UK: Disability benefits (UC, ESA and PIP) - news and updates 2024 and 2025

MrMagoo said:
Increase UC for everyone claiming, from about £400 per month to about £775 per month
Click to expand...

No, the £775 increase is the annual amount, not the new monthly payment.

Press release Biggest shake up to welfare system in a generation to get Britain working

Rebalancing Universal Credit: by improving the Standard Allowance to provide more adequate support. The government plans to raise the Standard Allowance above inflation by 2029/30, adding £775 in cash terms annually. This aims to avoid people having to choose between employment or adequate financial support.
Click to expand...
 
I have a strong sense that this business is going to sink Mr Starmer's cabinet unless someone backs out sharpish. And it will be the quickest way to lose the upcoming by-elections.

It seems a bit like taking a pawn with your queen while putting her in direct line of a bishop.
I am often wrong but I predict this will not pass a Common's vote.
 
Sly Saint said:
I don't understand why the media keep going on about Incapacity Benefit when it doesn't exist anymore.
People were moved onto ESA back in 2012.
Click to expand...

On the BBC yesterday was the following article

Too many are being signed off sick, GP tells BBC published at 09:49 17 March

Professor Sir Sam Everington is on the council of the Royal College of General Practitioners and has been a GP in east London since 1989 – he spoke to BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning.

Asked about the rise in health related benefits since 2019, and the forecasts of rises to come, he says it's a "massive problem".

He warns of a process called "deconditioning", saying: "If you take an 80-year-old and put them in a hospital bed for 10 days, they lose 10% of their muscle strength, and it’s the equivalent of 10 years inactivity.

"Well we now know that you get virtually the same in the younger age group when you sign them off sick."

He says there is no doubt too many people who could be working are being signed off sick, warning the impact on mental, physical and social health can be "dreadful”.

He says there are situations in which people cannot work, but says in general there needs to be a reversal from "sick note" to "fit note" - to describe what people can do, rather than a binary decision about "sick or not sick".

“We need a cultural understanding, particularly in the medical profession, that work is absolutely part of the treatment," he says.

My bolding.
If he has been a GP since 1989 how on earth can he not know that the very thing he was suggesting was introduced in April 2010!
 
If the changes do go through, PIP's going to be a nightmare. It's bad enough now, with people waiting a year for the outcome of reassessments, but the changes to UC for new claimants could have a really big impact.

People who can't work (but aren't categorised as profoundly disabled) might be more or less forced to apply for PIP. Even with the uplift to the basic rate and a small health top-up, UC will be unliveable if they have extra costs.

At the moment, some folk assessed as having limited capacity for work make do with the additional disability payments UC gives them, either because applying for PIP is really difficult or they've already been refused and couldn't face appealing.

But some of them will already be paying part of their rent from UC because the housing allowance doesn't cover the market rate, and then there's the fact that when you've been unable to work for a long time you start to run out of stuff.

I left salaried work with resources I took completely for granted—kitchen appliances, computer and phone, comfortable mattress, enough clothes and shoes—but they don't last forever. I needed my PIP income to replace things like that, because the means-tested elements only covered my monthly outgoings.
 
John Mac said:
He warns of a process called "deconditioning", saying: "If you take an 80-year-old and put them in a hospital bed for 10 days, they lose 10% of their muscle strength, and it’s the equivalent of 10 years inactivity.

"Well we now know that you get virtually the same in the younger age group when you sign them off sick."
Click to expand...

Where do you even start addressing this hogwash.
 
Eleanor said:
Where do you even start addressing this hogwash.
Click to expand...
Yes, I don't believe that is universally true. I have been off ill for 11.5 months now (resigned from my job). Not all my fitness is gone. If there was an emergency I could run a bit or lift something heavy... But I certainly can't do either as part of my day as it would involve my body punishing me. And can tell the strength is still there though.
 
From the Green Paper

Section 2 – The future of PIP, assessment processes and safeguarding
155. In future, under proposals set out in this Green Paper, the WCA will be scrapped, with the PIP assessment becoming the single assessment to receive both financial support in PIP and any extra financial support related to health and disability through UC. This places additional importance on the PIP assessment and making sure it remains fit for the future.

