COMMENT

We are not an aimless campaign group with no real goals, we are not unreasonable or aggressive.

We are the sick and disabled of the UK. We are Spartacus.


Briefing of our 4 main objectives :

Whilst some of the bill might be helpful, I want to be very clear today about which parts sick and disabled campaigners feel are unacceptable :

1) Removing Disability Living Allowance mobility payments from adults in residential care.
An adult who needs to live in residential care will have extensive needs and are often amongst the most severely disabled. The mobility component of DLA afforded them their only freedom, allowing them to choose to fund a power wheelchair otherwise unavailable on the NHS, or to pay for taxis or transport to get out now and then. Taking this away would leave the most vulnerable disabled people effectively housebound. There is no support for this change anywhere - charities, independent benefit reports and even the government's own advisers have called for this to be removed from the bill

2) Scrapping DLA entirely and replacing it with Personal Independent Payments (PIPs).
DLA is a very effective benefit with fraud rates of less than 1% (DWP own figures) It is already incredibly hard to claim and the qualification criteria are very narrow. The government have announced that DLA claimants will also soon face assessment and that the overall number of claimants will be reduced by at least 20%. The government's own advisory committee concluded that they could find no justification for this reform and have asked for clarification from the government.
If a benefit is already very efficient, yet a government announce a 20% cull before a single assessment has even taken place, we conclude it can only be a cost cutting measure that will ignore genuine need.

3) Time limiting contributory Employment Support Allowance (cESA, previously Incapacity Benefit) to 1 Year
Many people who need to claim ESA have "long term variable" or chronic illnesses such as MS, Parkinson's, Bowel Disease, Leukaemia or severe Mental Illness. These conditions often do not go away after a year and sadly, often get worse over time. A high percentage of those with these conditions are being found "capable of limited work" under ESA, and not qualifying for unconditional support (known as the Support group who are not affected by the time limit)  but after 1 year, if they have a working partner, they will receive no ESA whatsoever. All of their benefit will simply be stopped, a loss of just under £5000 a year.

4) ATOS assessments are "unfit for purpose" and a better way of assessing need must be implemented. ATOS are the private company charged with assessing over 1.5 million sick and disabled people during this parliament.
-The assessments are not necessarily carried out by a doctor.
-40% of rejected claims are going to appeal with up to 70% of those decisions being overturned.
-Assessments are humiliating and degrading causing great anxiety to those genuinely in need.
-Just 7% of claimants are being found unfit to work.
-Testimony from Consultants and GPs is often ignored entirely.
-People are dying before lengthy appeals can be heard.
-Even the professor who designed these assessments calls them a "complete mess"
-The descriptors exclude many serious, long term conditions or disabilities. This means that many serious conditions are simply unlikely to qualify.

There are other problems with the bill - capping housing benefit; re-classifying "mobility" so that those who use their wheelchairs too efficiently can be classed as "fully mobile"; removing an age related payment from ESA; scrapping the Independent Living Fund; cutting community care provision; cutting the Access to Work programme and many more - all of which will hurt sick and disabled people disproportionately, but the four points above MUST be addressed before the Welfare Reform Bill is passed.
They are causing or will cause real hardship.
They will not achieve savings as pressures will only be shifted to the NHS or social care provision.
They will increase homelessness, mental illness and poverty amongst this most vulnerable group of all
They will leave many in genuine need without support
They reduce the independence, standard of life and dignity of those we have a basic duty to protect.

The Government - and media - might like to notice that we have already won the first one, The Spartacus Report directly addresses the 2nd one, and last night's vote casts huge doubt on the third.

Yesterday, Lords voted to overturn the one-year time limit to contributory Employment and Support Allowance proposed by the government. They were defeated by a staggering  224 votes to 186. We had lobbied on this issue more than any other. Yesterday, we posted a full briefing on why. You can read it here :

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2012/01/impact-of-time-limiting-esa.html

This article is taken from the Sue Marsh blog; thank you Sue!

If you want to find out more, try this page http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/