UK: Disability benefits (UC, ESA and PIP) - news and updates 2023 (including government plans to scrap the work capability assessment)

[CRG]

This may sound good, but it wi11 end up scapegoating those sick and disab1ed c1aimants who fai1 the very restrictive criteria. They wi11 be assumed not to be severe1y disab1ed and hence undeserving of pub1ic sympathy and support.

Think of BACME as our 'specia1ists'. It's too horrifying to contemp1ate.

Isn't that just a counsel of despair - where any change is for the worse even though the current position is dreadful ? Introducing the Severe Conditions exception is unarguable, whether or not people with severe ME/CFS qualify, but even for those whose conditions are less certain to qualify it is an important development because it offers a legal route to establish entitlement to the exception for which a different Government may not be resistant to widening.

 

[Kitty]

I wont be able to even attend the interviews let alone do some bogus activity they think would be a good idea, so i had better plan for 'living' without my ESA income, they will just sanction it all away.

I know it sounds terrifying, but ... there WILL be spaces in the guidelines that allow ways around some of this stuff, and welfare advisors WILL find them.

I'm not saying it won't be shitty, and that some of the most vulnerable people will suffer. It goes without saying, and yes, it's outrageous. But please don't let this make you lose all hope.

 

[Simbindi]

Isn't that just a counsel of despair - where any change is for the worse even though the current position is dreadful ?

Yes, exact1y. Based on the 1ast few decades of 1ife for sick and vu1nerab1e peop1e in the UK.

And the media inciting hatred of benefit c1aimants. The fa1se division of the deserving and undeserving poor.

 

[CRG]

I'm afraid our fears are correct.
What is the UC health element? (benefitsandwork.co.uk)

So we will all now be subject to sanctions, decided by a work coach who knows nothing about our condition, and sanctions enforced by a bot.

I wont be able to even attend the interviews let alone do some bogus activity they think would be a good idea, so i had better plan for 'living' without my ESA income, they will just sanction it all away.

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/universal-credit-uc/uc-faq/what-is-the-uc-health-element

The new system will be rolled out, to new claims only, on a staged, geographical basis from no earlier than 2026/27.

 

[Kitty]

The new system will be rolled out, to new claims only

Interesting—though I guess that will include existing claimants whose circumstances change.

from no earlier than 2026/27

Which probably means more like 2030 in real life. At least one, and potentially two, governments away.

 

[Simbindi]

From B&W -

What the chancellor said
"I start with over 2 million people who are inactive due to a disability or long-term sickness . . . we could fill half the vacancies in the economy with people who say they would like to work despite being inactive due to sickness or disability.

Stated with f1air, despite these vacancies being for either high1y ski11ed workers, nurses and doctors, or a1ternative1y physica11y demanding 1ow paid work, such as care, couriers, c1eaners, chi1dcare etc. (many of which are additiona11y zero hour contracts).

 

[Simbindi]

Which probably means more like 2030 in real life. At least one, and potentially two, governments away.

Yes. Hopefu11y!

 

[Trish]

By which time there may be a different party in government and no doubt they will have a different scheme. So all this may never happen.

 

[CRG]

Yes, exact1y. Based on the 1ast few decades of 1ife for sick and vu1nerab1e peop1e.

And the media inciting hatred of benefit c1aimants. The fa1se division of the deserving and undeserving poor.

After nearly 40 years perhaps I'm immune - I've been through every benefits regime change from Invalidity Benefit onwards - sometimes things get harder, sometimes easier - DLA was a huge leap forward, there's been retrenchment since but in main the most seriously disable people are far better resourced and have far stronger controls over their own life than previously - I don't see that as impossible to achieve for a wider group of chronically ill people.

 

[CRG]

By which time there may be a different party in government and no doubt they will have a different scheme. So all this may never happen.

I think that is unlikely - the current Governmental programme is quite thin so it should be possible to get the necessary legal changes on the statute book by the time the next election is called (although the timing of that is uncertain) but whoever forms the next UK Government the proposed model will likely be the one that is inherited. There may however be a change of 'interpretation' if the the next Government is radically different to the current one.

 

[JemPD]

But please don't let this make you lose all hope.

Thanks for your support/care Kitty, but... Too late. It will be utter hell.
Dealing with DWP makes me very mentally unwell for months, and thats just by post.

My (selfish) prayer is that they may not bother to transfer legacy benefits, they are not (currently) bothering to transfer CB ESA recipients to UC, so if they leave that as it is i may get a reprieve.
But that doesnt help others

I cant get over the sly, deceptive, messaging...