156. The PIP assessment needs modernising. It is over a decade since PIP was introduced, during which time there have been significant shifts in the nature of long-term conditions and disability, as well as changes in wider society and the workplace. People reporting mental health or neurodiverse conditions as their primary condition have increased more rapidly than those reporting other conditions[footnote 86], and increases in disability have been more marked among younger adults than older people, although older working-age people are still more likely to be disabled.[footnote 87]

157. Therefore, we will launch a process to review the PIP assessment. This is a major undertaking which will take time and require extensive engagement, so any changes to the PIP assessment would only be introduced following the reforms set out in this Green Paper. To make sure we get this right, we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. It will also provide an opportunity to consider how to extend the goals and approach set out as a result of this Green Paper through any future change to the PIP assessment. In particular, the ambition is to shape a system of active support that helps people manage and adapt to their long-term condition and disability in ways that expand their functioning and improve their independence.

158. In the meantime, we will take more immediate action to get the basics right and improve the experience for people who use the system of health and disability benefits, including looking again at our safeguarding processes.
Click to expand...

So BACME and our so called ME charities are going to love that - we will be expected to undergo 'rehabilitation' as part of the PIP claim process or as a condition of receiving the benefit no doubt.
 
Last edited:
So if we follow the logic, this magical rehabilitation paradigm has been tried and failed for decades for severe chronic fatigue and ME/CFS. It has then been expanded to mild generic chronic fatigue, for which it also doesn't work, then to basically any and all odd symptoms. So now they will expand it to basically everyone, for whom it also doesn't work. Because we do not live in the land of unicorns who poop chocolate, which is about the only magical place where any of this could actually make sense.

So, really, instead of accepting that this garbage doesn't work, they doubled down again and again and again, never caring that it doesn't work. And it kind of all started by trying to deal with us, when you look at the big picture. And failing at it, miserably. But they can't deal with reality, so they just keep doubling down, because there are never any consequences, they can simply expand the failure and people will cheer it.

Then when you read or hear how they justify it, like this odd fellow with his nonsense and blatant lies who says 10 days of inactivity is the same as 10 years of inactivity, which melts muscle to the point of being as functional as an 80 year-old (which is the level of activity that was deemed as recovered by PACE), you get the clear impression that either everyone involved is either lying or insane, because there really aren't many other explanations, certainly none that can make sense of this mass insanity and fraud.

Then you look at the general state of things, how the world is doing generally, and it sort of starts to make sense. It's all the same dysfunction and magical thinking everywhere. At all scales and everywhere. It's really hard to see humanity surviving if we are this bad at, frankly, everything. The only thing we seem very good at is destroying. Damn is this weird species of (mostly) hairless monkeys great at that, though.
 
Also from the Green Paper, they will be ending Contributions based ESA, something that would have to happen if the WCA is to be scraped (I mentioned this back when the Conservatives had stated they would end the WCA last year). The new version will be time limited.

Introducing a new Unemployment Insurance by reforming contributory benefits
149. We are consulting on creating a new Unemployment Insurance for those that have made National Insurance contributions. This would mean people receive the income they need alongside the right employment support to get back into work. The welfare system was founded upon the contributory principle – the idea of ‘something-for-something’. Contributory benefits are a form of non-means tested support for those who experience unemployment. Currently, New Style Employment and Support Allowance (NS ESA) and New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance (NS JSA) provide support for those who have recently become unemployed. To qualify for these benefits, 2 to 3 years’ worth of National Insurance credits must have been paid or credited prior to the date of a person’s claim. NS ESA supports individuals whose ability to work is restricted due to a disability or health condition. NS ESA relies on the WCA to determine eligibility. After the WCA, NS ESA places people in either a work-related activity group or a support group, which determines how much work preparation activity they are required to do and how long they are able to access the benefit. NS JSA also supports unemployed individuals, or those working on average less than 16 hours a week, but it does not have a health-related requirement. People receiving NS JSA are expected to be actively searching for work and are able to access the benefit for up to 6 months.

