Reform want to cut PIP

[Daygloboo]

Reform want to cut benefits for disabled people. They want businesses to pay more towards sickness etc. I find it repulsive that they want to do this. When will people understand that they are a bunch of self interested sharks who want to make a stack of dosh for themselves while in govt and that they font give a damn about anyone in need. Why cant the most vulnerable ppl who vote for them see thus. It's astonishing. It's ac joke. I eish ppl who get what Reform.iscreally about and how it manipulates would make sn extra effort to tslk to.ppl who dont seem to get it.

That’s what welfare is for, it’s a safety net, a social insurance that anyone can access if they are unlucky. It’s why we pay taxes for fire services- so government fire fighters can put out a fire if we are unlucky to have one in our homes. It’s why we pay taxes for the police, so government police can track down and arrest whoever has robbed, raped or murdered one of us, it’s why we pay taxes for a national health service so that a cancer diagnosis and costs doesn’t bankrupt you, mean you have to sell your home, and your family goes homeless, it’s why we have government funded maternity leave so having a baby doesn’t require years of savings to afford time off work with no pay.

Welfare is to bridge a period of joblessness, to help victims of DV, to support the disabled who usually worked full time until they acquired a disability in a traffic accident, or a serious illness (bad luck).

You just wrote you think benefits should benefit everyone, well they do. They benefit everyone who needs them. It would not make sense to have benefits for those who are having good luck instead of bad.

Because we pay tax & have a safety net

The reality is the amount given in payments to disabled people is the minimum amount needed to survive. Whether this is framed in this way is debateable disabled people previously were placed in two groups of ESA before the wholescale introduction of Universal Credit. Support and Work Related Groups . Support Group people due to largely scoring highly on PIP Assessments and other issues such as HFA and in their 40's and 50's were deemed 'Un-Employable' maybe right or wrong . In reality probably right, what I have seen in the last 5 years does not make me think such people are more employable now, there are even less employable. Hence, why Disability Benefits are higher, because that is the 'Maximum' Income the disabled person will have for their remaining life. Job Seekers is not designed to be a 'lifetime' benefit but a short time one (there are massive problems and unfairness there but that's for another time).

Sigh! And you’re totally unrealistic about what’s affordable. Educate yourself. The IFS do some excellent impartial podcasts on what is and isn’t feasible under the UK’s fiscal model. Yes it would be nice to fund each and every thing. But what are you going to cut elsewhere to fund it? Use your more of your head, less of your heart.

I agree, % fraud rate on Universal Credit which costs a lot more is ten times greater. But no one seems to blink an eye at that.

People keep saying PIP isn't means tested, perhaps it should be?

And I agree anxiety or depression or various other conditions should fall outside the scope. If people can only work part time or can only get poorly paid jobs there are other benefits they can claim.

How do so many people seem to have multiple children that require PIP? Didn't they think after one or two severely disabled children they might decide they needed to concentrate on looking after the ones they had rather than having more?

Next time they get hit by a truck we'll just have to say bad luck the ambulance isnt coming today.

Disabled people are already being affected by the changes to Access To Work - which is the benefit to support disabled people at work beyond what the employer should reasonably provide. ATW is currently being review by the Public Accounts Office and they are due to reconvene with DWP quite soon I think to see how DWP has been getting on with recommendations made last year.

one major issue with ATW is you don’t need any medical evidence to claim it, which seems quite wrong to me.
even with my sons autism - while he didn’t need to see a doctor as nothing medically wrong with him, he still had his diagnosis letter from the clinic and of course his Statement of needs that took him through education. I had to send all that in for PIP. Nothing required for ATW.
I am worried about him losing his ATW. It’s not really about the money (pays for his support worker). It’s more that his employer has to sign off the support so they are aware he needs support. He is good at his job, highly reliable. But without ATW he would be very vulnerable to being managed out by someone ideologically opposed to supporting a disabled employee. This is already happening in the Civil Service where new employees are unable to claim ATW and it has to be assessed and paid for by the CS. Naturally it’s only happening for the higher paid specialist jobs and actually the civil service take even longer to pay than the DWP do so realistically new employees are only able to access support through large organisations that can carry to cost for six months.

in my experience the large organisations arnt always the best at providing tailored support.
I think the whole thing does need looking at. There is no doubt that some kind of work is better for most people and if they can be supported in to work then there is a saving to society plus they will probably pay tax and NI.

however this will all be academic once AI takes hold as most desk based computer jobs will disappear. We will probably need something like a universal basic income to replace benefits. Would be a lot cheaper to administer but it’s ideological dynamite as rich people don’t like paying tax to live in a civilised society.

