Taxes to rise to fund PIP 2

[Viviennemary]

I saw the other thread was full. Still I look forward to the vote which is on Tuesday. Sky news called him two Tier Keir. Most unfair thing ever if this passes.

How on earth are folk expected to work till they are 67 if they don't drop dead before that. To fund youngsters too anxious to work. Utter madness. This back peddling is a grave mistake by Labour. I won't be voting for them again.

Agree.

And I am disabled. But I work. It takes a lot from my quality of life to work but I still work. Lots of disabled people work.

I haven't had a pay rise in years, public services are going down the drain.

Tax the super rich by all means but stop taking more and more from middle earners.

There has to be some sanity on the conversation and a recognition we can fund everything for everyone

I used to PIP bash on MN.

But now I feel the vast majority of claimants are genuine people who have health issues. I feel for people with chronic and/or debilitating conditions. I'm just wondering why it's so many now in the UK.

Obviously there will always be the one or two odd cases there. Like I know a student with autism who got a PIP backpayment and then just used to go on holiday. But that's just a one off. I understand now the plight of people who have Chronic fatigue or ME or were born with some defect.

I probably would want people who are physically healthy to do whatever they can to not reply on benefits. Even if it means working 2/3 jobs.

Like I know a student with autism who got a PIP backpayment and then just used to go on holiday

Disabled people are allowed to use PIP to go on holiday, if they wish.

I think this is a fair assessment of the type of claims which receive the longest award periods. I have a ten year PIP award, have been blind since birth, born without eyeballs. They haven't grown back yet but I can assure concerned posters on this thread that, should I miraculously suddenly gain sight I will be straight on the phone to the DWP, no need to worry about me abusing the system!

This is not always true though. I have a client who has just been given a 10 year award for MH as he is nearing state pension age. This guy had a breakdown 2 years ago and has made a reasonable recovery since then and there is no reason why he shouldn't continue to. He was aged 62 when this happened and until that point in his life had never been mentally ill and the breakdown was the result of a relationship breakdown not due to some long term condition like Bi-polar or depressive disorder. I just don't understand how he has been given a ten year award at enhanced rates of both components totalling more than £750 every four weeks for something which could be temporary and improve. Some of the decisions just baffle me. I am all for people not being re-assessed when it is obvious their condition is not going to improve but this is just such a different scenario.
I had another client awarded for ten years who had mobility issues due to Osteoarthiritis in her knee yet she hadn't even seen an orthopaedic surgeon yet who could likely offer a knee replacement and improve things considerably. I know in these situations the onus is on the claimant to report improvements but realistically I wonder how many do. Another of my clients reported that her condition had improved ( was awarded enhanced rates when going through debilitating cancer treatment and surgery) and she was told to wait for renewal forms which is eight months away and even then it is taking a year to re-assess and she will keep getting those enhanced rates and won't need to pay a penny back as it is the fault of the DWP that re-assessments are so far behind. the whole system needs an overhaul.

Why did you vote for them?

Because I thought Kier Starmer was sensible and not like Jeremy Corbyn. And I didn't like the way the Tories were going especially after Liz Truss disaster. Disappointed the PM has turned out to be so weak.

Honestly ? Engage your brain and understand that there are all kinds of good technology softwear that can help visually impaired people to access computers?

Also applies to people with learning disabilities (IQ below 70). My relative has Downs Syndrome and a severe LD (IQ 40-45). He was assessed in 2020 when his DLA was replaced by PIP and given a ten year PIP award.

The PIP assessor agreed with my parents, who were furious that a person with a profound developmental and learning disability should be 'reassessed' at all. It was carried out at his home but he didn't sleep the night before as he was so anxious and worried that something 'bad' was going to happen, as he doesn't like strangers in the house.

Disability benefits for people with DS should be awarded for life, and he should have been transferred onto it without putting my parents through the stress of filling out a 60 page form, obtaining doctors letters, and having to supply up to date medical evidence for a condition that has no 'treatments' and will only worsen with age/early onset dementia.

They'll have to go through it all again in 5 years time when his 10 year award comes up for renewal again. Outrageous.

The amount of money wasted on reassessment for the 1.5 million people in the UK with an LD - assessments contracted to PRIVATE companies like ATOS, I ahould add!!! - must be costing taxpayers hundreds of millions... but nobody talks about that!!!!!

At least under the old DLA system, this wasn't an issue.

How on earth does on read and comment on Mumsnet without a brain?
Seems to happen on here a lot. Just saying.

Being serious though, there is tech that can read and type for you. I used to have an online friend who was blind. She would send me voice notes, and my text to her was read out using whatever software she was using.

God, the ignorance is off the scale.

Oh my goodness. There is tech that will read out written text.

Ten year awards dont have assessments, just a short form to check nothing has changed. Your relative will be fine.
I have a son with a learning disability who won’t manage working, and hoping for a ten year review for him also.

@FedupMum2024 how rude!

The (thankfully deleted) comment from @fedupmum2024 really is a stark illustration of how some posters have no understanding of disability. Really astounding.

There is no need to raise taxes to fund PIP (where has this been said anyway?).
I think if we charged the benefit bashing OPs £1 for their comments on here, then there will be no need to cut anything.

And that, like all large scale tax avoidance, should be illegal. Those loopholes need to be closed.

In response to the poster who seems incredulous that a blind person could access the internet and who, sadly, does not appear to have access to a search engine, I use screen-reading software to access my laptop and mobile phone. This reads the text on a screen aloud. It's one of the adaptive technologies which I use my PIP to pay for, hope that hasn't come as a terrible shock to those posters who think we all spend our PIP on holidays and designer handbags! Being disabled really can be very expensive.

It is posts like the pp which shows the level of ignorance some people have about people with disabilities, and what disabled people are up against, and have to deal with. People with no understanding of the challenges that disabled people face, but seem to be very vocal about questioning the need for PIP, and what they do with the money they get. I know this thread is not about that in particular, but I have already seen the suggestion that some one receiving PIP, should not have gone on holiday. Honestly are disabled people expected to have no quality of life at all?

i think sometimes it is worth while reframing the view point-

if we were all in a post apocalyptic land and there were limited food and resources everyone would have to play their part. Everyone would have to earn their keep and everyone would have a value.
I think it is because we allow people not to contribute who clearly can in some way then resentment builds. I am sick and tired of the working long hours, working my days off for overtime which I am taxed / deducted 50% of - it’s madness

Exactly, and it was so crass to put it like that.

I think there has to be a debate about that though. Because I work (at the expense of my quality of life outside or work). How much in taxes is it fair to ask one disabled person to pay to fund another disabled person's quality of life?!

It's important to move away from the idea that working people and those who don't claim PIP don't have health battles too.

Some people would be absolutely incapable of playing their part, as you put it. They still would have value.