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.

I think the fights just gone

It’s not a punch in the face. You’d have to have been asleep for decades not to know you’ll be self funding your care if you need it. Why should someone with hundreds of thousands in assets be subsidised by the taxpayer?

It feels like everyone wants you to fund things with disability money. Where I am grass cutting used to be free and it’s now something like 300 a year. And the grass cutting scheme is only for people who are disabled and getting benefits.
I tried getting counselling and after a trial I would have needed to pay my entire care component. I get that to pay for my additional costs.
i don’t like where this is going but they are making help inaccessible with all their cut backs and it’s hard to believe they actually want to support anyone

It's worrying, although @PandoraSox made the astute observation that it's all proposals and ideas at this point. We won't know much until the Green Paper drops in March.

@SlapTheMelon How insulting. What a horrible, disrespectful thing to say to people who claim disability benefits. What happens to the disabled in the country where you are from if there is no help for them from the state? Do they end up begging in the streets or starving to death? I, for one, am proud that I was born in a country that (currently) looks after the disabled and disadvantaged and I hope this never changes. Makes me wonder why you've come to live here if you have such a low opinion of us?

That still doesn’t mean it wouldn’t feel like a punch in the face though.
I can’t imagine they are all delighted by the thought ….some maybe…not all as we’ve seen here on other threads.

To be fair, it would cost me £30k to have a lift installed in my place because I’ve already reached the threshold for govt funded household adaptions. I can’t get it because the minute I’d get near to being able to afford it, the govt would stop me having money to live on. A lot of disabled people need to save to self-fund important things like motability adjustments, but the UC rules have made it quite literally impossible for disabled people to be able to self-fund basic needs. It’s extremely unfair and ill thought out.

UC also means that, if you’re disabled but your partner earns above x amount, you receive £0 in UC. That sounds like common sense until you think about the fact that it robs disabled people of all financial independence. As 1 in 3 of us is at risk of domestic abuse, removing financial independence from disabled people makes it impossible to leave. Not only due to UC, but it took me 20 years to leave my abuser because the system makes it so impossibly hard for disabled people to escape.

Surely if disabled people leave ( not withstanding the potential physical issues in doing so ) they would then be assessed as single for UC. Surely they can’t be classed as a couple if they are living separately ?
Like everyone else

Or am I missing something….

Are child mortality, health outcomes, literacy rates, womens and gay rights and infrastructure comparable to the UK? How do ill and disabled people fare in terms of life expectancy?

@pointythings that's exactly what I wanted to say but you've put it so much better!

It takes 5 weeks to receive UC after leaving. But how are you going to get another place and get out of there without having been able to save anything. In DA/ DV circles, we talk about “escape funds.” You need something set aside to keep you and any offspring going. How can you save for an escape fund if you have zero financial independence? If you’re within the relationship, how can you ensure your basic needs re things like incontinence sheets & pants, or wheelchair cushions etc are met if all of the money is being controlled by someone else, because you have no money. Because fate decided to disable you and the govt decided that means they should ether foster dependency on a potentially abusive partner, or with a state that could destroy your whole life on a whim? it’s actually incredibly bloody hard to be in such a position through no fault of your own.

I’m educated. I have a first class degree. If the govt wanted to help us into work so we’re no longer dependent on other people’s whims, they wouldn’t be talking about slashing benefits. They’d be talking about the barriers to work and increasing WFH.

This is an easy argument which I’ve heard people making since Tory austerity denied many extremely disabled people benefits. And now they want to make it harder. We’ve been warned that the changes to UC’s LCWRA will mean it’s much harder to qualify for people with multiple complex conditions. I have uncontrolled epilepsy, a collagen disorder, CVS, M,E., rheumatic disorders which cause a similar issue to CRPS, blood disorders, multiple gastric disorders, and about 12 diagnoses in total. I can’t even be left home alone in case i go into a seizure cluster and need to be given rescue medication or have an ambulance called in order to keep me alive. And yet, I’m exactly the sort of person this will impact.

There’s no way i can work. I was working from home until a year ago because i couldn’t leave the house to work. But that has become too difficult to work around the spells of projectile vomiting, epileptic seizures, severe insomnia and post-ictal (post seizure) paralysis and psychosis. I was letting my customers down because i was just too ill to be able to meet deadlines. I miss it dearly. I genuinely love working, from home or for others, but my body has had other plans. And yet, i could lose the pittance I’m entitled to and end up starving and unable to put electricity on the metre, like many disabled people i know who had to spend months, and some of them years, trying to fight to win back the benefits they’re entitled to.

The system is corrupted against us, and both the Tories and Labour want to make that an even more acute crisis.

My understanding from your post is that you have been assessed as capable to work but the system has decided otherwise.
I would think it unacceptable if someone really can’t work that they are denied benefits
The recent news articles though don’t mention anything about people in your situation
so, currently @Kitten1982 what do you do? Do you have to try and get reassessed ? and is that even possible. If not I assume you have appealed the decision.

I think they mean they are currently on disability benefits, having formerly worked until it became untenable.

How are they receiving disability allowance if they are actually able to work, and what criteria will the government use to define this. You can't just pick and choose which disability is more worthy of benefits.
People already jump through many hoops to get their benefits, those with mental health conditions will struggle if made to jump through any more.

Presumably gets £750+ every four weeks in highest rates of PIP too though? It's the PIP that is meant to be used for the extra costs, carers etc.

I voted for them but will not do it again if they cause serious distress to my family members with this so called shake up

The reason PIP is not based on working is it was originally designed for people who need carers. So you might be able to work in a desk job, but need a carer to help you get out of bed and dressed.

Yes it's taken over from the old bad back.

PIP
you can be classed as disabled and still be able to work

Sorry just seen he is in residential care but presumably doesn't have bills etc in that case ?

Most of the benefits will go towards the residential care. This is part of the Adult Social Care through CTax.

Hey, I hear you on that. But it's going to be a punch in the face for anyone facing that reality. We aren't expecting people to happily skip away into their care home facing this are we?

Most people would hope they'd grow old and die in their home I would have thought. I'm not blaming anyone for the reality of this.

It's a bit problematic when you look at it like this.

I'm not sure what the original DLA was based on and if that's different to this. I don't know who thought up PIP but it's perimeters reflect someone out of touch with the groups who apply and why they do.