on Welsh Households

Specific Benefits for Diverse Areas Under the new legislation, eligible renters in various Welsh regions will see considerable increases in their housing support. For instance, renters of a four-bedroom property in the Cardiff Broad Rental Market Area could receive up to £1,300 per month, while those in the Monmouthshire area for a three-bedroom property could get up to £795 per month.   Encompassing a Range of Needs Housing and homelessness organizations broadly welcome the LHA increase as a vital step in supporting low-income families. This support forms a key part of the Government's larger £104 billion cost of living support package, which raises benefits by 6.7%, increases the state pension by 8.5%, and provides £300 cost of living payments.  

Government Perspectives on the Housing Support Increase

Work and Pensions Secretary's View Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, highlighted that this £7 billion boost to the LHA over the next five years reflects the Government's commitment to a fair welfare system. The reforms are designed to assist people in finding employment while providing unprecedented support to manage living costs.   The Welsh Secretary's Endorsement David TC Davies, Secretary of State for Wales, expressed his satisfaction with the extra support, which significantly benefits thousands of households across Wales. Moreover, he emphasized the UK Government's continued focus on assisting the most vulnerable segments of society, thereby reinforcing its commitment to ensuring equitable support for all citizens.  

Long-Term Vision for Housing Welfare

Comprehensive Welfare Reforms The Government’s vision extends beyond immediate relief and includes long-term strategies such as the Renters Reform Bill, which aims to provide security for tenants and support for good landlords. This holistic approach demonstrates a commitment to creating a stable and fair housing market.  

A Foundation for Stability

This significant Local Housing Allowance increase is a testament to the UK Government's dedication to supporting Welsh renters and ensuring a more equitable and sustainable housing landscape. By providing this financial boost, the Government is taking a crucial step towards ensuring that housing support keeps pace with the evolving economic landscape, offering a beacon of hope for many.   Sources: THX News, Office of the Secretary of State for Wales, Department for Work and Pensions, The Rt Hon Mel Stride MP, & The Rt Hon David TC Davies MP. Read the full article

[sftsocialnews]

Mel Stride says MPs may wish to revisit...

[eaglesnick]

101 Things You Should Know About the UK Tory Government

Thing 13

Melvyn Stride is Rishi Sunak’s new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Like many in Sunak’s government he has been accused of breaking the Ministerial Code, in his particular case by a cross-party inquiry who maintained he had misled Parliament regarding IR35 reforms. He was never disciplined.

DWP is responsible for the administration of the State Pension and working age benefits system, providing support to:

·                       people of working age

·                       employers

·                       pensioners

·                       families and children

·                       disabled people

 Strides parliamentary voting record holds little cheer for any of these five groups, especially poor pensioners. 

 The Guardian (17.03.22) reported that, “One in five pensioners - more than 2 million people- are living in relative poverty, in the UK, an increase of more than 200,000 in the past year alone.”

Stride has generally voted AGAINST welfare benefits in line with prices. He has almost always voted FOR a reduction in welfare spending. He has consistently voted AGAINST spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people. He has voted consistently FOR reducing housing benefit for those in social housing deemed to have a spare bedroom. Even worse news for pensioners is this statement by Stride when Chair of the Treasury Committee:

"Over the last decade, the pensions triple lock has successfully protected the incomes of older people, who often have limited opportunities to increase their earnings. However, the ‘triple lock’ is unsustainable in its current form. A potential almost double-digit percentage rise is unrealistic and unfair, with knock-on effects for the public finances.”

(Voting record of Stride gratefully taken from Voting record - Mel Stride MP, Central Devon - TheyWorkForYou)