TAP is lobbying the House of Lords for an amendment to be tabled during the report stage of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. The report stage has been allocated only two days begining on the 25th January.

The TAP amendment will require UK governments annually to assess the cumulative impact of Acts of Parliament on the health and well being of UK citizens.

This is the brief that has been sent to Peers;

1. Plase record verbatim in Hansard of the Institute of Health Equity's "NOT HAVING ENOUGH MONEY IMPACTS ON HEALTH" by Dr Angela Donkin. ( see attachment page 7)Brief for report stage of the welfare reform and work bill in the house of lords - final.
2. Housing Crisis. The market is in short supply- building more homes will take too many years to relieve the poverty created today by ever increasing rents and diminishing incomes - immediate solutions are needed while homes are built
3. Housing benefit has been cut in three ways since April 2013 , therefore ever increasing rents take an ever increasing proportion of the income needed by employed and unemployed for food, fuel, clothes transport and other necessities,
4. TAP has asked the Bishops in the House of Lords to consider promoting the principle that "Land exists for the common good to provide a fair share of food, fuel, water, and shelter for everyone".
5. The council tax - benefits provided by central government for survival and housing are being taxed with the council tax by 250 local authorities out of 326 in England and Wales since April 2013; they then add the costs of enforcement.
6. 32,000 council tax summons to the Magistrates Court were sent out by Haringey Council in 2013/14 adding £125 enforcement costs. The bailiffs were sent out 12,000 times; they can add up to £420 fees. That's just one council.
7. Local Government Association complains that councils cannot collect £1 billion of the tax over the three years since they started taxing benefits in April 2013 - no surprise there. That £1 billion is mentioned 4 times.
8. The value of the adult unemployment (JSA/IS/ESA) benefit at £73.10 a week has been allowed to wither on the vine since 1979. It is impossible to buy a healthy diet and other necessities with that £73.10. It is already mentally and physically dangerously low. When it is paying the so called bedroom tax AND the council tax it approaches lethal.
9. No unemployment benefits are being increased in April 2016. I suspect that is the first year ever that unemployment benefits have not been increased.
10. Sanctions. Stopping the incomes of the most deprived citizens of the UK for one month or three months means that rent, council tax and fines arrears cannot be paid. That involves three Acts of Parliament that trigger three lots of enforcement procedures on one person with no income. I have dealt with such a case. It was no good telling him to get on his bike when he was on his knees.
11.  All this has inevitably created unmanageable debts and hunger which create mental and physical health problems.
12. Low or no income has consequences in poor maternal nutrition followed by low birthweight, poor cognitive ability, and the increased risk of a life time of mental and physical illness in their offspring.
13. It all builds up to inequality in life expectancy. The lives of residents of the poorest wards in Tottenham are on average 17 years shorter than the lives of the residents of the richest wards in Kensington and Chelsea. The same is true in Stockton-on-Tees.
14. These toxic abuses of power by the State are creating debt and hunger. They knock on to mental and physical ill health, which cost the tax payers billions of pounds in the health and educational services free at the point of delivery. The Treasury never calculates how much would be saved for the taxpayer, and the economy at large, by a more benign tax and benefit system.