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The future for the disabled claiming UC/ESA, etc - budget march 2023

apple85
Community member Posts: 368 Pioneering
I’m going to start this topic as it’s going to affect thousands of us
it looks 95% likely that wca are being scrapped which should be a reason to celebrate but after 13 years of the (cruelest) Tory government in history for many of us the gut feeling is if they are scrapping wca then it’s probably being replaced by something significantly worse that will trip up/fail more of us than ever before
rumor is the new assessment will ask people what work they can do (guess the dwp are going to get creative of reading between the lines - or just outright lie) - it sounds like a good chunk of the disabled may be pushed off the system if they ‘say’ they might be able to work
more worryingly labour seem to be on the same page as the tories so waiting and crossing fingers till next election isn’t going to provide a reprieve
pretty scared to be honest
it looks 95% likely that wca are being scrapped which should be a reason to celebrate but after 13 years of the (cruelest) Tory government in history for many of us the gut feeling is if they are scrapping wca then it’s probably being replaced by something significantly worse that will trip up/fail more of us than ever before
rumor is the new assessment will ask people what work they can do (guess the dwp are going to get creative of reading between the lines - or just outright lie) - it sounds like a good chunk of the disabled may be pushed off the system if they ‘say’ they might be able to work
more worryingly labour seem to be on the same page as the tories so waiting and crossing fingers till next election isn’t going to provide a reprieve
pretty scared to be honest

Comments
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I'm not going to pass judgment until we know what the new assessment process is for certain. I don't see an issue with offering those that are LCWRA/LCW/Support Group the ability to try work without it affecting their benefits as long as it's optional. We'll see what happens.Life is better in a fishtank 🐟
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apple85 said:..it looks 95% likely that wca are being scrapped ..
Had seen this in January
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/government-expected-to-publish-health-and-disability-white-paper-before-the-spring-budget-setting-out-ambitious-and-extensive-reforms
Labour speech had said
https://labour.org.uk/press/jonathan-ashworth-speech-at-the-centre-for-social-justice/
Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Rules may be different in other parts of UK. -
Those who CAN work will… those who can’t we will help in the Budgethttps://www.thesun.co.uk/news/21681034/jeremy-hunt-we-will-help-people-in-budget?utm_source=sharebar_app&utm_medium=sharebar_app&utm_campaign=sharebar_app_article
It says in the article further down the article that wca will not happen to get people back into work does this mean people on LCWRA will get this forever -
The thing is, newspapers stir the facts and I’d never advise reading them about anything benefit related. I’m quite sick of seeing articles headlining ‘if you have these conditions, you qualify for maximum rate PIP’.
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There's a thread here that was posted this morning on the same subject. In that thread it includes a link from Welfare Rights.Maybe a member of the scope team can link both threads together to save confusion? @Alex_Scope @Cher_Scope @Hannah_Scope
I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help. -
bg844 said:The thing is, newspapers stir the facts and I’d never advise reading them about anything benefit related. I’m quite sick of seeing articles headlining ‘if you have these conditions, you qualify for maximum rate PIP’.
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My apologies Calcotti
the source I’m using is the one below:
https://www.fenews.co.uk/skills/chancellors-back-to-work-budget-to-boost-the-economy/
the reason why I’m saying it sounds like a done deal is several organisations have provided comments on these new measures (I don’t think they’d do so unless they had legit info) -
JBS2022
prehaps your experiences with the dwp but in my experience (in claiming esa) in their eyes if you work then you can’t be truly disabled, if you volunteer you can’t be truly disabled and if you study you can’t be truly disabled (even if you haven’t done any of these things for years due to disability)
now prehaps those with physical disabilities may be okay under a new assessment that asks what work you can do but those with (normal/higher functioning) ‘unseen’ disabilities will have a tougher time
also the dwp are rewarding people for sanctioning people and under huge pressure to fail those going through wca (hence the large percentage of tribunal overturns) - this change could be much harder to overturn at tribunal’s
okay we don’t know the full details but we will do in the next 100hrs which is why I started this topic early as this is going to effect thousands of us
i will point out again that when was the last time the tories changed something for compassionate reasons?
also the esa to uc switchover has recently been extended till 2028 which means natural migration is back on the table (managed migration offers retention/protection of current benefit amount - natural migration does not) - I imagine the new assessment will trigger natural migration for many more of us saving the gov thousands
I admit I’m reading between the lines - I hope I will have to eat my words but I doubt it
also Jon ashworth has said recently that the tories have stolen labours benefit reform ideas - which worries me as it sounds unlikely any possible cruel policy on the disabled would be reversed by a labour gov in less than 2 years -
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Mainline media starting to confirm
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/universal-credit-sanctions-hunt-budget-b2298836.html?amp
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apple85 said:Life is better in a fishtank 🐟
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Yes I know it’s the daily ‘fail’ - however they just published exclusive interviews with Jeremy hunt and are very much a Tory go to media so I imagine this is from the horses mouth
if the daily mail have got it right it’s worse than I imagined - obviously pockets of information is missing but the line that ‘all’ (it doesn’t mention if their are exceptions and if so what percentage of sick/disabled would be excluded) long term sick must be actively looking for work in order to continue receiving benefits is no difference to the ‘contract’ uc claimants have to currently sign.
The big question still answered is when would all this officially start - considering assessment providers have had their contract extended till march 2024 I’d hope we’d have a year before it kicks in but the tories seem so desperate for the old and sick to clean the mess they created it could be sooner.
the other question is if all this is true how big will the public outcry be - the general public is more interested in other issues is my gut feeling - the sick and disabled in this country are the forgotten and/or easy targets in the uk and everyone seems preoccupied by the migrant situation right now -
I will await judgement but having been on the DWP merry go round for a long time now I can't believe this is going to be good news by any means.
Getting rid of the assessment is all well and good but what replaces it and even worse I hope it doesn't mean the work related interviews are increased as you no longer have the assessment to say you are not well enough for work.
I can't see any good in this, any government especially Tory saying they will "help you into work" means push you until you can't be pushed any further. -
Media are reporting WCA to be officially scrapped in Budget statement - huge implications for everyone. No longer such categories as LCW, LCWRA or Support Group. How on earth is this all going to be rolled out ? Have just gone through the whole painful process of proving my inability to take on work only to find it was for nought ...
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Ray212 said:I will await judgement but having been on the DWP merry go round for a long time now I can't believe this is going to be good news by any means.
Getting rid of the assessment is all well and good but what replaces it and even worse I hope it doesn't mean the work related interviews are increased as you no longer have the assessment to say you are not well enough for work.
I can't see any good in this, any government especially Tory saying they will "help you into work" means push you until you can't be pushed any further.Life is better in a fishtank 🐟 -
They might be replacing the WCA but it will just be replaced with a similar assessment system, they gotta find some way of judging ability to work. I believe the WCA and PIP assessments will be joined up in some way and they'll just change the name.Life is better in a fishtank 🐟
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I was reading a thread by Torsten Bell who said this will take years to implement and will have to go through parliament anyway. Does that sound about right?
So they couldn't just announce on Wednesday this is what is happening and next month they have scrapped wca's and made people have more work focused interviews etc? -
JBS2022 said:Exactly what are they gonna replace it with, are they just gonna take your word for it that you cannot work. There will have to be some kind of assessment system in place. I was told the WCA and PIP assessments were being combined in some way to join both claims together.
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