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Hello, it is Rachelle Abbott, welcome again to The Customary podcast.
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Developing, The London Customary’s Josh Barrie visits the Novelty Automation Museum in Holborn.
In all probability my favorite is the Petal Dinner sport, the place you place in a coin and it decides randomly whether or not the little lamb on the prime of the sport turns into a household pet or is served as a delicious-looking Sunday lunch.
However first, Sir Keir Starmer faces mounting stress from his personal MPs because the UK authorities prepares sweeping modifications to the welfare system this week.
On Tuesday, the Work and Pension Secretary, Liz Kendall, is predicted to set out plans for reform in what they are saying is an effort to get extra folks again to work and lower Britain’s advantages invoice.
It has been described by ministers as unsustainable, however studies that this might embrace cuts to the non-public independence cost, the primary incapacity profit, also called PIP, have sparked outcry from backbench Labour MPs.
The information comes as we strategy the UK Chancellor’s spring assertion on the twenty sixth of March, the place Rachel Reeves is predicted to announce cuts to the welfare finances.
Becoming a member of us now’s The London Customary’s chief political correspondent, Rachael Burford.
Rachael, why is welfare being focused?
Why do the federal government consider these prices should be reined in?
So we have heard a whole lot of ministers out in the previous few days speaking about the price of Britain’s profit invoice, basically.
They’re all of the frontbenchers, Labour frontbenchers, are all saying that reform is absolutely crucial as a result of the variety of folks claiming illness and incapacity profit has actually soared over the previous few years.
It is gone from 2.8 million in 2019 to about 4 million folks at present.
And meaning the advantages invoice has risen considerably.
In 2023, 2024, it reached 48 billion kilos and it is forecast to proceed rising.
It’s going to attain about 67 billion kilos in 2029, 2030.
And simply to place that into context, that’s an quantity that may exceed the present faculties finances, for instance.
So, what the Prime Minister and the Chancellor are saying is that that is unsustainable and one thing wants to alter.
And what about private independence cost then?
It has been form of speculated that non-public independence funds or PIP will likely be firmly within the authorities’s goal with regards to lowering the advantages invoice.
PIP is an fascinating one.
Principally, it is for folks with long-term bodily or psychological well being circumstances or disabilities.
It is a cost that helps these folks which will wrestle to do sure on a regular basis duties due to their situation.
It is not means examined, and it’s a cost that many individuals in work do get as properly.
So it’s one which the federal government are actually .
There’s been hypothesis that it will not rise with inflation and that the eligibility standards will actually be tightened and so fewer folks can declare this profit.
And what has the response been prefer to this information?
There has clearly, there’s been a whole lot of discontent from individuals who declare PIP, and in addition from a whole lot of labour MPs who say it is not likely very labour to be slicing the cash from disabled folks.
Nonetheless, what the federal government is arguing is that there are simply so many individuals now claiming PIP and the nation cannot afford it.
However whereas some persons are arguing that it isn’t really that simple to say, you need to slot in plenty of varieties, there’s a very strict eligibility standards already.
As of October 2024, there have been 3.6 million folks in England and Wales with entitlement to PIP, and that is a 3% improve from July.
So the variety of folks claiming it’s going up steadily, and due to this fact so is the fee.
As you say, the expansion in claims has gone up.
I seen that there had been an increase in psychological well being assist.
Might this be resulting from there being much less stigma round psychological well being circumstances?
Yeah, I feel there was over the previous few years, significantly since COVID, much less stigma in folks looking for assist for his or her psychological well being, but in addition the NHS has already stretched with enormous waking lists for all kinds of circumstances, and psychological well being is actually a type of.
There was a whole lot of stress on the NHS over the rise in psychological well being issues and folks looking for psychological well being assist.
Some MPs have been out at present speaking in regards to the improve in folks looking for psychological well being assist, and significantly youthful folks.
Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, was on the radio this morning saying that beforehand, they was a direct route from college to employment, and that does not exist in the identical manner anymore.
So if you do not get a level, you do not go to school, and even some people who do, discover themselves with out jobs or with out jobs that they maybe wish to do, and that has led to a rise in folks affected by melancholy, from psychological sickness, as a result of they discover themselves caught in a system the place they can not work and haven’t any alternative however to say advantages.
Now, what the federal government is saying is, properly, in the event you can work, it is best to work, but in addition what’s being argued is that there must be these jobs accessible for folks on the identical time.
On Sunday, the Well being Secretary, Wes Streeting, was unable to say whether or not the federal government would really freeze PIP.
Do you suppose the backlash will have an effect on what occurs subsequent?
There’s this concept that it could be scaled again.
The financial secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, was on the radio this morning, saying that some colleagues are leaping to conclusions in regards to the plans earlier than they’ve really heard them.
We are going to discover out the small print tomorrow, however what the federal government is insisting is severely disabled and probably the most susceptible will all the time get the assist they want, and there’ll all the time be a security web.
So, whereas we do count on some profit funds to be scaled again, there undoubtedly is prone to be a tightening of eligibility, however I feel the federal government is insisting that there’ll nonetheless be a security web, and we are going to discover out all these particulars tomorrow.
