Tories' savage disability benefit reform in chaos as two in five appeals

[ttosca]

65,600 claimants went to court last year and 39 per cent won back allowances which had been wrongly taken away

David Cameron?s savage welfare reforms are in chaos, with a record ­number of disabled ­people winning appeals against their ­benefits being slashed.

New figures show that 65,600 claimants went to court last year and 25,700 ? 39 per cent ? won back disability allowances which had been wrongly taken away.

That is a record high, up from 19,000 appeal wins in 2010.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-savage-disability-benefit-reform-743634#.T0qjiZBdBLE.twitter

Tory scum, your day will come.

It cant come quickly enough.

Twats the fucking lot of them

Utter utter bastards.

Using the same stats, 6 out of 10 (61%) are upheld. Which therefore says that the 'scum' are getting it right most of the time. And that's not counting those that don't appeal the decision. Not saying I don't sympathise with people with disabilities who have wrongly had their benefits reduced. But there are clearly many more that were over-claiming.

NO, Cogito - it is ALSO the fact that this government has CHANGED what even 'qualifies' as disabled for the purposes of additional financial support.

Someone who has 52+ seizures a year through epilepsy is classed as disabled under the DDA, is classed as disabled under the Equality Act 2010, is classed as disabled by the Adult Social Care team of Social Services and in need of support to manage to live independantly, is classed as disabled by their GP, is classed as disabled by their Neurologist, is unlikely to gain and keep paid employment, is unlikely to physically manage to work fullt time if they even CAN get a job.

Yet they are NOT classed as disabled by the Government and the DWP and ATOS any more.

And these are people that are RECOGNISED AS DISABLED AND IN NEED OF SUPPORT JUST TO LIVE INDEPENDANTLY. Yet they get NO financial support to DO SO under the ESA rules. Yet just 3 years ago, under the old Incapacity Benefit rules - they were classed as among the group of disabled people that were the MOST disabled.

How do you get from getting not just disablement allowance but SEVERE DISABLEMENT ALLOWANCE under the old system to NOT BEING CLASSED AS DISABLED AT ALL BY THE NEW ONE?!!!

Sorry, Cogito - but THAT is the reason why MOST of the other 61% of decisions are upheld - NOT because the person claiming was claiming fraudulently, NOT because they AREN'T disabled - but because ONLY the DWP/ATOS have decided that THEIR disability is NO LONGER severe enough to qualify for disability benefits. Even if their disability has got WORSE NOT BETTER. And the disability is STILL FUCKING THERE!!!

Oh yes, I forgot - it WILL be economically sound to employ me for £67.50 a week, benefits money, that the employer doesn't have to pay, for an indefinate time period or until I have such a severe seizure that I am at even GREATER risk of SUDEP.

You're just one specific case, however. If you got together with other people with an identical condition, couldn't you challenge the new rule all together through the court? And have you actually been made to do a work placement or are you just speculating?

Yes, a law is absolutely fine and dandy if it requires the most vulnerable in society to set up a support group, find the money to instruct a lawyer and go to court over it. Why bother making an effort not to terrify people whose lives are hard enough already? And there's nothing wrong with removing Legal Aid for that sort of thing at the same time. I mean, if you're sufficiently in the right, you ought to be able to raise the money from other concerned citizens who don't have your problem (those that do won't have spare cash for it - maybe they could save up for a few years???), or finding a lawyer willing to do everything for free. Although, of course, if you've got enough nouse to go through all that kerfuffle and stress, you're plenty capable of going out to work, too.