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.

Agree. I was a disability outreach worker for many years and very involved with PIP at various stages. In my experience assessors will always look very carefully at what aids or adaptations may be employed before they will make an award based on actual assistance.

I think it’s a very clever change and will result in far more savings than simply freezing the benefit, as was previously mooted. I also think - and I’m prepared to be flamed here - that it’s a change for the better. Disability benefits were always intended to support those who had significant impairment, and many of the conditions and low level impairments being claimed for now, simply wouldn’t have been considered before benefit rules were watered down to include them after the introduction of PIP. I think this change will serve to redress the balance.

Well cheer up. I can quit working and say I'm dying of depression. No one would even question me because I'm EXPECTED to be dying of depression with my incurable, progressive illness.

Instead this new system will punish me for insisting on stubbornly striving to live and work and contribute. Well fuck that. By the time my PIP is due to renew I'll make sure I've given up on life as they appear to want me to do.

This reads like you think children should be financially penalised for being disabled, and their parents ditto for bringing them into the world.

So what do you think should happen to children like these, and their parents?
Receive no support at all?

The cost of keeping them in full time care would be vast compared to a parent caring for them at home. Some children won't ever be able to work or care for themselves, and their parents may not be able to continue caring for them indefinitely - should they just be abandoned by the state?

Physical conditions affect the daily living component as well, obviously.

Labour painted themselves into a corner with their pre-election promises of no tax rises.
In answer to "Who is going to pay?", the short answer should be: the very rich, and the corporations they own. A more detailed answer:

1. Brexit is the elephant in the room. Rejoining the EU and/or common market would stimulate growth and raise revenue.
2. Every party knows that the triple lock on pensions is unaffordable and cannot be sustained. No party has the balls to tackle it. Like Brexit, it's another example of successive governments passing the buck because they're scared of losing the grey vote.
3. a couple of percent on the higher rate and additional rate of income tax would target those with the highest incomes rather than the most vulnerable. The top rate of income tax sat for decades at 90%. Raising it by 2% now would be hardly noticeable to most of those affected.
4. a wealth tax / land tax would raise tens of billions. It should replace stamp duty, which is an anachronism and an unfair tax on mobility and divorce.

There is plenty of money in the UK - but concentrated in the hands of a small minority who are very intent on keeping it. They'd very much like you to believe there's no option but to target those who can't afford it.

But there are PLENTY of jobs! That’s the point and people need to be working and lots are, and that’s great, but many more are just languishing in a pit of despair and a totally hopeless future, we can’t ignore the devastation of never working or achieving anything beyond staying alive. Never having the possibility of learning the real benefits of work. It’s senseless to pay healthy ish people to stay at home!

But if your husband does the cooking whats the problem.
( Id watch
the batch cooking programme on tv if you want to cook. You have a slow cooker so throw meat and frozen veg in and turn it on )

Stupid reply because bills still have to be paid, and food bought. Medical appointments etc , mean taxis to get there.

I'm very sorry.

Kindly but do you think that not working is making you better?

But aids cost money. And are forever needing to be replaced and updated, often to the tune of thousands of pounds. I don't get how you can think removing PIP for most people who currently qualify based on aids can be a good thing or sensible.

ETA: not the case for everyone, but for me my aids cost more than the things I need someone else to help with.

Labour wiped out £9bn with budget policies and wants £6bn back through welfare cuts. An easier answer was not to try to wipe out that funding to start with.

Ok, well if DLA/PIP isn’t an option for children like mine, who can’t manage a full day of mainstream school because of their SEN and need full
help with basic day to day care, then the social care sector will have to pick up the slack so I can find full time work to pay the bills. Oh wait, there is absolutely no money in social care for support workers or specialist childcare or even SEN schools to place my child who has never developed beyond the cognitive age of 2, so has to attend mainstream at the cost of the school and local authority funding. So unless you want children like mine hidden away somewhere for 10
hours a day, they’re always going to cost the taxpayer and government money.

If the school system actually worked for children with autism/adhd without a learning disability then you’d hope they’d be able to move on to work - but there’s no support bar propping them up to fit the typical mould/only reach academic targets, until the routine of school is suddenly taken away and they can’t cope with real life, self care, paying bills, running a home….