And at last, would you be capable of clarify the suggestion that the reforms embrace a “proper to strive” assure?
That will imply that disabled folks may enter employment with out the chance of dropping their advantages if it did not work out.
The suggestion is that there are some folks, significantly with psychological well being wants, which have been dominated that they can not work, would really be happier in the event that they have been in work.
So in the event that they went out and obtained a job that was proper for them, and it was figuring out, they’d really be happier, and that they’d finally come off their incapacity advantages.
However what stops lots of people doing that, is that if they do exit and get a job and it would not work out for them, they lose their proper to the advantages they usually need to undergo the entire rigmarole and system once more.
So there’s a suggestion that that will likely be reformed and there will likely be this concept which you could exit, strive a job, and hopefully that can work out for you, after which they’re going to regularly take you off your advantages somewhat than simply having it lower and having to restart the method yet again if it would not work out.
Let’s go to the adverts developing partially two, the most recent instalment of London’s hidden gems at Holborn’s Automation Museum.
We’ll see you again right here in only a second.
Please do drop us a comply with and a ranking within the meantime.
For The London Customary’s Hidden Gems, food and drinks author Josh Barrie popped right down to the Novelty Automation Museum in Holborn.
Tucked away simply 5 minutes from the underground, the museum holds a choice of satirical arcade video games to play.
To inform us every thing, Josh joins us now.
Josh, inform us in regards to the Novelty Automation Museum.
What is the historical past behind it?
Novelty Automation, it is just a little museum in Holborn, opened by an inventor referred to as Tim Hunken.
Opened in February 2015 and adopted an analogous place in Suffolk, in Southwold, and that is the place Hunken comes from.
You say in your article, some might discover it on the darkish facet. Why?
It is form of taking away the trendy commercialization and large tech, you realize, and the way we’re all form of slaves to the housing ladder
Nicely, not everybody’s a slave to the housing letter, however, you realize, that form of factor and simply countless tube rides, telephones, AI and the web.
It digs at fashionable life after which the type of darkness comes round in that sense fairly broadly, but in addition a few of the video games, a few of the automated machines or no matter, which themselves form of depend on know-how that could be 30 or 40 years outdated.
So all fairly form of primary or easy as, you realize, in comparison with what we see now.
However the themes are additionally typically of a darkish facet.
So for instance, one in all them is known as The Divorce.
It’s a must to crank and spin a wheel and also you watch towards your respective different or a good friend or no matter.
And then you definately see a husband and spouse cut up up of their home is lower into two and the winner is the one who retains extra of the objects inside that home.
So are these the kind of machines we might see by the seaside then?
Wanting within the footage in your piece, they do seem like a whole lot of enjoyable.
Lots of cranks, a whole lot of wheels.
I feel they’re type of fairly just like machines you see by the ocean, however most of the time today, I see machines which are, you place a two-pence coin in or no matter, identical to the place run by Nessa on Gavin and Stacey.
These are just a little bit less complicated.
There aren’t that many flashing lights, they are not as new, however they have, principally you go as much as, there is a man in novelty automation, not less than there was after I’ve been, and also you give him a fiver after which he offers you a number of tokens they usually function that manner.
The type of mechanics of the machines is cranks, pulleys, levers, buttons, very primary.
I am certain the know-how utilized in these machines have been, was round, you realize, perhaps 100 years in the past, perhaps longer.
And why was it picked for this week’s Hidden Gems?
I feel it is as a result of it is one thing just a little bit totally different.
I feel lots of people most likely would not have heard of it.
It is small, it is tucked away down the again avenue in Holborn, which is sort of a transitory space of a part of London.
You already know, most individuals skim by means of it, you realize, on their manner between perhaps the Soho and the town.
Clearly, there’s the Friers Delight close by, which is sort of a well-known, however principally, you would not stroll previous Automation.
Out of Happenstance, you’d must know it is there.
You talked about the Divorcing Couple sport, however what’s a few of your highlights?
My least favorite of all of them.
I did not strive all of the video games, clearly, there are hundreds, however I attempted Barry’s Love Line, which I did not like in any respect.
I discovered that fairly upsetting as a result of it is a cellphone and you place a token in and it is supposed to offer you romantic recommendation, however really simply form of shakes and flashes reds and it isn’t for me.
However I appreciated the Tube sport, which is all about eye contact and the tube, clearly one of the crucial repulsive issues you may expertise on public transport.
After which there’s most likely my favorite is the Petal Dinner sport, the place you place in a coin and it decides randomly whether or not the little lamb on the prime of the sport turns into a household pet or is served as a scrumptious wanting Sunday lunch.
Have they got a gentle viewers?
Nicely, it has been going for a decade now, which is spectacular for something.
Once I went in, it was type of in the direction of the tip of the day, and there are a number of different folks about.
I do not suppose it is ever going to turn into one of the crucial well-liked hotspots in London, however I actually suppose it is obtained the legs to hold on into the long run.
And maybe, as one know-how continues to broaden and turn into much more essential to how we reside at present, perhaps wanting again with some cynicism will likely be extra pertinent than ever.
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