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.

Billionaires are leaving though
Its not like there’s a lot that still live here anyway but as they pay a lot of tax and provide jobs the loss of even one is great
Since 2022 when numbers were at there peak of 177 we’re now down to 165.
Losing just 12 is a huge loss to the economy.

I said I knew them in a professional capacity, not hanging around with them ☺️ You voted for this quite vocally I seem to remember.

I sincerely hope that genuine claimants won't be worse off in any way.

Regarding the "chancers" out there, is there a possibility that GPs and consultants might be a tad complicit in certifying certain people for benefits? I'm not saying they are dishonest, but sometimes it's easier and less time consuming to say yes.

If that is the case, then it is they, rather than the claimants that should be audited.

BTW I'm not sure if all claimants actually need medical certification but for those who do....

I assume you’re referring to asylum seekers, who may or may not have entered the country illegally on account of almost all safe routes into the country for refugees having been shut down?

Sorry but this absolutely isn't the reality of my cunning plan and you have made a hell of a lot incorrect assumptions about what I could and couldn't do. The reality is that the claim will probably successful when it goes to tribunal. Like 70% of claims are. I would have no less evidence than genuine claimants.

I’m sure some Labour voters are pro welfare cuts as you are.

The reason they’re happening is due to wiping out £9bn, they’re clawing £6bn back.

My bad. Must tell my disability to only flare on set days and times. I’m sure that will work. Silly me for not trying it 🙄.

Lots of genuine claimants will be significantly worse off with the new points requirements. PIP has a 0% fraud rate anyway.

No, but going to the GP is the first step in putting together the evidence you need for a claim. You can compile enough evidence in a few months, it depends on the nature of your claim.

I’ve posted about this under a different username before but feel it’s very relevant today. This is an article about Anne Hegerty (The Chase) and how she was struggling before getting help from the system as it should have been:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-63089051.amp

As is quite typical with the condition, Anne Hegerty had reached middle age as an autistic person and was struggling greatly with day to day life. With the support of social care, she received benefits and obviously managed to build up to the career she now has. What has happened in recent years is that more money is given with less and less real support in day to day life given. To the point where you now either have family help (with no one to help them) or you’re left alone with someone popping up every few months just to check you’re still disabled enough for extra money. And now they want to take the money away without putting that social care back in place to make sure that people can manage both working and self care (and for their carers as well). It simply will not work, there will be a huge fallout unless something is put in place to actually accommodate disability in schools and workplaces that doesn’t rely on people just to ‘crack on with it’. Where are the social and educational reforms to make this work?

Being a benefits claimant myself, I have to say how fucking difficult it is to get them!
I'm not saying it should be 'easy' but when the assessors frequently lie and the strong likelihood of cases going to court due to many claims being denied, I can't really understand how people falsley claim them.
It does happen, I'm not disputing that fact, but when the documents and medical evidence is usually verified by medical staff and even then, alot of the time rejected (I've had this happen and the DWP etc. can and do say that it's not detailed/strong enough evidence), I can't imagine how people commit this fraud.
Free advocacy to assist you in this battle helps you win a case, but that, in itself is hard to come by. I luckily acquired help from a university's law training department and they were so kind.
With this in mind, charities are over stretched and don't always assist with the whole process.
I can honestly not comprehend the method in which fraudulent claims are successfully won.
I was imagining that those that claim fraudulently might create false documents with an NHS headed letter that they manipulate and print, and I don't know whether the benefits office double check with the medical evidence provider e.g. with each and every part of medical evidence because alot of people have more than one health issue and see different specialists as I do. Who knows 🤷🏼‍♀️
There is only one of my claims that didn't get taken to tribunal, however it was still of course an absolute battle to obtain what I am entitled to.
To reiterate: I don't expect it to be 'easy' to claim, but it should be a fair system where, with valid medical evidence, claimants should be believed and have these documents verified and for the assessors not to lie and to have better knowledge of health conditions, but moreso the effects of them and the variation of effects they can have on the individual.
Take it from me: claiming disability benefits is very difficult and extremely frustrating!!!!
'The individual attended the appointment looking smart and understanding questions put to them...'
I wasn't 'smart', I was wearing inside out pyjamas with toothpaste stains down it just having experienced a panic attack.
Yes, I did attend university but I repeated one year and barely attended lectures and only just scraped by. I don't know how I did that.

Umm, I think this current situation is due to the projections of the sky rocketing benefits bill, and not making up a shortfall at all.

I don’t disagree with anything you say about the Tories waging war on the disabled. But that doesn’t change the fact that many of the conditions being claimed for now were never intended to come under the remit of disability benefit. I largely agree with the four point rule because it proves that the claimant is not just reliant on aids, but is significantly impaired enough - even if only in one way - to warrant help from another person. It will redress the balance - my one reservation is that assessors will always defer to aids and appliances before they will award on the basis of needing help from an actual person, so it remains to be seen what effects the change will have in real terms.

What I do have an issue with is the complete abandonment of plans for a root and branch reform of the assessment process for PIP. The government admitted that it’s broken. Assessors employed by for profit organisations, working partly on a bonus basis, employing nurses, physios and paramedics instead of doctors and after a few days training expecting them to assess complex disability, in some cases far beyond their remit as medics. And there is no mention of the huge cost of appeal tribunals to which many claimants are forced to turn in order to get a fair decision from people who actually are qualified in the many facets of disability.

Successive governments have tried to do things on the cheap. So why are they surprised when the results reflect the methods ? This government have abandoned the promised reforms where they are actually needed, and like every other government before them, have resorted instead to punishing the claimant with yet more cuts which will inevitably impact genuinely disabled claimants, and which, given enough time, the fraudsters will find a way around.