150. Under the reformed system, we are consulting on replacing NS ESA and NS JSA with one new Unemployment Insurance benefit. The rate of financial support would be set at the current higher rate of NS ESA. The benefit would not require a health assessment and would be based on an individual’s National Insurance record as is currently the case.[footnote 84] Individuals, such as those with long term health conditions, would also be able to claim other relevant benefits where eligible.

151. We believe this would make the contributory system simpler and significantly more pro-work by first removing the binary distinction between jobseekers and those considered unable to work (by removing the WCA) and second by removing the financial incentive to be considered unable to work (by paying at a flat rate). We would also be improving the income protection available to people who lose their job, while time-limiting that entitlement (for example for 6 to 12 months) to create a strong incentive to get back into the labour market.

152. We know that the chances of getting back to work are higher in the initial period after someone loses a job. Once people enter economic inactivity, where the main reason is long-term sickness, they are very unlikely to move out of inactivity: on average, from one year to the next, 3% of this group move into employment.[footnote 85] So, we will design employment support with the intention of preventing people from falling out of the labour market altogether and supporting them to adapt and adjust to health issues, aiming to help them get back to meaningful activity and work during this time limited period. Unlike now, where some of those on NS ESA do not have to engage with any employment support (i.e., those in the Support Group), almost all disabled people and people with long-term health conditions receiving the new contributory benefit would be required, as a minimum, to participate in conversations as part of a new offer of tailored employment support with appropriate exemptions. As part of our thinking about support for those on UC, we would also consider what support would benefit those on the new contributory benefit specifically. Chapter 3 outlines our plans for employment support.

153. Our expectation is that providing people with active employment engagement and a non-means tested, time-limited, financial award would allow them to get back to work, engage in meaningful activity and look for the right job, where they are able to. We want to support people to find the right work for them, fulfilling their potential, and using the skills they have, preventing them from becoming long term economically inactive where possible. Therefore, we are consulting on how long individuals should receive the Unemployment Insurance, and what support should be available for individuals during this time (see consultation question 4).

154. As we move to a reformed system, we would also provide self-employed individuals access to any new Unemployment Insurance too.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
John Mac said:
On the BBC yesterday was the following article

Too many are being signed off sick, GP tells BBC published at 09:49 17 March

Professor Sir Sam Everington is on the council of the Royal College of General Practitioners and has been a GP in east London since 1989 – he spoke to BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning.

Asked about the rise in health related benefits since 2019, and the forecasts of rises to come, he says it's a "massive problem".

He warns of a process called "deconditioning", saying: "If you take an 80-year-old and put them in a hospital bed for 10 days, they lose 10% of their muscle strength, and it’s the equivalent of 10 years inactivity.

"Well we now know that you get virtually the same in the younger age group when you sign them off sick."

He says there is no doubt too many people who could be working are being signed off sick, warning the impact on mental, physical and social health can be "dreadful”.

He says there are situations in which people cannot work, but says in general there needs to be a reversal from "sick note" to "fit note" - to describe what people can do, rather than a binary decision about "sick or not sick".

“We need a cultural understanding, particularly in the medical profession, that work is absolutely part of the treatment," he says.

My bolding.
If he has been a GP since 1989 how on earth can he not know that the very thing he was suggesting was introduced in April 2010!
Click to expand...
Own goal! Also if GPs are signing too many people off and it’s wrong, why isn’t he telling his colleagues and professional body to act appropriately? instead of tattle tailing to the press.

Honestly you don’t even need a GCSE in Media Studies to see what’s happening here…

In addition, I think you’ll find everyone hates their job, and doesn’t want to work all hours, defined by “presenteeism” working extra late hours with impossible workloads. Fix that, and you fix a lot of sickness!
 
In particular, the ambition is to shape a system of active support that helps people manage and adapt to their long-term condition and disability in ways that expand their functioning and improve their independence.
Click to expand...

Isn't that what was once called medical care? Being able to see a GP, see a consultant, having prompt NHS treatment, surgery, effective medications? Not to mention high quality social care?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom