To be concerned about what Liz Kendall is up to with disability benefits?

[Locutus2000]

The Times reporting just how enthusiastic Labour are about targeting the disabled.

I can only hope they are getting the worst ideas out there first, if not I dread to think what is coming in the upcoming review.

I was confident Labour would at worst be no worse than the Tories.

I was wrong.

Free archive link here.

At least when the Tories were in power you could rely on Labour standing up for the vulnerable. Wonder who is going to speak up for those who are currently on disability benefits and told that they should be getting a job while they compete with all the newly unemployed wave released to balance the books after minimum wage rises and employers national insurance rises? It won't be the Tories, they've been trying to do this for years. Perhaps the lib-dems who are increasingly irrelevant - maybe Ed Davey could do a sky dive or something?

As others have said, a lot of these issues are caused by inflexible employers. I have a long term condition that flares and leaves me bedbound fairly often. The medication just doesn't work well enough and I have tried everything avaliable on the nhs

Even though I have to wfh due to this plus pain and mobility problems employer before last was awful and kept trying to pressure me to go in. My current employer is going to start absence management if I have any more time off. I don't take time off unless I am so bad my partner has to carry me to the bathroom and feed me. I need to change jobs again due to this and the stress levels of the job but can't find any other employers who will consider full wfh without taking a massive pay cut that we can't afford

My mum worked for civil service and became disabled and they started to manage her out for absence.

Pip is also the only reason I can afford to live in a house set up for my wheelchair and also to get to the hospital appointments in taxis as patient transport requires me to take a whole day off work and as said above, work already aren't happy

Eh? Again proving my point. You’re so blinded by one point, you have missed everything else. You’re obsessed with school fees and envy. As I said in my previous post. No skin in the game. I don’t pay private school fees. I can clearly see what is going on in the economy and linking all the dots. It’s clear to anyone with an ounce of economic understanding.

People DID vote with the politics of envy policies in mind. As your obsessive posts about school fees are proving. YOU keep bringing it up. Many Labour voters are unable to comprehend how all of these “small” things have come together to form a perfect storm. Only now, that it will impact welfare are people starting to wake up. Many still can’t see the issue and think VAT on school fees will magically fix it all. Madness. Fiscal decisions have damaged the productivity and employment in this country so badly that we now have to slash state. The taxing didn’t work.

Exactly. Labour are going to have to reform welfare in a way the Tories couldn’t and wouldn’t dare. They will now have to do it and the Tories won’t oppose it. Why would they? One term Labour Party and the Tories back in carrying on what was started. Yet people still don’t see it.

Which doesn’t in any way cover the cost of a state pension.And if you don’t earn enough during 35 years there are pension credits which bring you up to the same amount. My SIL who has never worked will actually be getting more in retirement than her brother who is highly skilled and has worked full time his entire life. Like many women his mother also never worked at all and has been drawing her state pension far earlier than either of us ever will.

I was thinking about this and remembered two people I used to know through volunteering I used to do. Both were on disability benefits for depression/anxiety MH problems and had been for years. They both (separately, they weren't related) received large inheritances, one enough to buy a small flat and live frugally for the foreseeable future, the other just to live frugally for several years. Both came off all benefits. The difference in their MH was astonishing. Neither of them were faking before anyone suggests it (there were fakers in the service but not these two). They just could cope with the normal stresses of life and claiming benefits in itself was so stressful, along with the thought of losing them, was making them ill in itself. The money they received freed them from all this. One of them even got a part time job after a little while, taking the job was no longer any risk because they knew that if they couldn't cope they could quit. I heard after i left the other person also got a very part time easy job.
I don't know what the answer is but the benefit system itself is making people sick and the cost is astronomical.

That's not true though. You need to have approximately 35 years of NI credits to get the full state pension. You can get NI credits by working (not necessarily full time) or by being in receipt of some benefits, so there's are many people getting state pension that didn't work full time for 35 years,

And there are millions of us who HAVE worked all of those years.

