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.

This is nowhere near as bad as the voucher system the tories has planned.

It's still a terrible thing to do.

I found on positive dla to pip transfer is moving to 18 instead of 16.

Errr ... not all employers have shareholders to pay profits too. We didn't, and we survived on below the NMW for five years. Our staff were always paid though.
Greedy employers eh?

Me too. I was underscored on everything under living, but because it got to 12, I got a full award.
But I definitely can’t do the things they say I can, and I was assessed without having a conversation. As I had been assessed 4 years previously.
It took a year last time to get my result so off course because I got the 12 points I wasn’t going to argue to get more. Now I wish I had!

The so called nurse who did my pip assessment said the letters were fake.

Why go for the elderly and disabled first? Because it’s labour.

Well it is not going to, so too bad how you feel about it.

What is the money used for? Why is it needed? Need therapy or a wheelchair? The NHS should provide it not just dole out cash for goodness knows what. That’s why we are in this problem.

Either you are being a GF or you are just a very unpleasant person. Have a lovely evening.

? .
The ones I have posted have been accurate. We need jobs, not workers.
learningandwork.org.uk/what-we-do/employment-and-social-security/labour-market-dashboard/

Nothing goady about saying someone who earns 80k shouldn’t be getting 400-800 quid a month in benefits.

If you go to your GP and say you have anxiety they will simply give you ADs that have some effectiveness for anxiety, possibly some beta blockers and recommend you self refer for 6 sessions of CBT but that could take 6 months.

That won’t get you very far on a PIP assessment form. You’d have to have anxiety so bad you can’t interact with other people or travel around for an extended period to qualify.

If let’s say you claim to have anxiety so bad you can’t function or go out, you will be referred to a psychiatrist for assessment. It’s harder to gull psychiatrists than you think, I don’t know why you think they’re not dealing with people who exaggerate or underplay their symptoms on a daily basis. At the end of it at the most you will end up with is a diagnosis of GAD, unless you can fake a car accident or a physical assault in which case you might pull off PTSD, neither of which count as serious mental illness.

So now you have a diagnosis but you still have no proof of how this affects your daily life and everything you say on the form could (and would in this case be bollocks). So the DWP can turn you down on the basis that there’s no evidence for your claims of how it affects your daily life, that you’re not currently undergoing treatment, that you say you can’t go out see people or travel but are continuing to go to work and that you turned up for your assessment - without much concern that it will be overturned on appeal. (On what legal ground - you have no evidence).

So you decide to take it to tribunal nonetheless, for which you’d need much more detailed evidence from psychiatrists - will the GP re refer? Not unless your symptoms are worse, certainly not on the basis that you need more data for PIP. So you may get refused. Do you have money for private psychiatric assessments? If not you’re unlikely to get anywhere. Then you will also need supporting evidence from friends and family, carers etc - will they be prepared to lie on record to a DWP/HMRC tribunal? Will you be able to lie your face off to a panel for an hour without stumbling or contradicting yourself and no representation unless you can afford £1000 or so for a benefits lawyer?

This is the reality of your cunning plan.

Do you have a source for that figure? It doesn’t match the latest ONS data which suggests less than 10% of the working age population are on ESA in Blackpool.

Even that’s not hugely surprising - deprivation and poorer health outcomes go hand in hand and Blackpool is one of the most deprived areas, with some of the worst health outcomes, in England.

They have the lowest life expectancy for men, and fifth lowest for women, in the country, the highest proportion of alcohol deaths, the highest rate of serious mental illnesses (like psychoses, bipolar and schizophrenia), and the sixth highest suicide rate.

What about the hospital? Or doctor? That costs money to get there.

Thanks so much for your reply. I really do appreciate it.

I’m on the old style, contributions based legacy benefit. I worked for 30 years till I was forced to stop, and I’ve been receiving the ESA for 10 years now.

The last few days waiting for this announcement have been awful. Now, us ADP recipients in Scotland need to wait to find out what the Scottish administration will do.

I am not trolling thanks but it is a bit much to say you want to invite millions more to receive our benefits by rejoining the EU!!! Legally we would have to pay, so I am not sure how that helps us 🤷‍♀️

I have been listening to some of the Parliamentary debate and I'm getting quite frustrated by all the questions asking whether those who are severely disabled will be protected.