I voted Labour, and although I agree in part with what’s been announced today - as far as PIP goes anyway - l feel totally let down that they are no different from their predecessors in not wanting to sort out the actual problem. That disabled people are getting a raw deal from one end of the assessment process to the other and all this government can do in response is to tinker around the edges instead of grasping the nettle and doing what needs to be done.

Reading this thread with interest. Think the changes are aimed at people like this taken from a bbc article on the 16th March.

Emily, 41, from Croydon, is autistic and struggles with time management and organising basic tasks for her daily routine.
She says her autism has prevented her from getting jobs in the past as she would "umm and ahh a lot" in interviews, but is now working full-time as a flight attendant after developing strategies to help with her daily routine.
Emily receives a Personal Independence Payment (Pip) of more than £400 a month, which is not dependent on the recipient's income. But the money mostly goes on her regular bills, rather than on the occupational therapy she thinks would really help her to establish a proper routine.

This lady does not use the £400 a month Pip to help her with her difficulties but uses it to pay every day bills. Why is she getting it then if she isn’t using it to help her condition.

You could get a flexible job from home and work around your flares. Again it wouldn’t be that hard. You could even get a job that can be done from your bed. If you were so inclined. I say this as someone that has a disability.

I think if the mental health services were in the condition the country needs them to be in then making it difficult to claim benefits for anxiety and depression might make it a little bit easier to swallow a very bitter pill. As it is, there is pretty much nothing here where I live as all the centres have been closed or downsized so the waiting lists are ridiculous.
It's just going to make people who need help unable to get it as other people will just see them as making it up. I mean, if you can't claim benefits for it then it's not a real thing is it?😕

My dds are both receiving PIP but my eldest might not be eligible for the daily living component as she doesn't get 4 points in one part, her points are spread over the whole form.

As mentioned by a pp, where a these jobs all these disabled people going to go to? Just trying to find a work experience placement for 2 WEEKS was impossible for my dd, imagine trying for full time. And that is assuming you have the physical and mental strength to do a full week, week after week, without needing to be able to take time off due to flare ups of your condition.

Sadly, I think these measures were going to come in no matter what party was in power, I just hoped Labour would have been different. But even they said getting people into work is what the Labour party is all about, I guess no matter what.

I really don't know what planet you've been living on

https://www.london.gov.uk/new-report-reveals-uk-economy-almost-ps140billion-smaller-because-brexit#:~:text=The%20UK%20has%201.8m,which%20Brexit%20did%20not%20occur.

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/city-london-chief-says-brexit-disaster-cost-40000-finance-jobs-2024-10-16/

Personally, I've seen 2 close friends and their families forced to move to Dublin and Amsterdam, and a third made redundant as their bank moved most operation to Italy, all directly as a result of Brexit.

Why the objection to vouchers (serious question)?

Why?

if they’ve lost out on £9bn it’s pretty basic to see some needs to be taken back.

The easiest place to do it is welfare. They can’t tax or borrow more so cuts it is.

All the rhetoric around it is to cover the problem they’ve created through anti growth policies.

I’ve worked in disability outreach and it’s very hard to believe that you have when you say that rules were watered down for PIP. On the contrary the rules got much tighter and many long term disabled people failed to qualify. Some had to return their motability vehicles. It was much easier to qualify for DLA.

You also make the mistake that it was only for the most severely impaired - no it was always for people who had increased costs associated with care or mobility needs.

Agree completely with everything you've said.

My 7 yo has significant SEND, and significant needs at home compared to other children his age.

He's attending his mainstream school TWO whole hours, 4 days a week. Because we've been waiting a year for a specialist placement unsuccessfully, there's nowhere appropriate that agrees to meet need and isn't already oversubscribed.

I'm a single parent with physical health conditions and depression. I've had to leave my career, my job of 12 years because there's no way to work 1-1.5 hours a day. My PIP was stopped when my son was 16 weeks old (I went from enhanced daily living to 0 points based completely on the assessor's personal opinion that if I could single handedly keep a newborn alive, I wasn't entitled to disability benefits.

Of course disabled people can't cope as parents! Assessor's seem oblivious that actually often we manage by throwing all our energy into nurturing the tiny human and this means neglecting our own physical and mental health significantly...

I have tried three times to fill in the DLA forms for my son and haven't sent them off because I am unsure if I've done them right. I have a thick stack of supporting evidence including formal diagnosis' (ADHD, Autism, DCD, speech and language disorders,asleep disorder
EHCP describing every area of need as severe/complex/significant. I pleaded for help from social care, for short breaks/any break and son wasn't even assessed. I wasn't assessed as carer either. Instead we were fortunate to have 6 months of support from an early help worker who was fantastic but discharged us because her caseload was so full. There's no support. Imagine having the ability to send your child to a school that can keep them safe and meet their needs, and being able to actually go to work and earn money while child is at school?!

It's a lonely place to be. And it's more than lack of a full time suitable school place, it's school holiday childcare not being suitable or accessible to children with additional needs. Parents who haven't had to consider all these barriers are often clueless and judgemental. The whole SEND system needs an overhaul, then perhaps disability benefits could be changed..

I am based in the city I think I can see precisely what is happening thanks. The death of the city simply didn’t happen did it.

Where are you going to put tens of millions from the EU? We have a major housing crisis already in this country. You need to wise up and consider the practicalities.

Yes, they seem to think because it’s a ‘moral case’ that means financial rules don’t apply, and the cash will just keep flowing in accordance to need.

It’s also bonkers that they act like the ONLY worthy source of spending is benefits, and only when spending on everything else is 0 can we look to cut benefits (and not even then probably). I can imagine them saying ‘but we spend 20 million a year on our very depleted police force, why not cut that before targeting the vulnerable?’

Are you sniffing diesel or something ? Get a job that can be done from bed ? Jesus, now I’ve heard it all !!