Quick guide to what is happening (thanks to www.rightsnet.org.uk)
October 2006
• Pathways to work - phase 3 of the rollout of the incapacity benefit pilots
• Linking rules - more generous rules for those moving into work fro incapacity benefits
• Statutory payments - age limits abolished for statutory sick, maternity, adoption and paternity pay
• Lone parents - extension of New Deal Plus to new Jobcentre Plus districts
November 2006
Tax credits -
April 2007
Maternity pay - extension of paid leave to nine months
Tax credits - time allowed to report changes reducing entitlement that must be reported to the Revenue reduced from three months to one.
Lone parents - roll-out of six-monthly work-focused interviews to those who have been on benefit for a year and whose youngest child is under 14.
December 2007
Migration to child tax credit - transfer of remaining families in receipt of income support/JSA due to be completed during the year.
March 2008
DWP staffing cuts - DWP to have reduced overall staff numbers by 30,000 compared to 2004 figures.
April 2008
Local Housing Allowance - DWP expect to commence national roll-out.
Abolition of incapacity benefit - to have been replaced by new employment and support allowance.
April 2010
State pension age - equalisation of state pension ages for men and women to be phased in over a ten-year period from 2010 to 2020.
Child poverty - Govt target to halve the number of children living in relative low-income households by 2010/11 compared to 1998/99, on the way to eradicating child poverty by 2020
Maternity pay - goal of 12 months paid maternity leave with the right to transfer entitlement to father