This is what I meant to say.
The change in Disability Living allowance to PIP, a totaly this government idea nothing to do with either parties manifesto or the need to save money, is actually going to make this situation much worse in two ways.
- Instead of 3 levels of care needs only two will exist in PIP. The threshold to get the lower rate, will in fact be substantially more difficult to achieve than as is the case for DLA just now. So a typical example would be someone, a woman lets say with sever arthritis in fingers, wrists, elbows, neck and shoulders. Many women lend up like that as the spend a lot of their life lifting kids, heavy shopping, cleaning, doing other heavy work.
So this woman who under the old test would get some DLA because she would in all likelihood fail the cooking test as she would rightly say that lifting hot pans, chopping, grating, even stirring could all be unsafe as she could hurt herself. Now though under pip she will receive nothing as the cooking test is gone and although having all her needs, she will still be able to function enough as far as the dwp are concerned. She will just have to take her chances like the many other disabled people.
I said she would lose out twice, the 2nd is that the very point of the DLA a benefit that Mrs Thatcher brought in by the way, is to cover extra costs. So this woman, and many other disabled people could afford decent food, might even be afford treats, like fruit, or a pudding. But not now, less money to spend on food, less money to pay for heat, less money to help them pay for additional medicines or therapies. Malnutrition may well be the norm for many people. Get angry people if you don't and illness and disability visit you and you look round in vain for help, you will only have yourself to blame. No one will make a stand for you if your not prepared to make a stand for others.