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

@IAmNotASheep

So please respect my right to offer kind advice in a kindly way…

This is funny. If you had offered advice, at all, I may have respected your post. You didn't. You did the utterly disgraceful 'X can do Y, so you should be able to'

Whereas I think an 'arthritis cookbook' or 'enAbling cookery' cookbook might be helpful, it would ideally need to include recipes and methods for people who:

Don't have anyone to help them carry things;
Can't get hot things safety out of an oven, steamer, pan or fryer;
Can't stand up without assistance;
Have painful arthritis in their feet and/or back;
Can't use a perching stool;
Can't use sharp knives safely;
Eat orthorexically because of related gut issues;
Have arthritis-related fatigue* and/or vasovagal syncopy;
Have been told by their OT/GP/consultant that it's safer to buy it than try to make it.
*Not talking about tiredness here - this is more like a narcolepsy, a sudden onset of crashing exhaustion and need to become prone and close one's eyes

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to devise some recipes, with clear methods, that would fit the bill; and I'm genuinely going to have a think about this.

I do occasionally use a microwave, but if I've nuked something to make sure it's safe to eat, I have to leave it for ages in the microwave to cool down so I can get it out safely. I've had some cracking burns in the past. And the faints and falls 😱 ... I once managed to rip a load of skin off one of my arms and bash my head on a shelf edge on my way down, and I'm scarred now (literally, I mean).

Life's a blast.

All excellent points!
(I was also wondering how PP's aunt with the terribly arthiritic hands was getting the soda bread out of the oven safely...)

I think a lot people have help, or someone with them to keep an eye out, or just 'wing it' until they do eventually have an accident.

It often takes quite a few accidents to happen before it's deemed to be 'an issue'. Accepting limitations is bloody hard. You see a part of your identity fading away into nothingness, so you keep on trying even to the point of risk.

My hands and arms are really buggered. Arthritis, burns, cuts, bruises du jour, you name it. I still want to cook. I feel like I need to cook. But I can't do what I used to do, not safely.

Yes.
Some things I can do with supervision, and with someone to do the steps that I can't do. But I can't do any of it when I'm living alone. And tbh even with supervision I end up burning or cutting myself, because these things happen so quickly.
I hear you on the accepting limitations thing. It's really hard.

I think that's one of the reasons that the PIP assessment process is so damaging and demoralising. People with disabilities are learning to deal with their limitations, and trying to keep on top of their mental health challenges and the creeping sense of desperation and unreality. Programmes like pain management courses stress trying to focus on what you can do, not what you can't do.

Then your PIP assessment or review arrives. Now you have to focus on everything that you can't do. On all that is wrong with you. On how, actually, there aren't any good days any more, just less shit ones, and how you have zero real independence left, and how everything has irrevocably changed for the worse.

And the PIP assessors need to hear this from you, not your GP or consultant. You have to detail all your deterioration, all your problems, all your limitations, all your defects, all your embarrassments, often in a lengthy (1.5 - 2 hours plus) telephone call.

The process is soul-destroying and traumatising, and completely against NHS good practice.

And @sevsal If you look back to my original post on bread you will see I commented about soda bread because the PP I tagged noted the high cost of bread machines.
They did not mention a personal disability, they mentioned the cost.
Thats why I posted on soda bread!!!

Perhaps the PP hadn’t heard of it, I don’t know, I don’t know them. I’ve also commented that everyone has different levels of ability ….Therefore by mentioning something helpful it might be read by someone else who likes making bread but can no longer do so and may think ‘oh soda bread, I’ve never thought if that, I’ll give it a go’.

Cant anyone on this thread make a supportive comment without being damned…..
Stop making unfounded judgmental remarks !

🐑 🐑

Vouchers are fine . The money is from tax payers. Its not free. Im pleased to be able to help people who need it with my hard earnt taxes. If I was given vouchers I'd be pleased. They'll be targeted to people's needs so whats the problem.

How to say 'I haven't read the full thread including the many valid points raised' without saying 'I haven't read the full thread including the many valid points raised'. 🙄

Many many disabled people also pay taxes maybe also rtft before commenting?

peoples needs are exceptionally varied so who gets to decide what someone needs? Who gets to decide what’s a valid use of their money?

should we make those on other benefits be paid in vouchers too? What about the state pension? Where do you draw the line?

Presumably then you are, to a certain extent, in favour of the Green Paper review as there are proposals to replace the assessment system.
ie….by getting rid of it entirely.

Obviously the two are not comparable!
A pension is for general living not a benefit specific to a disability.

I've submitted my consultation response, yes.

Do people with disabilities not 'generally live', then?

Of course and
if pensioners they will get a pension
If working they will have their pay.
If not working they will have other benefits
all the above deal with ‘general living’.

@Kandalama that logic only works if employers will cover all the extra costs of disabled employees, and not with vouchers, or with extra admin barriers.
I am largely housebound and need rest days before and after any work.
Vouchers are no use to me, I need the flexibility and dignity of money to live in a decent manner.

Child Benefit and State Pension are also taxpayers' money. You're fine with those being paid as vouchers, I take it?

For a disabled person, dealing with the disability is part of "general living". Me paying extra for food that requires minimal preparation is because of my disability, yet eating is part of general living.

I'm utterly bewildered and horrified by the people on this thread who think it is OK to take dignity and choice away from people just because they're disabled. So pensioners can have their state pension (a benefit, paid for by taxpayers) in money - even if they have never worked and been a SAHM, getting the NI contributions through the Child Benefit system. That's OK. But disabled people need to have their choices taken away from them.

The cognitive dissonance is just incomprehensible. That's before mentioning that a lot of people who get PIP, my DS included, work.

No one ever suggests that Child Benefit should be paid as school uniform vouchers, clothing vouchers, healthy food vouchers, etc, even though CB is also taxpayers' money.

It's clear that disabled people are considered feckless and undeserving in a way that no other class of benefits recipient is.

It has actually been put at 0% fraud this year

www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/dwp-disability-benefit-fraud-pip/

👍me too

Obviously.
But yours has an extra expense. Which is considered in the consultation.

But the question is how do you handle that extra expense? In the case of food, do you 1) Trust the disabled person to buy what they need with money, or 2) Do you give them meal vouchers, which may not cover their specific needs and what is available in their area, and are expensive to administer?

Ultimately the question is: Do we trust disabled people with money, or do we not?