Benefit cuts proposal

[Charliechoosecarefully]

I just wanted it to have a specific thread:-

Kendall says government to consult on merging JSA and ESA benefits.

Kendall says WCA being scrapped, with Pip assessment process being used instead - will be scrapped in 2028.

Kendall says 'right to try' will let people on sickness benefits try work without immediately having benefits cut.

Kendall says UC payments being rebalanced, with standard rate going up, and some health top-ups frozen or cut.

Kendall says reassessments for people on universal credit with health top-ups to be beefed up

Kendall says universal credit claimants with most severe disabilities will not face reassessment

Kendall confirms Pip eligibility rules to be tightened, and assessment process to be reviewed - 4 pointed needed in one descriptor.

Kendall says under-22s could be prevented from claiming health top-up for universal credit

Sourced from the guardian.

@Katypp
No, I am suggesting that maintenance should not be disregarded in PIP calculations. So if a family was entitled to say £2000 a month, but maintenance was paid at £1,000, this would be taken off the UC payment,. Rather like the working taper.
I don't see what's so wildly controversial about that. It used to happen.
The system we have gives a lot of single parents no incentive to work, as their UC topped up by maintenance can add up to a tidy sum in certain circumstances.
But I am guessing by your outraged tone that you won't even consider what I am saying anyway.

and do you realise why it was changed previously? People on benefits only got to keep £20 a week, the rest of the maintenance was owed to the Sec of State to go toward the benefit bill. The amount owed then got so high it was demanded that something be done. So they said people could keep it... keep the money that an absolutely huge number of NRP's don't pay..

Before any change such as that could be made then vast reforms to CMS, and political attitudes to maintenance would have to change. And none of them have shown any interest in that whatsoever.

I can because they don't even pretend they are doing what would be needed to identify people that were lying or exaggerating their symptoms. That's because they aren't doing it! They literally have no idea.

I worry for people like my niece. She is the only person in our (very large) family that claims any benefits beyond child benefit. She has two physical disabilities, but still being relativity young (30s) is perfectly able to work with reasonable adjustments when she is ok, but due to one of her disabilities, around 4-5 times a year she is blue lit to hospital in life threatening adrenal crisis and off work sick for 2 weeks while she recovers.

She really wants to work, but has been sacked recently after desperately trying to cling onto her job, being the best employee she is capable of being for 3-4 years since she became disabled, facing disciplinary after disciplinary for absence rates (frankly being talked to like she is a piece of shit), standing up for her rights with support from her union, until they managed to boot her out the door.

Any job she gets now, if she can even get one with references stating high absences, are likely to let her go pretty quickly (she was not disabled the first 7 years of her previous job). I can see her life ending up being a vicious circle of struggling to find and then keep jobs and living below the breadline in-between.

If employers cannot support employees like my niece, what is she supposed to do?

This is it. I have autism and various mental health conditions. None of them can be detected by some sort of objective chemical test or scan. They are each based on my own subjective claims to a third party or their assessment of my conduct. It’s highly subjective and most conditions could be either faked or exaggerated. Not to say that’s what’s happening but medical evidence doesn’t mean something is proven or not subjective.

It would depend on the person's cognitive ability
Down syndrome like all disabilities is a spectrum in its self whilst all people with down syndrome will have a degree of learning disabilities, these can range from fairly mild to profound
So one person could live independently, with support yet another will need full time 1: 1 support.

So, there are nowadays lots of 'benefits calculators' out there. Probably why applications have mushroomed.

I just pretended to be 19, said I was earning £900 / month and living in a flat costing £800 in rent. I ticked that I'd experienced domestic abuse when I was 16 (not sure if that was included in the assessment but still).

Turns out that this fictional person could get £600 in universal credit.

What incentive would it be for this person to try to change jobs, work harder to earn more?

Madness!

It may work out better for people like me who have worked for forty years and will have to claim Contributions based JSA next year when my project ends. Previously it would have only been paid for 6 months and then I would have been totally reliant on my dh to support me if I could not find another job straight away but now may be paid at a higher rate and for longer, although they haven't specified how long.

I did, here it is again.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system-financial-year-2023-to-2024-estimates/fraud-and-error-in-the-benefit-system-financial-year-ending-fye-2024#personal-independence-payment-overpayments-and-underpayments

If the Tory party had won the last election I'd have expected them to:

1. target the sick and vulnerable
2. not increase taxes, even though they need to go up to fund public services
3. accept tens of thousands in freebies from party donors
4. cosy up to authoritarian regimes
5. keep the two child cap on child benefit etc.

But in a few short months Labour have done all this, and more.
What is the point of the Labour party? How do the actions of its current leadership possibly fit with everything the party has stood for for the last century?
About the best that can be said for them is that they are not Reform.

This is not how GPs work. A GP will summarise health conditions - diagnosis and treatment. They don’t get involved in speculating how long someone can chop celery for.

Yeah, focal seizures. They wipe me out completely but if I took a job where I'd have to be there in person, they'd sack me so quickly for absences. At least if I was working I could take a break rather than day(s) off.

I'm struggling with working it out as so few people use the LCW or LCWRA acronyms - is this what people think they mean by the phrase "top up"?

I only just had my pip reassessment and got the full award. I have cancer and not getting better. It says it’s good for ten years does this mean I have to be assessed again? I had a couple of 2’s.

My son's OT assessment included them observing if he could wash himself and dress himself.

Why can’t her family support her? If I was too disabled to be able to afford to live independently I would move in with my parents, or aunt, or cousin. I appreciate not everyone has family, but the FIRST instinct in every case seems to be to ask the state to fund you rather than looking to your own resources.

The payments would stop for some.

At the moment contribution based ESA is not means tested and can be paid indefinitely. This change means that it would stop after a certain length of time, after which people could claim UC. But anyone with, for example, savings above 16k, a pension or a working spouse would essentially lose the ESA. It is a big change. It will apply to new claims only.

The calculators aren't always accurate (rarely so in my experience( especially with housing costs.

The ticking of the DV box will likely have qualified your fictional person for a 1 bed rate rather than shared and that's highly unlikely to actually happen.

Who is going to pay? We simply do not have the money - Labour I am sure would not want to do this, but they also can’t stand by and see the country become bankrupt, everyone that can work, needs to work. And yes for some it might be uncomfortable at first if they are not used to it, but we need people to take responsibility for themselves.
Otherwise we won’t be able to support those that genuinely can’t work at all.

I noticed this seems to be something they are planning to consult on unlikely the PIP changes also is not planned until 2028 but yes is a big change.

So if that person existed, and there are people who have lived that life, then I should imagine their life would be pretty difficult to have gone through that and be alone at 19, and yet your main concern is that they are somehow meant to obtain a kick up the arse to earn more? How about they might need some support for a while?

*unlike the PIP changes

You say this as though there is a medical professional that does speculate how long someone can chop celery for. The medical 'evidence' people imply is so vital to these assessments is the exact type of evidence a GP would write. The claimant themselves will describe how it impacts their day to day living in their application. They can obviously say anything they like so the assessors look for medical evidence which diagnosis and treatment plans etc are relevant to.

it will apply to new claims only how do you know this please?

No one is saying that. There is an awful lot of emotive rubbish on this thread.

I don't think so. Green paper indicates that those with "ongoing period" 10 year awards won't be reassessed at all.