Mid Wales MP to rebel against his own party and vote against PIP plans
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Daily Record
4 hours ago
- Daily Record
State Pension, PIP, Universal Credit and other benefit payment dates changing this month
Full list of benefits set to be affected by a bank holiday later this month. The bank holiday on Monday, August 25 is not a recognised public holiday in Scotland, however, it will affect most benefit payment dates. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Social Security Scotland have already confirmed changes to scheduled payments due on that date with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) expected to follow a similar revision shortly. People due State Pension or benefits on August 25, including Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Adult Disability Payment (ADP), Child Benefit and Attendance Allowance, will receive the money earlier, on Friday August 22. Payments are typically issued on the first working day ahead of a bank holiday to ensure people get their payment on a day when offices, webchat services and phone lines are open. DWP is also expected to confirm Jbcentres across Great Britain will be closed on the bank holiday. Below is a full list of DWP, HMRC and Social Security Scotland payments which could be affected by the bank holiday on Monday, August 25. It's important to be aware that if your upcoming payment does not fall on the bank holiday, it will be paid as normal. DWP payment date changes DWP has still to confirm the payment date changes, but it is expected that Payments due to be made on Monday, August 25 will be issued on Friday, August 22. We will update this article as soon as the information has been confirmed. Payments which could be affected: Attendance Allowance Carer's Allowance Employment Support Allowance (ESA) Income Support Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) Pension Credit Personal Independence Payment (PIP) State Pension Universal Credit HMRC payment date changes HMRC has confirmed that payments due to be made on Monday, August 25 will be issued on Friday, August 22. Child Benefit Guardian's Allowance Social Security Scotland payment changes Social Security Scotland has confirmed that payments due to be made on Monday, August 25 will be issued on Friday, August 22. Payments affected: Adult Disability Payment Child Disability Payment Scottish Child Payment Carer Support Payment Pension Age Disability Payment Social Security Scotland guidance also confirms that Best Start Foods payments will not be affected.
Spectator
4 hours ago
- Spectator
What will Hermer do with Palestine Action protestors?
To Lord Hermer, Sir Keir Starmer's controversial Attorney General. It transpires that the British barrister will be given the final say on whether hundreds of protestors arrested for supporting Palestine Action at the weekend will be prosecuted – with the Tories piling pressure on the government to 'enforce the law'. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick fumed: 'If lawbreakers supporting a proscribed terrorist group aren't prosecuted, it will be the clearest example yet of two-tier justice under Two-Tier Keir. Lord Hermer needs to enforce the law, not pander to activists he's sympathetic to.' Ouch! A demonstration on Saturday saw the Metropolitan Police arrest a staggering 532 people in Westminster, after hundreds appeared in Parliament Square carrying placards that read: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' It follows Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to proscribe the organisation – a move which UN human rights chief Volker Türk warned 'misuses' counter-terrorism legislation – after members of the activist group broke into RAF Brize Norton and graffitied two military planes. The Met Police have said that the majority of those arrested were over 50 years old, with the average age being 54. In fact, there were more than 100 people removed by police who were aged over 70. Crikey! The British justice system is already struggling with backlogs, but the Conservatives are turning up the heat on Hermer over the arrests – and are using the incident to question the lawyer's stance on Israel's attacks on Gaza. Another Tory MP, Ben Obese-Jecty, raged to the Daily Mail: If Lord Hermer doesn't charge every single Palestine Action supporter then he has to be sacked by Keir Starmer for undermining him. This is now the acid test of where the Attorney General's loyalties lie and there can be no excuses. Under UK law, anyone found guilty of supporting a proscribed organisation could face up to 14 years in prison – and a possible fine of £5,000. More than that, those who have been arrested could be denied entry to the US – or prevented from working in education. Labour's Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has pledged to stop Britain's prison system from being 'permanently on the brink of collapse' – but locking up hundreds of activists could put a spanner in those works. What will the Attorney General decide to do? Stay tuned…
Spectator
5 hours ago
- Spectator
Kemi is wrong about council tax
From Lord Kinnock's demand for a wealth tax and VAT on private health fees to Gordon Brown pressing for gambling taxes, it is plain that Labour has run out of ideas other than dreaming up new ways to part us from our money. Even so, Kemi Badenoch is ill-advised to go on an all-out attack on council tax reform, as she did in a Mail on Sunday column yesterday. According to the Conservative leader, Rachel Reeves is plotting to do as Labour have done in Wales: to set up an IT system to analyse our homes – even down to the size of our garden shed – in order to use it as a valuation tool for new council tax bands. Not only that, Labour think tanks are dreaming up a 'land value tax' which would tax us on the value, or even the potential value, of the land beneath our homes. 'There would be no discount for single people,' writes Badenoch. 'Widows and widowers would be hammered. And pensioners would be forced to pay this new bill even after death – a 'pay as you die' tax that's basically inheritance tax in disguise.' The Tories, she adds, were 'pressurised to do this' for 14 years while in power, but refused. Actually, some of the chief proponents for a land value tax were themselves Conservative. One of the chief advocates was Tim Leunig, who later served as an adviser to Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak – although Eric Pickles, who was communities and local government secretary when the idea was most in vogue, condemned it as 'socialism' and so it never happened. One of the arguments for a land value tax was that it would discourage developers from sitting for years on land which had been granted planning permission – and would therefore increase house-building. But then it would also hammer people who have homes with large gardens which could potentially be developed – the idea of a land value tax clashed with another Tory policy of the Coalition years: trying to end 'garden grabbing'. But if not a land value tax, council tax is begging for reform. You don't have to be a socialist or even a Labour supporter to see that is horribly regressive. Tax for the grandest property is set at just three times that for the meanest hovel. And no, it is not true that the occupants of large homes only use the same public services as small ones. A sprawling villa in Highgate might have ten times the road frontage of a small two up to down in Edmonton – if an area were made up entirely on the former there would be ten times as much road, ten times as many street lights to maintain. Moreover, such is the disparity in council tax levels across the country that the owner of a one-bedroom flat in some council areas might actually be paying more than the owner of a mansion. Council tax was set up in a hurry to replace the even more faulty poll tax in 1991, yet the Conservatives always seemed blind to its faults while in power. While leaving council tax alone, they jacked up stamp duty – an even worse tax which acts as a huge brake on labour mobility in Britain. Rather than condemn Labour for wanting to address council tax reform, Badenoch should come up with her own proposals. Why can't we have a council tax which is proportional to property values? True, there are some objections to one which is based on current valuations: it could mean a widow of little means in Hackney, for example, facing soaring bills on account of her street being gentrified. But it is easy to deal with this problem: you put a property into a council tax band when it is sold, and then leave it in that band until it is sold again – so long-term residents aren't penalised. There is no need for an expensive revaluation of properties, nor the IT system that Labour in Wales is building. Houses can be banded according to their most recent sales price, adjusted for average house prices at the time. Taxing mansions would allow most people's council tax bill to be cut – which could be a winning policy for the Tories (as much as they have a chance of winning the next election at all). At the same time, why don't the Conservatives propose to abolish stamp duty and raise the lost revenue from council tax instead. In 2024-25, £13.8 billion was raised from stamp duty and around £50 billion from council tax – so abolishing the former would raise council tax bills by around a quarter if you wanted the move to be revenue-neutral. That is a small price to pay for being whacked with a bill for tens of thousands of pounds when you want to move home. If the Conservatives want to run the country again they are going to have to be imaginative, rather than simply damning the Labour party. There is, after all, an alternative repository for protest votes in the shape of Reform UK. Council tax reform would not be a bad place to start.
