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.

I did it to show that you don't have to have been in a DV situation but maybe you choose to tick it to gain benefits.

It's not difficult to game the system. I've filled out attendance allowance, housing benefit etc. Genuine cases but it would be so easy to fake. Yes you have to provide evidence but you could easily work around that quite quickly depending on how you time the applications. Not one person came out to assess. Not once!

Agree. What are the solutions? We cannot afford this booming benefits bill. What cuts would others want to see being made instead? You cannot keep carping on about how this isn’t fair without thinking about alternatives.

I think people with a ten year award get something called a 'light touch' review- you should be OK.

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.

It is a change likely to benefit those needing short term help, but really bad for those needing long term help.

Similar to the changes to bereavement payments made by the last government this one. They focussed on the help being given to younger widows and widowers who would have got nothing to hide the fact they'd taken a lot away from another group (widows and widowers with children).

I did it to show that you don't have to have been in a DV situation but maybe you choose to tick it to gain benefits.

You don't get to just tick the box and get it in reality though.

The calculator is just that. It's not reflective of the actual application processes 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.

The fact when asked the minister said they were still consulting on the time limit suggests to me this one is still causing issues in getting agreement.

To announce a major change with a new time limited benefit and not be able to tell people the time limit is very poor.

There aren’t any obvious solutions unless people want the government to close down the NHS or similar. Because we can’t afford to sustain so many on benefits. It’s supposed to be emergency short term help, not a life style choice unless you are severely disabled or have a life limiting disease that limits their ability to work.

Down's syndrome is not a "mental health issue."

I know you haven’t calculated anything! That much is clear.

I’m not sure why you don’t understand how few health conditions are totally reliant on patient testimony. And those that are require full assessment and diagnosis by professionals who are trained to differentiate the truly afflicted from the worried or lazy well.

For people with genuine problems with pain and mobility - it’s hard enough for them to get diagnoses in some cases, let alone people who are inventing symptoms.

Most of these cuts are to show some sort of bottom line on the finances for the Spring Budget so there is no point being worked up until it actually affects you personally. They are most likely rejigging numbers and want the maths to add up also so that the BOE have lower interest rates etc. Most of it will be BS in the end although I understand that many who rely on this are extremely anxious about it. They lied about making billions out of millionaires and non Doms and now they need to show “savings” in the figures. We cannot have a run on the currency etc and more sovereign debt to service. I think best to wait and see and not panic.

It is stated in the green paper.

Most genuine ones will have a medical record showing the various medications prescribed over time or referrals to mental health services.

@OldCottageGreenhouse really depends on the situation and how life limiting it is - and yes I have a huge amount of sympathy if we are talking about terminal illness etc - would something like MS count? My friend is director of HR at a big company and has MS- but you wouldn’t really know unless she told you - is it life limiting- possibly.

Oh everything is a mental health issue according to MN and the government. Down’s syndrome, autism, MS, anything short of losing a limb…

This!

It's not sustainable. We need to get back to a situation where we should be proud of working.

My mum worked 2 jobs to make ends meet, my dad worked OT. They didn't go abroad on holiday or out to restaurants at all. Even when my dad's income reduced due to him being depressed, my mum didn't claim but instead took a 3rd job!

I've chosen education as a route out of working class (really poor area). I know not all people have the ability to do that but there are plenty of trades job for those who are prepared to work hard.

With an ever-older population, to provide pensions for elderly, there needs to be a set % of citizens who are in work to pay taxes to support the welfare system. This is not a problem just here in the UK but we are an outlier when it comes to the increase in benefits claims and non-working youngsters.

I also think we are as a nation more overweight which leads to a number of 'metabolic syndrome' conditions which are life style dependent e.g. Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, pain (knee/body due to weight).

We need to look at the NHS and introduce a charging system to dissuade people from misusing it.

We should introduce some sort of ID/digital ID to stop benefits fraud by unscrupulous third parties and people using our health service when not living here.

@Araminta1003 so do you think some of the changes won't actually happen in the end?

A lot of people work with extreme disability and illness. I think more work needs to be done to make this more appealing to companies and compensate them in some way for their efforts. Working is fundamental to well being. Having a life without purpose or meaning is going to be awful for mental health. People get locked in a cycle or despair.

But they get around this by not providing medical evidence. It’s a huge, huge misconception that people must send lots of evidence. They don’t. I deal with it every day, trying to make the right decisions based on nil verified information.

They can refuse to give evidence, refuse to provide GP details. I could tell you many anecdotal stories of people getting awards based on their word only. Obviously I can’t speak freely about it, though.

Just to add, I had a parent who was misdiagnosed as having a mental breakdown, turned out that they had developed early onset dementia. The care workers and SS still referred to it as a mental breakdown for months after the official diagnosis until I lost it. Deliberate ignorance to suit the narrative they had pigheadedly decided was the case. Now it’s happening on a mass scale it seems.

This is rather confused. The medical evidence so vital to these assessments includes diagnosis, symptoms, treatment but nothing to do with every day care and mobility needs.

That is why so many genuine claimants fail. Because there is no medical evidence to support their description of their daily needs.

@PickAChew - but this is the level of understanding from the general public isnt it. Clueless. And does carrying parcels earn you enough to live on? As for us "helping" our kids to work, I already have to work part time and am sometimes required to get up and walk out of my job to in order to care for my DD21. Maybe if I give my job, I can then accompany her to work, do most of it for her and then take her home again. That what you had in mind @Araminta1003 ?

I also chose education as a route out of poverty. What I didn't choose was to have a brain tumour and epilepsy.

Cutting benefits and charging for the NHS punishes people like me. The only thing separating you and I is luck.

Ok, you keep believing the 0.1% figure is accurate if it makes you feel better. Meanwhile don't be shocked by the fact that the government is looking to reform this area and make cuts because even they know that this figure is meaningless and it's an obvious area to target.

I understand the system well. You will see other posters on this thread with various conditions that know that it wouldn't be difficult to ascertain medical evidence for certain conditions or to exaggerate symptoms for a condition you do actually have. It's the nature of the beast. You either make it impossible for people to claim unless they have definitive evidence which would prevent lots of genuine claimants from claiming or you open the door to piss takers. We have opted for the latter approach but it is ludicrous to then pretend that the system isn't open to abuse.

You don't need a diagnosis for PIP.

When I graduated into the workforce in the early 2000s there were limited job opportunities and we also had the dot com bubble bust which caused a general economic downturn outside of the tech sector it primarily impacted. I worked 7 days a week for about a year (5 in a low paid office job and a weekend job). This isn’t some kind of boast, lots of my peers faced the same situation. We just cracked on. I don’t think terms of employment and conditions were massively better than today tbh.

As for the inheritocracy, well it was ever thus. The issues around some young people inheriting wealth and others not have always existed.

I do think life was easier in many other ways for young people back then. For one thing, we didn’t have Social Media gurus encouraging us to treat the anxiety, sadness or disappointment we might feel following a setback as a mental health issue. It was just…life.

I've already said earlier I'm not talking about people with genuine needs. That's the point.

I'm very sorry about your condition and I'm sure that under the new system you will have no issue and might even not have to be reassessed continually.