To think that this government are at war with disabled people and always have been?

[MyopicBunny]

I am assuming that the part of their UC that will be cut is the disabled element? Most people can’t even get this at all if you are disabled. The rules to receive it in the first place are extremely strict.

Why us nobody talking about this? Has our society now become brainwashed with the idea that it’s acceptable to call disabled people with significant needs benefit scroungers?

Why is it the most vulnerable being shat on from a great height, over and over??

The problem is not that people with disabilities are useless. It is that we live in a world which is designed for people who are not disabled and therefore meeting the needs of anyone different is often a task that nobody will do had can't be bothered to, anyway.

There is always this narrative that people are sitting at home taking the piss. Actually, there are more people who are denied health benefits or don’t claim their entitlement. And it is an entitlement. What happens when you get seriously with a long term condition? I don’t mean you specifically, Stomacharmeleon, but any one of us.

As for it not coming in until 2025, what about caring about the people who will have to face even more barriers and financial loss? Removing benefits from someone who has nothing else is going to end up costing society in the long term, whether it be through poor health, the need for even more food banks, homelessness and so on. What happens if they have children? Do they get taken into care costing the state even more? It’s nasty rhetoric design to inflame the right. Just like Braverman and look how that turned out.

I think it's perfectly understandable that people who have no income besides their benefits, a have personal experience of being brutalised repeatedly by DWP and their assessments and application processes, and fear for their ability to prove they genuinely are incapable of work might be plunged into a panic.

Yes, there is an election due, but the great British public saw fit to elect a complete an utter charlatan who was patently unfit for office in 2019, so nobody can guarantee that it will not happen again.

Polling suggests it's unlikely, but polling has frequently been proven wrong in the past, so I wouldn't go cashing in my chips that everything is just going to turn out hunky dory just yet.

Also of note is the fact that Starmer and Reeves have more or less stated they don't think these changes go far enough, so it's not as if a change to the Red Tories is guaranteed to render this moot in any case.

Lots of disabled people who could potentially work want to. Sadly, many employers are not keen on employing disabled people.

Yep, a family member has MS. He tells nobody about it, certainly not any of his employers. When he has a relapse, he has to take time off work and just hope that his employers don't run out of patience and sack him.

You need to pass an interview to get the job though. Even if your relative was keen to actually do the job, would she pass the interview stage?

Interviews are about selling yourself etc. Someone with anxiety will struggle with that... also someone with ASD due to maybe lack of eye contact etc. It is sad, because many people with such conditions look great on paper for particular jobs... but the hurdles set to get the job to begin with sets them up for failure.

“PIP (which is not mean tested, is not an out of work benefits, and is notoriously hard to get).”

1 in 20 people in England receive PIP … so is not “hard to get”

Not everyone is capable of only caring about one thing at a time.

2.8 million PIP claimants, yet 10.4 million disabled people.

If it's easy to be awarded PIP, why is the number of claimants not far higher?

Presumably a lot of those could be on DLA or Attendance Allowance or are we just talking about 10.4 million working age disabled people?

Have you tried to claim it?
I have known so many people who have tried to claim...mountains of evidence, and they get turned down. Yes, many get it after tribunal, but many give up at the first hurdle as it is demoralising and difficult.
Also, the assessors are known to lie. There are many accounts you can read about people who were told they could walk ok (when they were in a wheelchair), made good eye contact (assessment was over the phone), were laughing and joking (assessment was actually paused due to claimant having a panic attack) etc it goes on.
I have never applied as my MH team were worried it would put me at significant risk of harming myself.

Because having a disability and having a disability so severe that means you can not work are two different things?

10.4 million people are disabled … out of a total population of 55 millions. So 1 in every 5 people in this country claim disability benefit.
I guess I must live in a very atypical area and my social circle must be very atypical because 1 in every 5 people aren’t disabled and 1 in every 20 so much so that they are unable to work.

Well the jist of my point is that when you consider 24% of the entire population is considered disabled, the fact that only 1 in 20, or 5%, have been awarded PIP doesn't exactly back up the argument that it's an "easy" benefit to get.

The only relevant figure will be the number of claims v's the number of eventual awards, but even then, that only tells you about people who are actually bothering to claim, and ignores all of those who likely would be eligible for an award but don't bother applying for one reason or another.

Anyway, I'm unsure what the problem with a benefit that is "easy" to get supposedly is, since surely if you are eligible and in need the process should be as fair and straightforward as possible. State Pensions are a benefit, and they are fairly "easy" to get once you become eligible, yet I don't hear the same people moaning and whining about the perceived injustice of that.

State pensions are a contribution based benefit… you have to contribute - 25 years of NI payments I believe - to get the full benefit.

35 I think.

I didn't know about this. Though universal credit sounds like a dreadful thing to navigate.

