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.

Come on, it can’t be hard to claim to be severely depressed / suicidal. There are no physical tests for this. If you wanted to claim PIP and were dishonest you could do so.

Ffs, 25% of the workforce (working age population) isn’t on health and disability benefits. At least get your figures correct.

There are no facts! That's my point. We have literally no idea how many piss takers there are. All we can go off is what we suspect might be happening based on our life experiences as there is virtually no actual data on this. Personally I suspect that there is a reasonably low level of out and out fraud but that the bigger issue is that people exaggerate a bit and lean into difficulties as they are advised to do so by various websites and forums and also because they naturally want to maximise their awards. It's just human nature! I don't think people that think they're actually committing fraud as they believe they are just making sure they get what they're entitled to. It's hard to suffer with imperfect health and accept that there is no help available for you.

@9fthighfence and what about the ones that are genuinely suicidal? Just let them go and die somewhere? I hope you never know what it's like to feel that way.

Illegal immigrants don't get benefits. Obviously.

Don’t be daft, you can’t just claim to be depressed and suicidal, you have to prove it with documented suicide attempts and doctors assessments.

25% of the working age population of Blackpool do indeed claim to be too ill to work.

As always the forgotten thing about the fake claims is this -

People faking it, and there are always going to be a small number for any benefit (but it is a small number according to successive governments own figures), have much more energy than genuinely disabled people.

So while folks celebrate making it harder for the fakers try and remember that every extra hoop needing jumped will mean a hell of a lot more to many many genuine claimants thank a few fakers

Exactly.

Think how you would prove that you have depression/anxiety etc if you were a genuine claimant. Think how much of this is ultimately reliant on patient testimonial and what you tell medical professionals. How can you distinguish a genuine claimant from a fraudulent one?

20 years ago, you were entering a workforce with more and better paid opportunities, and more generous terms and conditions, and would have been able to afford a better place to live than someone in your shoes these days.

Young people have worked out that it doesn't matter how hard they work, they will never enjoy the quality of life their parents had, unless they inherit assets. We are no longer living in a meritocracy (if we ever were). We live in an inheritocracy now, where all that really matters is how many assets you inherit. I don't blame them for checking out. The social contract has broken, and they are expected to exchange their youth and labour for fuck all.

So what about the severely disabled or people caring for severely disabled children. Just shit out of luck?

But they do cost a lot of money to the public purse.

Apologies my wording wasn't perfect.

Public money is public money and that's what Labour are apparently trying to save.

The government have no choice whatsoever. The costs are unsustainable. I am comfortable those that are severely disabled will have nothing to fear, and life might become easier for them if anything. Those that are claiming and could work, should be working. There’s an awful lot of people claiming that shouldn’t be and not working could be making their condition even worse. Depression for instance, and I say that as someone whom
has had severe depression.

Illegal immigrants do not get asylum support. Only asylum claimants get asylum support.

My understanding for this category is that PIP will stay, its other benefits won’t be available but if they are in education they can’t claim them anyway.

The 'right to try' employment or whatever bollocks that was. Remember Workfare? Basically unscrupulous companies will grab people and make them work 40 hours a week for their benefits (roughly £75 per week..
Poundland were big advocates of this slave labour as I recall. It helps no-one except corporations who can afford it.
I highly doubt people put on this will be allowed to 'try' a career they would dearly love to train for,
it's all shit

When I applied for attendance allowance and a blue badge for my elderly mum I certainly didn't exaggerate, but neither did I sugar coat what she is going through with metastasised pancreatic cancer which will kill her in maybe weeks or months. Both were approved in days based on her medical records, fortunately.

No, you don't! You can have suicidal ideation without actually having a documented suicide attempt. Medical reports are largely founded on patient testimonial for lots of mental health conditions. If you're reporting a set of symptoms that can't be proved or disproved then you will likely be given a diagnosis that matches the symptoms you reported. The alternative is that the doctors start accusing people of lying and only giving medical evidence to those that they believe.

There is data, you are simply ignoring it.
And you cant get PIP by filling out the form alone- you need medical evidence backing it up. Many who claim PIP genuinely need advice and help to do the form and put together an application. So the existence of help isn’t proof of fraud.

The fact you’re even prepared to work
between seizure clusters breaks my heart. I’ve seen these clusters (I assume focal) and to think of working post ictal would be so hard.

They’re penalising the wrong people.

(edited for spelling)

Then my post isn't relevant to your mum's claim is it. I never suggested everyone exaggerates but that some certainly do.

Thing is we need people to work lower paying jobs in places like care homes nurseries, we need cleaners, retail and catering staff. And you can't pay them too much because profits and you have complaints of why would i train to be a Dr, lawyer etc if I could get the same amount working in mcdonalds.
So by taking away the top ups you are effectively saying that people who work lower paid jobs should suffer for it.

They are going to be going all out to speed up the backlog of re-assessments that still haven't been cleared from covid so unlikley you will be re-assessed again.

An alternative way cut back on welfare would be to use UC to top up maintenance payments rather than them being disregarded altogether and/or scrapping the triple lock for pensions.
It's clearly ridiculous that a single parent can claim full UC and then get another payment from their ex of any amount and it is disregarded, so the tax payer is, in certain circumstances, funding pocket money for wealthy families.
It's also unfair that pensioners are immune to the cutbacks that are being made elsewhere, except for the WFP, which was a one-off payment only.