It is however interesting to note that PIP claimed before retirement continues to be paid after retirement, but a pensioner with a similar disability who didn't claim PIP before retirement can't then claim after state retirement age.
39% of PIP is paid out for mental health disorders which can affect people at any age.

Attendance allowance is not equivalent either.

I’d rather it was spent on other things. It’s an opinion but the welfare state is far, far too high and taxpayers are heartily sick of funding ever more of it while public services offered to them wither.

IFS isn’t impartial. It has a right of centre bias
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/institute-for-fiscal-studies-ifs-bias/

Of course PIP assessment takes note of what a GP says. They look at all medical evidence and I claim for foster child and they took note of SW letter too.

We are currenty waiting for a wetroom which will hopefully alleviate his destrutive ness i couldnt lock off taps it would cause more isdues than it solve

Pip is about 1.5% of public spending so not crippling.
Also the absolute audacity from a man who has just wasted taxpayers’ money on a pointless by election to avoid investigation into a 5 MILLION POUND “gift”
Fuck off Reform and all your stupid supporters

I think Burnham has made noises about the fact the system needs reform in ways that sound sensible and proportionate. More support.

Reform voters are fallong into the same trap that lots of Trump supporters did. They think this is about other people. They think this is going to play out exactly as described. Why people cannot connect the dots or look beyond the individual policies to the ideology at play I do not know.

And people need a reminder that anyone can become disabled. Anyone give birth to a disabled child. We will all grow old if we are lucky. As will the people we love.

I do think things need to happen - supportive things - to make sure people don't languish on benefits when they could work with the right support. For that to be there employers need to be made to step up and make reasonable adjustments not push people out of work and risk the tribunal. We need to embrace technology to help people stay at work and we nust support the young because being stuck on benefits limits their lives so much.

But at the ideological level, the billionaire backers who support Reform loathe working people who get out of their place. Working working people to death is the oldest story in the playbook. People have a short historical memory and woukd do well to consider it and the part that progressive parties played in changing that.

There is something about the British and our aristocratic history that makes ua too happy to doff the cap abd to allow people like Farage, Tice and his ilk lead us.

PIP is an expensive benefit, but it also allows a lot of people to work who otherwise couldn't

Sadly the vast majority of pip recipients are not in work, and those who are in work when first claiming tend to stop work when their claim is successful.

Aren't they the ones complaining that Labour don't support businesses and have pushed extra costs onto them? Now they want businesses to pay for sick and disabled people? Their policies just get more and more ridiculous 🙄

MBFC is a small, low-budget operation run primarily by a single founder.

Not sure why one person would be heard over all others.

Yes proper medical evidence
But not a patient says they are anxious type of letter and even they did they wouldnt award based on just that

No one is denying lots of people on PIP have hard lives for various reasons, but no one can afford make their life as whole financially as if they were working full time in a well paying job if they are not. It is unaffordable.

Well no one has any children on PIP so perhaps get a basic grasp of the subject before thinking your opinion should be given any weight.

Nearly one fifth of working adults are sick or disabled? How is that possible?

This. Plus, as we keep having to point out - PIP is not a means tested benefit. Anyone can claim it. So if they have enough saved to upgrade their (sometimes adapted by a motability approved garage)car then they are not breaking any laws.

Yes!! Soooooo spot on.

I’m sorry but that’s such a lot of bullshit.
I imagine you dint have anyone around you who needed PIP but either get it or didn’t try to apply? Or someone who did apply and felt how hard it is to get anything?

How do you think the ‘most severe people’ will be defined? By a diagnosis that means nothing how much they are affected? Like some people with MS can work etc.. others can’t walk 50 meters and need full support at home.

The idea that some people who receive PUP are not ‘severe’ is bith unrealistic and abhoreant tbh