Time and again the government stated that those who are so disabled they will never be able to work will be protected and will not have to undergo reassessment.

Then we had one of the SNP state she suffered from such depression it was hard to get out of bed, get washed etc. and that such people will will be fearful of losing their benefits. However, she was a case in point that such people can and do work. Should someone with severe depression for a period of time never be reassessed?

I welcome the proposed changes. Many many people have times in their lives with extremely poor mental health. And many have severe mental illness and will have it all their lives like my adult child. There is a difference between the two situations and should not be treated the same benefits wise. Otherwise, with the growing lack of resilience in people, more and more people will see getting PIP and not working or doing minimal part time work as the easier opportunity.

Those in work and have a chronic illness but don't qualify for benefits like PIP but get on with life including work, will start to think why bother trying to do their best? Why bother doing the bare minimum? Then what happens to the country's productivity levels?

Reform is needed and those who can do some work should be encouraged to try and reduce reliance on benefits whilst ensuring those who will never be able to are supported. We should never be supporting those who just don't want to work or only want to do so when they feel like.

Many of us in work often feel that we don't want to work but have no other choice but to carry on. It's truly galling to see neighbours and family who expect me and others in the country to fund them.

Actually it’s 29%

https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/32082147/map-reveals-britains-sickest-towns-where-millions-sick/amp/

Thank you!

Goody2shoesandthefilthybeast Couldnt agree more! I feel we have been well and truly shafted by Keir and his ilk .My Dad would be turning in his grave at the thought of what is going on with them, voted Labour all his life .Sadly Keir " the one to fear " as I call him is no match for Harold Wilson "man of the people" Also I thought Starmer had a disabled brother? Im voting Green next election!

Why are you contributing to a thread discussing PIP without understanding what it is?

It is not a work benefit. It is for people with long term chronic illness or disability who have care and mobility needs - ie need to pay for carers or adaptations or motability vehicles, even if they are working.

I have three children in receipt of DLA. All three meet the criteria that is set, took months to collect the evidence through appointments and paperwork to even fill out the forms. How did that happen? Well, both of us parents were undiagnosed as children (him autistic, me adhd with autistic traits). It wasn’t unnoticed though - both had a horrendous time at school which meant we didn’t get the support we needed to manage adult life over the years (him) or achieved our full academic potential (me). Of course, back then the child was blamed for being weird/lazy/bad. Many of these undiagnosed children grew up into the ‘mentally ill’ adults you try and ignore today, many on the streets, addicts, in prison, living on benefits not knowing how they didn’t manage to have to capacity to ‘get going’ like everyone around them. But without that ‘label’ (especially in women who are of course just riddled with ‘anxiety’), it seems autism and adhd just ‘exploded’ out of nowhere. It didn’t, and more to the point the traits of these conditions become more prevalent with every generation of children.

You absolutely will see parents who would go under the radar of diagnosis with children that are very evident from first meeting them non verbal and little to no social understanding. With a population explosion and a huge shift in how society functions, you’re going to notice neurodivergence whether you want to believe it exists in such large numbers or not. Unless ND people are made to stop reproducing, it’s going to be not ‘neurodiverse’ at all as it will be the typical that you have to adjust to.

As I said in a previous thread, if we need change that isn’t costing the government and taxpayers, that needs to start with actual action in education and workplaces. Taking away benefits as a forced hand won’t work if the structures haven’t been put in place to support it.

And don’t get me started on carers allowance. No one on the outside of it has a clue how it works and how it puts you in a rock/hard place situation. It’s taken off £1 for £1 on uc so you don’t actually see a penny of it if your a full time carer on benefits. And for all this talk of getting disabled people back into work there is nothing to help unpaid carers in the same manner. All we are is free social care until we’ve been used up and left with an empty CV. I’m educated to university level, worked until it became evident my child had very high needs - I’m fucked in a few years when my carer duties come to an end. I’ll never have a career or own my own home, or have savings. But at least the government gave me free money (that I don’t actually get) for a few years. Bully for us carers.

Uk population from Worldometer dated 18th March 2025 ( this morning )
69,431,610
so it’s actually lower than your figure @Longsummerdays25 (am I helping 🤣)