On 20th October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne delivered his spending review designed to reduce our national deficit. In the early throes of speech Mr Osborne stated the better off will pay and lose more proportionately. Now in the speech itself there was very little detail as to what the real life effects of the cuts made would be on the public on the receiving end (however there appears to be a former rainforest of supportive documentation, but one that stuck out horrendously to me was people on state paid sick pay will only be able to claim it for 12 months apart from extreme cases.
Without going through the supportive documentation, it would be fair to assume this means Employment Support Allowance, about which my concerns are well known among my followers and this appears to be another slap aimed at the work-shy but hitting those in genuine need in the process.
I will be looking through the documentation when I can to find the definition of an 'extreme case' based on the fact that I consider many of the stories I have received, it seems many extreme cases are being refused Employment Support Allowance in the first instance as 70% of failed applications are overturned at appeal. So on the face of it, it seems that months of battling to receive, what for many is a genuine entitlement, you are then time limited on your right to receive it.
Don't get me wrong, the deficit needs to be reduced, I'm not an economist so am not best placed to advise how this should be done and benefit fraud is wrong and should be addressed, but on the face of it this hardly seems fair and proportionate to me.
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