10 June, 2024
Open access
Election 2024 Manifesto round-up | Liberal Democrats: Welfare Rights
Commitments include measures to 'repair the broken benefits safety net', and prioritising carers and disabled people
The Liberal Democrat party has today launched its manifesto ahead of the General Election on 4 July 2024.
Welfare rights and access to justice commitments contained in For a Fair Deal include to -
- Tackle child poverty by removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap.
- Set a target of ending deep poverty within a decade, and establish an independent commission to recommend further annual increases in universal credit to ensure that support covers life's essentials, such as food and bills.
- Repair the broken benefits safety net by -
- reducing the wait for the first payment of universal credit from five weeks to five days;
- scrapping the bedroom tax;
- replacing the sanctions regime with an incentive-based scheme to help people into work; and
- ending the young parent penalty for under-25s by restoring the full rate of universal credit for all parents regardless of age.
- Increase carer’s allowance and expand eligibility for it by -
- raising the amount carers can earn and introducing an earnings taper to end the unfair cliff-edge;
- reducing the number of hours’ care per week required; and
- extending it to carers in full-time education.
- Reverse the Conservatives’ cut to support payments for parents whose partners have died.
- Make the benefits system work better for disabled people by -
- giving disabled people and organisations representing them a stronger voice in the design of benefits policies and processes;
- bringing work capability assessments in-house; and
- reforming personal independence payment assessments to make the process more transparent and stop unnecessary reassessments, and end the use of informal assessments.
- Support pensioners by protecting the triple lock so that pensions always rise in line with inflation, wages or 2.5 per cent - whichever is highest.
- Ensure that women born in the 1950s are finally treated fairly and properly compensated.
- Give everyone the chance to enjoy a decent retirement by -
- improving the state pension system by investing in helplines to ensure quicker responses to queries and resolution of underpayments; and
- ending the scandal of lost top-up payments by overhauling the processing system and providing proper receipts.
- Give parents genuine flexibility and choice in the crucial early months by -
- Ensure that military compensation for illness or injury does not count towards means testing for benefits.
- Fully review and reform the Child Maintenance Service to ensure it works for all chidlren and parents, including removing the Collect and Pay charge for receiving parents and ensuring that payments cannot be used as a form of coercive control over domestic abuse survivors.
- Establish a new right to affordable, reasonable legal assistance, and making the Legal Aid system simpler, fairer and more generous.
For more information, see For a Fair Deal from libdems.org.uk
See also the Liberal Democrats' commitments in relation to: Housing; Employment; and Community Care.
NB - manifestos from the range of main parties include: Conservative: Clear Plan, Bold Action, Secure Future | Green: Real hope, real change | Labour: Change | Liberal Democrat: For a Fair Deal | Scotland: Alba: Yes to Scottish Independence | Scottish Conservative and Unionist: Focused on your priorities | Scottish Labour: Our National Recovery Plan | Scottish National Party: A future made in Scotland | Wales: Plaid Cymru: For fairness, for ambition, for Wales | Welsh Labour: Change | Northern Ireland: Alliance: Leading Change | Democratic Unionist Party: Making Northern Ireland Work | Sinn Fein: Strong Leadership, Positive Change | Social Democratic and Labour Party: An Election for Change
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