As a result, disabled benefit claimants will always be able to seek work without fear of losing financial support."

oh... isnt that wonderful...
But those who are too ill to look for work are going to be hounded and financially punished for not doing so.

How many yrs closer to The Hunger Games do we get with this. It will lead to many more suicides.

 

[Simbindi]

How many yrs closer to The Hunger Games do we get with this. It will lead to many more suicides.

Yes. This.

 

[JemPD]

Isn't that just a counsel of despair - where any change is for the worse even though the current position is dreadful ?

its a council of reality!

Yes, exact1y. Based on the 1ast few decades of 1ife for sick and vu1nerab1e peop1e in the UK.

And the media inciting hatred of benefit c1aimants. The fa1se division of the deserving and undeserving poor.

indeed

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/universal-credit-uc/uc-faq/what-is-the-uc-health-element

The new system will be rolled out, to new claims only, on a staged, geographical basis from no earlier than 2026/27.

You missed the next sentence...
"We would expect the new claims roll-out to be completed within three years (so by 2029 at the earliest), when we would then begin to move the existing caseload on to the new system.""

 

[Sly Saint]

The new system will be rolled out, to new claims only, on a staged, geographical basis from no earlier than 2026/27.

if they wanted to save a huge amount of money they would end their contracts with those who currently carry out the assessments asap.

This would in turn 'free up' quite a few 'healthcare professionals' which the NHS/social care etc are in dire need of.

Also having 'accepted' all the failings of the WCA regime, how can they ethically continue to administer them(?).

 

[Simbindi]

I'm very cynica1 about a new Severe Conditions group being created. I see this move pure1y so they can spin the changes as he1ping the 'most vu1nerab1e', even though in rea1ity many of the genuine1y most vu1nerab1e wi11 be exc1uded. There is p1enty of precedent that this has happened with UC as it is. And the DWP just refuse to pub1ish the inquiries and reports on this.

 

[Simbindi]

Also having 'accepted' all the failings of the WCA regime, how can they ethically continue to administer them(?).

I think because it wou1d require changes to primary 1egis1ation and thus par1iamentary time. That's why they stated it wou1dn't begin unti1 the next par1iament.

 

[Simbindi]

I'm very cynica1 about a new Severe Conditions group being created. I see this move pure1y so they can spin the changes as he1ping the 'most vu1nerab1e', even though in rea1ity many of the genuine1y most vu1nerab1e wi11 be exc1uded. There is p1enty of precedent that this has happened with UC as it is. And the DWP just refuse to pub1ish the inquiries and reports on this.

It a1so works to divide charities, as each fight for their own disabi1ity/hea1th condition to be inc1uded. The proverbia1 'winners and 1osers' game. It makes me sick.

 

[John Mac]

Dealing with DWP makes me very mentally unwell for months, and thats just by post.

I listen to Classic FM and when Vivaldi's Four Seasons "Spring" comes on (The DWP's 'on hold' music until a couple of years ago) it immediately fills me with dread until I tell myself "it's ok, it's just the radio".

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...aldis-four-seasons-as-helplines-on-hold-music
"Da da-da-da da da-da … Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is no longer the soundtrack to millions of people’s frustrated interactions with welfare bureaucracy, after the Department of Work and Pensions decided to drop it as the hold music on its telephone helplines.

A 30-second loop of the “Spring” section of the Italian composer’s classic concerto has for more than a decade kept callers company – and often driven them to distraction – while waiting to speak to a DWP adviser about a benefits problem.

Vivaldi is being replaced by a 20-minute mix of eight unnamed musical tracks that according to the DWP aims to reduce anxiety and ensure the experience of waiting is as far as possible relaxing by evoking “a steady neutral pace and reducing the issue of repetition”.

I wonder if they have replaced it with the opening to Beethoven's 5th?

 

[Simbindi]

The Severe Conditions group effective1y removes the protection of the exceptiona1 circumstances regu1ation, where you are put in the support group if being subject to work re1ated activity or work puts any person (inc1uding the c1aimant) at serious risk of harm. Done I presume because this is how most peop1e with menta1 hea1th disabi1ities get into the support group.

 

[Simbindi]

The Severe Conditions group effective1y removes the protection of the exceptiona1 circumstances regu1ation, where you are put in the support group if being subject to work re1ated activity or work puts any person (inc1uding the c1aimant) at serious risk of harm. Done I presume because this is how most peop1e with menta1 hea1th disabi1ities get into the support group.

Which wi11 affect many of my autistic peers in the support group (many have been made suicida1 by work).