I've been looking for working from home jobs. None allow complete remote working, requiring some time in the office, and all have said that a period of training, completely in the office, is required for the first 3-6 months. Though to be fair a sales/customer service based role only required two weeks initial training then two days a week in the office, three remote.

That's not great. I don't know how people manage on the basic amount. They're not managing in my experience.

Exactly.
I have a friend who is on the ESA version of LCW, but it does come with extra money (but not as much as support/LCWRA). That extra was stopped in 2017.
I remember sending a panic ridden message to my work coach about being awarded LCW and still expected to live on £70 a week... and for how long? My friend has been in her group for years and has cut her cloth so to speak (but is also on PIP, I am not).

Carer's allowance pays this, I believe if you're in receipt of it.

Staggeringly ignorant comment.

How will they need to job hunt 8 hours a day? If they are only able to apply for work from home jobs and there are few available it's not going to take long to find them online and apply. Probably a few minutes a day.

Have you ever applied for a job yourself? Did it only take you a few minutes to submit an application? Really?

I know the 'we don't receive enough taxes to fund this' claims are pure lies. There are so many unnecessary things that the government unquestioningly shovels money out to pay for - there's never any shortage of money for wars and aggressive military actions. As Tony Benn said, if we have the money to kill people, we have the money to help people.

Adam hills said he spoke to Penny Mordaunt when he visited the HOC and she reassured him...
Nothing will happen until 2025.
Those already disabled and on pip/ limited capability will not have anything to worry about.
It's more aimed at those who have sat and home and not worked or attempted to try after 18 months.

We may have a different government by then.

Do you really not understand that we are talking about the actual livelihood and continued ability to exist of a great many disabled and vulnerable people here? It's not just them wanting to close down your local golf club, meaning that you might end up getting a little bit bored on Sunday afternoons.

Just because people are disabled, that doesn't make them dim simpletons who are somehow unable to realise or care that they will still need to survive after 2025 - a little over a year away.

If you were told that there were plans to make your job industry illegal, bulldoze your house, take away your driving licence and close all of the food shops within a 20-mile radius, would you find that 'reassuring' if it wasn't going to happen for at least 13 months?

As pointed out, it's 35. Regardless, the fact Pensions are dependent on NI contributions is immaterial to the point, which is that entitlement should go hand in hand with ease of access, so I'm puzzled at the assertion that benefits should be "difficult" to get, because you either qualify or you do not.

1 in 20 claiming PIP is an indication that at least 1 in 20 qualify for PIP. I say "at least", because like with most benefits, there will be plenty who do qualify but do not claim or have never applied.

To address some earlier points -

Your social circle is not particularly relevant because we're talking about a State, and small sample sizes will very rarely be representative of the whole. If you draw conclusions about the entire UK based on the people you know and socialise with, what am I supposed to make of the fact that the majority of the people I work with, socialise with, my family, my partner, and I myself are all disabled? That's a quirk of circumstance, and is no more relevant to the macro picture than your own small group. Anecdotal observations aren't particularly relevant when they are based on tiny samples. So yes, almost by default your "area" and social circle are highly likely to be atypical and unrepresentative, as is mine.

It's actually closer to 1 in 4 people who are officially considered disabled in any case, and huge numbers of those will be claiming no benefits whatsoever, so I have reservations about your claim that 1 in 5 people in the UK are claiming disability related benefits.

It’s actually harder to get PIP if you work and/or drive despite the motability scheme
so makes no sense that they are trying to join up wca and pip
To everyone who questions benefits for those with disabilities - why? Do disabled or ill people not deserve the same opportunities in life as you?
There is so much ignorance about the hidden costs of being disabled - have you looked at the price of aids, special diets, continence products etc? financial assessment and contribution rates for needing someone to help you with personal care? It’s not free!!!

Most, if not all active benefit claims see your "Insurance stamp" paid for the duration. ESA certainly used to, and even if you do not qualify for a payment due to spousal income or such, provided your claim is contiguous DWP continues to "pay" your NI contribution to State Pension.

It’s actually harder to get PIP if you work and/or drive despite the motability scheme
so makes no sense that they are trying to join up wca and pip
To everyone who questions benefits for those with disabilities - why? Do disabled or ill people not deserve the same opportunities in life as you?

Yes, it's especially nasty to be trying to encourage/force people to be more independent in the knowledge that you will then use that against them to 'prove' that they are lazy liars.

Far too many people - including in the government - believe that there's a clearly-defined binary of groups: (1) the people who are so severely disabled that they can't do a single thing for themselves; and (2) everybody else who is completely fit and well save for the odd annoying cold or tickly cough every now and again.

Unfortunately this government is incapable of looking at things in the round. See also pledges to lock up more prisoners for longer when the prison system is at breaking point, judges are being told to reduce custodial sentences and the UK is exploring sending prisoners abroad!

We have the most incompetent government ever. All they do is tell lies, talk shite and fight amongst themselves while the country goes down. All they have left is dehumanising, degrading rhetoric.

Don't get sucked in.