Yahoo News DWP PIP claimants feel they 'haven't been listened to' over huge benefit reforms
Millions of people claiming Personal Independence Payment are growing increasingly concerned over how they'll be affected by major benefit reforms expected from the new government. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already indicated there will be "difficult decisions" on welfare in her first Budget on October 30.
Campaigners say disabled people are now "feeling anxious and that they haven't been listened to" as they await details of how changes will affect disability benefits such as PIP, as well as the separate incapacity payments available through Universal Credit if a 'work capability assessment' rules someone doesn't have to get a job because of their ill-health.
Proposals in a Green Paper published by the Conservatives to overhaul PIP included replacing cash payments with vouchers, grants and shopping catalogues to purchase disability equipment. Labour has reviewed the public responses after the consultation ended on July 22 but has not yet indicated what it will do.
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The party's DWP Minister for Social Security and Disabilities, Sir Stephen Timms, recently said: "We will be setting out our own plans for social security in due course and will fulfil our continued commitment to work with disabled people so that their views and voices are at the heart of all that we do."
PIP is now claimed by more than 3.6 million people to help with the extra costs of a disability or long-term health condition. The number of applications for the benefit has surged since the onset of the pandemic but the Institute for Fiscal Studies says this isn't just down to worsening health as the same trend isn't being seen in other comparable countries.
The IFS suggested people may be using PIP as an income boost because their Universal Credit payments aren't enough to live on and that it's too easy to apply for PIP because the benefit isn't means-tested. More than 70,000 people a month are now putting in claims for PIP, creating huge backlogs that are slowing down reviews of existing claims.
James Taylor, Director of Strategy at disability equality charity Scope, said: "If the government is serious about supporting disabled people into work they need to stop attacking benefit claimants and address the true barriers to employment. Disabled people are pushing hard to get jobs but find the employment market is stacked against them. At the same time nobody should be forced into work if they are unable to work.
"We still haven't heard what the government are planning to do with Personal Independence Payment and the Work Capability Assessment. This is making disabled people feel anxious and that they haven't been listened to. The government needs to work with disabled people to set out a positive vision for the benefits system."
The previous Work and Pensions Secretary, Mel Stride, had described the changes proposed in the Modernising Support for Independent Living: the Health and Disability Green Paper as "probably the most fundamental reforms in a generation." At the time they were published, Mr Stride said: "There are those that have perhaps milder mental health conditions, or where perhaps there has been too great a move towards labelling certain behaviours as having certain (medical) conditions attached to them, where actually work is the answer or part of the answer. What we've got to avoid is being in a situation where we too readily say 'Well, actually, we need you to be on benefits'."
In response, Labour's Alison McGovern, then acting shadow work and pensions secretary and now Minister for Employment, had said: "The PIP system that the Tories created isn't working for disabled people and isn't working for the taxpayer. We want to see a system that allows disabled people to live independently and enable as many as possible to work."
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