Today in Malcolm’s absence Kevin Stewart chaired the session. Unfortunately, due to technical issues there was no recording from today’s session.
The first discussion took place re the potential removal of Council Tas SPD that apparently the Government has stated they will not do. Bob Wagstaff thought it would never be removed as it is felt it is for the elderly although Bob himself said in a recent SPD exercise more recipients were of working age than for older people. Jon Gibbs and Paul Howarth also added their own views and all agreed timescales to do anything in 2024/25 were tight and therefore unlikely.
The next part of the conversation discussed the removal of Winter Fuel Allowance – the panel expressed surprise at such a decision by the Government with only those on Pension Credit still receiving it.
They all noted the increase in the uptake of Pension Credit (this highlighted it was underclaimed) but the panel suggested the uptake is more likely to affect CTR rather than HB. All the Panel agreed though that the Government will not overturn their decision on winter fuel allowances for older people.
All agreed that the Government are committed to the triple lock during the lifetime of this Parliament. Kevin stated that from April 2026 the state retirement pension age increases from 66 to 67 with a phased in approach. The age then increases to 68 in the 2040’s although this may yet be brought forward.
The panel agreed that it was early days yet re the Fraud bill and time will see how effective it is. Some LA’s it was stated got rid of fraud teams on the introduction of SFIS in April 2013. Bob Wagstaff suggested it had crept up largely unnoticed.
The final discussion took place on ill health and a discussion on the statistics kindly provided by Malcolm. Bob said that they did not have many issues on short term sickness but do have some issues on long term sickness mainly through mental health from COVID (the panel did comment that their own health is better as there are fewer staff in the office so less chance of catching bugs etc). Kevin then stated that the number of working days lost to illness (according to the Office of official stats) was 185.6 million days equivalent to 5.7 days per worker. These are 2022 stats, and it is noticed that during COVID these stats were lower but had now increased to pre COVID levels.
A reminder that VN and inbest are offering free data analysis of your SHBE and/or CTR caseload to help identify those missing out on Pension Credit. With this offer, you’ll get access to a web analytics platform that provides This service is completely free. If you’re interested, contact Manu at Inbest (manu@inbest.ai).
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Please note that the handout contains additional slides covering other items of interest in the news and job adverts, which are provided in partnership with Business Smart Solutions (https://www.businesssmartsolutions.co.uk/).