To ask you all the take a minute to look at the proposed Green Paper on work & welfare, particularly the cuts to PIP.

[MarvellousMonsters]

The Government has published a green paper which amongst other things proposes to change the PIP eligibility, which will ‘save £5b’ by removing financial
support from those who don’t score 4 points in a single criteria in the daily living component of PIP.

green paper in full

It’s estimated that it can cost up to £1000 a month in extra living expenses as a disabled person, and the daily living allowance of PIP is designed to help towards these costs. The lowest rate is £72.65 a week, (£290.60 a month) and this is a literal life line to those who have a limited capability for work, are ‘not disabled enough’ to qualify for full support, but do need help. It allows people to pay for things like cleaners and domestic help, to buy ready prepped veg etc to allow them to eat proper healthy food, to heat their home if they have poor body temp control, and so on. The proposed changes will push these people into acute poverty, and also reduce their quality of life, not just financially, but because being in receipt of PIP makes people eligible for other types of practical support.

You may feel this isn’t something that affects you, but disability can happen to anyone, as those previous fit healthy people who are now incapacitated by Long Covid can confirm. You could be in a car accident, or become sick, it could literally happen to anyone, so this truly does concern everyone, even if you are currently able-bodied and well.

Please, if you do nothing else, please fill in the consultation form and lobby the DWP not to introduce the ‘4 point rule’. If you only do that you’ll help thousands of people who are currently at risk of losing vital support.

consultation form

TLDR: please tell Liz Kendall not to remove vital welfare support from disabled people.

Maybe they could look at improving mental health services, especially for children and young people, so that they get proper help before their MH conditions become entrenched and therefore harder to treat and to manage.

A friend's son was referred to CAMHS when he was 10. He was 16 before he even got assessed, despite being so unwell that he was having frequent meltdowns and full-on panic attacks from a very early age. He managed a few weeks of intermittent attendance at secondary school before he was so freaked out that friend was barely able to get him out of the front door, never mind into school. He never went back. When he was finally assessed, he was diagnosed as autistic, with PTSD, social phobia and generalised anxiety disorder.

He's had no input from any MH services since, and is using his PIP to pay for therapy privately. How different might things have been for him had he had prompt diagnosis and therapy at 10 or 11?

If you're under 35 PIP care entitled you to the one bedroom rate for housing instead of the shared room rate

PIP is an absolute gravy train. It needs to be reformed as an urgent priority.

English - the Scottish government have said they will not make changes to eligibility for ADP. Of course if Labour gets in at the next Holyrood elections that might change, but at the moment this only applies to England, Wales and NI.

@Viviennemary ''PIP is an absolute gravy train. It needs to be reformed as an urgent priority.''

Another baseless statement.

The DWP has just released figures about benefit fraud and surprise, surprise PIP fraud rates are yet again a big fat ZERO...

It is really tiring to see people attack people with disabilities/mental health condition without any evidence to support their claims.

So you keep harping on about. Do you have any suggestions other than saying the same thing? At least it might be a bit more interesting, than your norm.

I will wait to see what suggestions are in this Green paper. After all it's up to the Government what happens in the end. I agree that reform is necessary.

What is the point of paying into a system for years to then not be able to use it when you need it

Yes it is up to the Government. But if they actually listened to the people who are being affected by their ridiculous proposals, and really cared, they would know what needs to be done. Saying the system needs reform, is all good, and well. Lots of posters agree with that sentiment. But they usually go on to at least offer some idea of what they would like to see changed!

It's also a gateway to carers allowance.

What do think is going to happen to unpaid family carers who will lose carers allowance as the person they care for no longer qualifies for Pip but but is too disabled to be left unsupervised all day and thus preventing the carer from going into employment?

Exercises like this are a great way to drain the energy of opponents. Quite aside from the trust that the results released will bear any resemblance to the answers submitted (I mean how can you prove that 80% of people supported the changes ?) we all know it will only ever be used to advance the changes anyway.

