So they want to replace PIP/DLA money with vouchers?

[moneyinthebinthatsmrtim]

I don't understand it. It is really worrying me.

This payment helps pay for so many things. I doubt these vouchers would cover that, or give the freedom to shop or buy from where you want or need to.

I included DLA because it's really just the child's version of PIP. Eventually, my profoundly disabled child will be an adult and will have to be on PIP

Is there really any truth in this? I can't see any articles directly quoting Labour or Conservative. I might just be in such a worry that I have missed that bit

Apologies if there is another thread on this too. I am happy to get this one taken off if that's the case

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pip-disability-benefits-plan-rishi-government-critics-b2537209.html

Don’t think it’s about efficiency at all - it’s about the fact that they underestimated the demand for it when they set it up in 2011 and cannot now afford to fund it on the trajectory it’s going. It’s about reducing costs.

Thelnebriati understood: PIP is a reasonable adjustment, just like how ramps at railway stations are a reasonable adjustment.

Demanding that PIP claimants justify how they spend the money that they have been independently assessed as needing is like demanding a doctor's note before letting someone use a ramp to get into a building, or insisting that someone with a fluctuating mobility impairment uses the ramp on their "good day" when they would rather use a short flight of steps.

In a civilised society, we provide the reasonable adjustments and we give the disabled person autonomy about how and when to use them. Money as a reasonable adjustment is no different from any other reasonable adjustment.

This entirely.

I don’t understand what people don’t understand about the fact it’s unaffordable

So what alternative do you propose,? Dump disabled people on the street with a begging cup?

Why would they be begging? Many of them work, own their own houses. The rest will be on UC and housing benefit. The NHS is free to those who don’t earn.

You have to provide proof in order to get DLA/PIP you can’t just say “I’m disabled” and get it you have to send in a lot of evidence along with the form and for PIP often then have another assessment to see if your disabled enough.

Trying to make a system whereby you have to justify how the money is spent is a very dangerous road to go down.

Disabled people already provide proof of need through the assessment system.

Owning a business is a choice. Being disabled isn't. And many disabled people have intellectual impairments that make filling paperwork in hard. Not requiring per-item invoices is in itself a reasonable adjustment.

You don't fix that by shitting on the people who need PIP.

And more to the point, they’ve refused to do anything with covid so now that the number of disabled people is steadily increasing, they can’t cope anymore.

A good, much cheaper solution would be invest in clean air in schools and hospitals.

This is about making the system more effective for those that need it.

I've got a bridge to sell you.

No.
Proof of purchases. There is no proof required.

All councils and CA give support to those that need support with form filling. They even give it for UC forms.

How do you fix it then? Go on. Have you seen the projection? What shall we cut to pay to this to infinity and beyond?

https://ifs.org.uk/news/number-new-disability-benefit-claimants-has-doubled-year

You've got people on this thread that still believe housing benefit pays peoples rent.

The system is fixed and made more affordable by looking at all areas that need overhauling.

Why should one demographic be exempt.

How will they get an adapted car? A wheelchair, compression socks, etc etc none if which are provided by either the NHS or social services?

What abot a SALT that you can’t access on the NHS anymore etc…

If the NHS was actually covering the proper cost of being ill, incl all the equipment, maybe it would work.
When the NHS is already working in a shoe string, people who are disabled will just die.

Btw that’s what Canada is doing. Very restricted support for disabled people incl access to painkiller, OT etc etc.and then they brought MAID and oh look! It’s so sad all those people who can’t cope and prefer to die’.
Here people kill themselves instead (or die of starvation etc….)

Because we should be looking after the most vulnerable in society not making life even harder.

I wouldn’t say the man in the link above is ‘the most vulnerable’ tbh. Neither is somebody with writers cramp

They've proved they need the money. They don't need to prove they've bought anything specific. They shouldn't need to prove that they've bought anything.

It's called trusting people to manage their own care!

One way to reduce the number of people who need PIP is to sort the issues in the NHS, battles and delays of diagnosis and treatment lead to many people’s conditions getting worse to the point they need support sooner than they would have otherwise.

So people who actually need those things could apply for them in the new system.
Perhaps it will be much better for those that need adapted cars.

Clearly, as you outline the current system isn’t working for those in need…..so reform it.

And wait for someone who has no idea of your needs to decide whether it's needed?

Round and round we go.
The point of the reform is the need for proof because the current system doesn’t require it and it’s not working.

You May feel they shouldn’t need to prove it, DWP disagrees

By cleaning the air so people don’t get covid and end up disabled.
Or any other measures needed to ensure the health of the whole population is staying good (which is not the case if the number of disabled people is increasing).

Just step back and look at the whole picture.
this is not and never has been an issue about people being lazy or ‘struggling getting past the lockdowns’.
Fuck, some of us are living their life in constant ‘lockdown’ because we aren’t well enough to get out of the house. That has never made us lazy or refusing to work. Quite the opposite. I’d love nothing more than being well enough to work again instead of that very small life between the walls of my house.

Requiring receipts will cost more, not less, because of the administrative burden to reconcile them.

Why should one demographic be exempt.

Do you understand what a "reasonable adjustment" is? Sometimes, being fair to a disabled people means giving them something that other people don't have. When I was at college, the one lift was for staff and disabled students only. Students who could climb stairs were expected to do so. Access to an otherwise-staff-only lift was a reasonable adjustment for the disabled students that the other students didn't get. This was fair.

Exempting disabled people from the administrative burden of submitting receipts for items they've already been assessed as needing money for is a reasonable adjustment. And it will save govt money because we won't need to hire an army of civil servants to process the claims.

But not by reducing the amount of money available which is what you are suggesting ‘because it’s all too expensive’.

Plus can I remind you of the usual ‘it costs 10x more to get product X through whatever scheme than privately’
You know like the so call meals they send to send to children on free school meals for example?