No, I haven’t gone through PIP assessment so I wouldn’t know but just going by the PIP criteria on the government website I could be. I have other health conditions too, not just ASD and ADHD. Yes of course lots of people with these conditions can’t work, it’s a spectrum after all and affects everyone differently, but I’m by far not the only one earning a decent salary. My employer is a big employer of neurodiverse people and very flexible, I’m not the only one in my team. My point is though I don’t think I should be eligible for PIP. I do have additional costs relating to my disability but our income is high enough that we don’t need it, yes it would be nice to have the extra but the money should go to those who do need it to top up their income.

The other thing these people could do was afford to take these low paid jobs without being in extreme poverty. If you are on sickness benefits now you are protected from the levels of poverty low paid workers live in.

Did people really think that with the issues caused with wealth leaving and jobs being slashed at such a fast rate - wouldn’t filter through to welfare and the state?

You'll get emojis and sarcasm back for a while as it's a big switch to get that Labour's policies will impact them negatively.

Look at redundancy threads, the poster who's stressed about £300 rent increase, the poster below who lost a short hour flexible job.

People aren't great at realising votes are impacting people at the lower end more

So you’ve never been through the pip procedure, only think you could be and don’t think you need it. On that basis I think we can safely assume given the battle to get it that you wouldn’t be eligible so not really sure what your point was. It is going to those who need it to make life and work more accessible.

Well yes. Hiring for roles, in a shortage area, are hitting entry jobs hardest. The higher paid are not being replaced, so there is less mobility in the field for people to move up. Again, shortage area. Who knew that taxing employment so heavily would be a disaster? It’s been a complete mess in the private sector since the budget. People didn’t want to hear it. Now welfare will be slashed with no decent opposition, it’s getting angry time. Yet people still haven’t linked the dots.

@Joystir59 pensions absolutely are a benefit and the biggest portion of the benefits bill.

The NI you pay over your life entitles you to the benefit, it does not actually pay for your pension, that money is long gone by the time your retire.

This has been going on for quite some time under the Tories as you well know.

Yes it has. For many reasons. Brexit, high tax, so on and so forth. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I voted Tory - I didn’t. They were making a hash of it at a much slower rate. Labour have hit the fast forward button by 10x and sped up the damage significantly. That is the issue and that is why welfare will be facing bigger cuts than it may have done - with zero opposition. They’ve done quite the job on reducing jobs whilst chasing wealth out of the country. All that means now, is the genuine people who need state help will be facing cuts. No-one wins when the wealthy leave and higher earners start changing behaviour. There is less money for everyone.

They’ve already started slashing public sector jobs. I managed to escape redundancy by the skin of my teeth. Some local authorities are going bankrupt, mine is reasonably ‘wealthy’ in comparison but it’s still shit.

Yes you’ve missed my point entirely. My point is I think PIP should be means tested and not available to those on higher incomes, regardless of eligibility against the current criteria.

Who knew that taxing employment so heavily would be a disaster? It’s been a complete mess in the private sector since the budget. People didn’t want to hear it. Now welfare will be slashed with no decent opposition

Some knew but any suggest went down as well as you can expect

Labour are oblivious still. The last point is key, a majority that big if they need to slash welfare and public sector they will

Unions may cause issues on the latter but as for pensioners there won't be that opposition for benefits

The cost of that would be huge and the whole point of pip and disability measures is to level the playing field. Disabled people are on all types of income. A disabled person on an ok income will have higher costs than a person without disability and shouldn’t be penalised or held back in work or life because their costs are higher. Pip helps level playing fields.

Actually, there was no exodus of skilled EU workers after Brexit.
There were almost six million people being granted some sort or settled status here.

The exodus is starting now. Job insecurity, COL crisis and increased immigration from other parts of the world being the main reasons.
Also, the money they did send home on the past helped their countries develop, at the cost of development here.

Then you're means testing other support. But then they're worse off than someone earning the same amount

EasternStandard sniffing out any anti Labour thread she/ he can find. 🙄

Yes, and if PIP is means-tested then there needs to be another “gateway” to accessing the support that PIP is currently the only gateway to. So I don’t even think it would save money.

@EarlyM0rnibg responding to basic economics with insults on any thread they can find

If you are hit by Labour's cuts what then?

Perhaps put the blame on the people you voted for not random mners

Rent free head space for my posts will not fix it for you that's for sure.