You never survey in any situation where the outcome matters. Boaty McBoatface and all that.

Some people would have to go into residential care, and others will be reaching out to their LA, who will have to provide paid carers, which will end up costing the Government more in the long run. Not to mention the impact on families, and individual people. It does not bode well imo.

Well, judging from the attitudes in society, if you are stupid enough to care for someone, then you pretty much deserve all you get.

I make sure I have income protection insurance to cover the chances that I get ill and no longer have a salary, as well as my work giving me long term sick pay. I thought this was standard financial planning? I don’t think anyone ought to be relying on the state to replace their income because that isn’t going to happen.

some people are never well enough to be working because the have a disability since birth. I thought this was well known.

also income protection does not help if you have to give up work to care for a disabled family member.

Which payment protection scheme did you find that covered lifelong chronic conditions ?

Asking for a friend.

Iv never heard of this but I'm assuming as someone born disabled with multiple medical conditions who worked full time and claimed no benefits upto a couple of years ago when I had to reduce hours and claim pip I would assume I would of been rejected.

When I worked part time i paid for this out of my tiny income (not that it wouldn't have been a pittance because I've never been well enough to make even minimum wage consistently despite having been academic at school, winning many prizes etc, getting an excellent degree in difficult subjects). When I became very ill on top of my usual disabilities I was not compos mentis enough to be able to do the paperwork needed to claim it and so it was all for nothing. People are very naive thinking this couldn't happen to them.

I’m intrigued by this suggestion. It’s so ridiculous it’s almost funny.

What sort of farm work do you think paraplegics like me would be able to do with our shiny new outdoor shoes? What about the amputees and the people with cerebral palsy? The epileptic people? Those with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

As it happens I am lucky enough to have a part time desk job which alongside my disability benefit helps me get by, but if I were to lose that because of the inevitable deterioration of my condition, I don’t think forcing me to sell my house, move to a new area and trundle my wheelchair onto a farm looking for work is the solution.

I had to laugh at your response@WingsofRain. Some posters really do not have any understanding at all, of the fact that, what may be so simple for them, could be the complete opposite for someone living with a disability. If they had to walk in someone else's shoes, so to speak.

Beat this in mind on the next General Election.

The PP was - being frank - talking bollocks.

The only "scheme" that you can pay into that will support you if you are lucky enough to develop a chronic lifelong condition is that supported by the taxpayer.

There isn't a private company in the world that would touch it.

Ultimately it's a form of insurance. And anyone who has actually learned anything from working in insurance will know that 80% of the administrative effort goes into finding ways of selling policies that don't claim.

https://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/about-the-aca/benefit-limits/index.html

God I somehow missed the suggestion we all go and work on a farm 🤣

Cheers for the steel toe cap boots, government, I'm sure these will keep me and everyone else safe when I have a seizure while in charge of a combine harvester 👌

Ok I’m going to pile in with my lived experiences.. I work on a modern slavery team dealing with distribution of class As .. the amount of motability cars used by county lines players is phenomenal.. I would say 1:3 arrests .. then move on to the ‘kids’ (average age 19) who are also on high rate care for adhd and social anxiety) … how do we tackle this as a society ? I honestly don’t know .. because the kids are DEFINITELY (in my immediate experience ) genuinely diagnosed and exhibiting all the traits of ADHD.: The adult motorbility users are somewhat easier to prosecute because they either have to be unable to walk, virtually unable to walk or have such severe MH problems as to be unable to follow a basic route. (Easy to prove it’s a lie because they do door to door deliveries… ) .. just because people engage in criminal behaviour doesn’t mean they aren’t suffering severe ADHD symptoms…

@WingsofRain Did you not read the 'out of work' bit - I was talking about individuals who were unemployed, not disabled and how it would be a useful scheme if the government covered relocation expenses from somewhere where there are no work opportunities to somewhere where there are.