Well no there’s clearly 21.6 million as of 2 years ago unavailable jobs………..

I do know at least 2 children with ADHD and ASD whose parents get a lot of DLA. One of them has been using this to avoid having to work and go on 2-3 foreign holidays a year- her child can't cope with the unfamiliarity of holidays so he stays at home whilst she goes. The other goes to Disneyland every single year + another holiday, but at least she takes the child in question I suppose.

I also know that many children are really struggling to get DLA when they absolutely need and deserve it, and the PIP process is brutal.

I have mixed feelings about it but I lean towards thinking I'd rather a few people take the piss and get away with it, than a lot of people don't get what they need.

Honestly we will lose all of the high earners and those actually paying for everything because anyone with any prospects will leave en masse. That’s why Labour haven’t done it!

If you overly tax expenditure you will cause a recession.

If you rejoin the EU the millions will return along with their demands for benefits and we don’t have the housing stock anyway!

The triple lock is surely the next to go, and I agree with you on that point. Along with free bus passes etc for wealthy pensioners.

I'm really surprised people are saying that fraud figures are tiny. Of course they're not.
The other poster is exactly right in that in many cases it is just impossible to prove that a claim is fraudulent.

Where I live in a poor area of NW of England people are very open about fiddling the system.
When a dc of mine got diagnosed with adhd I had 2 separate people offer to fill in form for me to get max rate allowance there's people who'll do it all for you locally who just charge a flat fee. It's all about writing key points. (I didn't claim as he doesn't need extra support aside from in school).

I've also had people openly tell me they've gamed the system by ringing the GP lots to say they can't cope etc etc and so it's documented. Let's face it a few phone calls and docs appts a month with the odd blood test is a hell of lot easier than working. Just because they prescribe you medication doesn't mean you have to take it.

They don't care they're gaming the system they just see it as free money for them and their family and they all hate the government so if anything see it as 'one up' on them.

Of course there's genuine need for disability benefits but there's huge amount of fraud.
Fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety and ADHD are currently the biggest ones where I live to use to claim with as it's not a clear diagnosis as it would be in other medical cases where a few tests would show the condition straight away.

And yet I’m bed bound on average 4 days out of 7, but you just told me my scores were “pretty good” and asked why I wasn’t working. Do you see the problem?

It’s not really what we thought Labour was about is it? Stealing from the weak isn’t a good look.

Yes essentially.

I have 4 for the social and communication bit and 2 for various other areas. As I understand it I would still be eligible.

Yet it completely ignores that DLA isn't just for children who are ND. What happens to them when they reach 18 but are still just as disabled as they were as a child but now can't claim PIP and UC until they are 23 and magically are suddenly able to do so?

Who cares as long as those pesky ND children aren't able to move onto PIP and UC.

How do you evidence OCD, anxiety and depression? by providing a record of GP visits? by attending talking therapy and saying it didn't help?

At least for a child to be diagnosed with ASD it needs school feedback, otherwise it's patient's own description, there are no blood/CT/MRI etc tests to confirm conditions claimed by about 30-40% of claimants.

It doesn’t mean they can get an award of daily living on 4 points. They would still have to meet the threshold of 8 points for standard and 12 for enhanced. What it means is that they have to demonstrate a significant level of disability - one that requires actual help from another person, rather than relying on a simple aid. Disability benefits were originally intended to be awarded to those with very significant needs. Over the years that’s been watered down and includes people who get ongoing monetary awards when they can just go out and buy a simple aid. This change is designed to stop that and redress the balance so that only those with significant impairment can claim.

I think one thing I really didn't see coming was this change to contributions based benefits and making it time limited. This is massive and likely to save the government massive amounts of money which I guess is why they are doing it. in my line of work I see so many claiming contributions based ESA often for10-15 years before reaching state pension age. This will now be limited and when your time runs out you would need to claim UC. Except that many won't qualify for UC because by the time they reach their fifties or early sixties they may have save a bit for their retirement or own a second home or have a partner whose earnings would rule them out of claiming anything means tested as a couple. So for each person in Contributions based ESA support group they kick off ESA that is a saving of around 5.5k a year. Multiply this by the thousands claiming this and it's a big saving.

You could argue this should have been done in the first place. These benefits should never be paid out in this way, and the bar does appear too low.