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.

These should be self funded. What about people who haven’t yet done the pip application? Do they just wallow in nhs waiting lists while you jump the queue for exactly the same need. That not a fair system.

And illegal immigrants aren't entitled to benefits, disability benefits or any others.

Asylum seekers aren't entitled to benefits either.

I agree with the other poster that the triple lock is extremely likely to go. It may not go in the Spring budget but it will go.

Kids don't have free bus passes to school. It's only the pensioners (including the wealthy ones that do). This is plain wrong.

Yes. It isn’t fair at all.

Would you apply that line of thinking if we were talking about cuts to child benefit, or nursery fees ? As a benefit advisor I often came across UC claimants who were claiming up to £1500 a month in childcare fees - and that was without the child benefit which can still be claimed on a single wage of £50k. That represents over twice the highest award of PIP.

The don’t need to be. They’re housed, fed, given pocket money, free healthcare and Wi-Fi.

Because it removes the disabled person's ability to choose what's right for them and then it would turn into people just not getting the help they need or being told where to buy something from.

Lots of disabled people can think for themselves and decide what's best. They don't need some Whitehall puppet deciding that this companies better as they give us an incentive.

I agreed with you your claim that there are some people (a minority) 'playing the system' but I find this post nonsensical. It is ignorant to accuse people of lacking ambition and not working hard. The fact is that, for younger people now in the UK, hard work simply doesn't pay. Many people, especially younger people have realised this, hence their perfectly logical behaviour.

Read this earlier and couldn’t agree more - she doesn’t use her PIP to help her disability. This is why people who work full time and receive nothing (despite also not being shielded from the cost of living) get annoyed. I don’t agree with these cuts on the whole but I do agree with reform.

Not to mention the fact that the poster that they are quoting could easily have a condition where working causes the flares. I am often bed bound at least a few days a week and on the days I’m bed bound, I often can’t even lift my head off the pillow. The days I’m not, if I try and do anything physical or cognitive, it will cause me to flare. But obviously I’m just not pushing myself enough!🙄

When they do get the PIP award they can simply do the same thing can’t they ? Or are you telling me you wouldn’t do the same for your own family ?

It’s best in vouchers much more likely to be spent on the purpose ot was intended for.

Tbf I think the pp was really referring to the cost to the taxpayer.
The fact that the money has a different title is irrelevant technically. It all still comes from the taxpayer.

Liz Kendal laid out her reasons for not introducing vouchers. Simply put disabled people are not imbeciles and disability is not one size fits all. They are afforded the dignity and autonomy to choose how best to spend their disability benefits. Happily this is one area the government agrees on.

It is indeed. My children also had to pay peak train fare to get to school early in the morning as they couldn't use their railcards at that time. The pensioners, on the other hand, were able to use their discounts.
Unfortunately, as usual, it will be current middle aged and younger generations that end up losing out the most when the triple lock goes.

What? I'm close to retiring on a healthy pension after having a fairly stellar, if short, academic career. My only ambition is to see a better future for the people of this country.

…..

Kids do.! This is not wrong!
If they live far from the school they get free travel.
That includes for those that chose a school further away from another if they deem it’s more suitable.

yes and I'm sure the admin system would keep up with me applying to replace one aid or another every month. And all that admin would be cost free, naturally.
Come on, the voucher system was roundly debated when it was proposed. We explained all the reasons why it a) wouldn't work and b) would be degrading at the time.

Disabled people are entitled to spend their disability benefits however they like. The clue is in the word ‘independence’. If that extra money helps her make ends meet because her disability costs money elsewhere then there’s nothing wrong with that. At all. PIP is intended to promote independence - it can be used in any way that helps the disabled person. From paying bills, to enabling them to socialise, staying mobile. I’ve heard people criticise the disabled for using some of it for TV packages, but what they don’t seem to understand is that limited mobility brings about restriction in going out and socialising. They don’t spend hundreds on eating out or the cinema but people still begrudge the small things.

I’m getting a little fed up with the implication from you that I’m lazy and scrounging, you have no idea what my disability is. I’ve tried to work around it, but those days I’m stuck, I can barely move my limbs. The one job I had where I could work like that, suddenly the employer decided it had to be office based 9-5 and that was that. I haven’t yet found the magic job where I can work any hours of the day or night around my illness but it isn’t for want of trying on all the job sites every day that I can. They are very few and far between and unsurprisingly have 100s of applications. I’m trying to find a way of working for myself. I’m very far from just lounging around poncing off the system!

They don't all get that at all. If there is no school available within a set distance, perhaps. My kids went to a school that was more suitable and none of them got free travel. We paid for everything. As I said, on the early morning trains, the pensioners could use their discount cards but the school kids, who had to actually get to school, could not.

See surely she is not entitled to pip now then? She obviously does not need it.

I know of a lady who claimed.pio because she was bullied at school she's in her 30's and never worked a day in her life. She also claims.for all her 4 children.

Of course you are right that she is entitled to do this under the current rules. It is hardly surprising though that stories like this evoke huge questions about whether this is something that the state should be funded. This is why reform and cuts can be made with some public support. A large proportion of the population don't think this is a good use of tax payers money. Ultimately in a democracy their opinion matters!

Yet our GDP per person is as high as it's ever been. It's a fallacy that billionaires create jobs anyway, demand does. If, like the USA, Australia, Sweden etc we had an exit tax, then they could all fuck off tomorrow as far as I'm concerned.