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

IsThisReal

Hi, it's my first post here. I receive PIP and ESA for a few reasons, mental health and physical but mostly mental.

Straight in, I am terrified of this news today. It's standard practice for politics to come out on a Sunday morning because there is less reaction around due to it being the most common day off. Sometimes it's interviews, other times it's faux 'leaks' that always seem to happen in the early hours of Saturday night... If the reaction is catastrophic then they have the week to correct themselves. It's utterly deliberate and calculated.

From the Rightnets link

• scrapping or reforming the work capability assessment (WCA);
• assessing people as limited for certain types of work conditional on specific support, to reassure claimants that they will not lose all benefits if they find a job;
• creating a specific 'severe disability' category to allow those with the most limiting conditions to claim help more easily; and
• separating assessments of eligibility for benefits from judgments about what type of work someone might be able to take and what help was needed to do so.

The part that scares me the most is the removal of WCA and creation of 'severe disability' category. This, and I emphasise, to me, sounds like the ignorant 'if you're not in a wheelchair or psychotic then your not disabled' right wing rhetoric. It seems like they will try to force everyone to do something, that's where the you can work but bounce back to benefits rubbish is aimed.
This is absolutely awful and I have PIP assessment incoming very soon. I think of the future and just despair, there's just no way I can deal with this.
X

2oldcodgers

As an example I was receiving DLA at the highest rates for both elements as well as being classed as in the Support Group of ESA. Yet that only meant that I could not work at my normal occupation. Looking at my difficulties I realized that I could use other parts of my body so looked to finding some physical voluntary work. This then led me to working on a farm as a general worker for over 2 years. My normal professional career was office bound.

apple85

JBS2022 said:

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. 

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.

I read it as no one being exempt from new measures - however that can’t be right because theres no chance the severely disabled would be able to do any of this

i imagine the pip assessment may be where you prove you have a disability - that would be most obvious as you can claim pip alongside work (though if that’s the case there will be a hord of new people claiming pip if that becomes the only way to confirm disability or illness)

we know everyone on esa is being moved over to uc anyway so a huge and costly reformat on an award that won’t exist in 5 yrs seems silly but this is the tories we are talking about

 logically it sounds like the LCWRA and LCW? groups may be scrapped and everything disablity and illness related eventually moved over to PIP which would make sense

however right now the biggest problem is that it is non or under qualified dwp staff/atos assessors who are deciding whether we have a disability/illness or not - an official diagnosis (done by a specialist rather than just go if possible) of a condition that is going to affect that person for the rest of their life needs to be enough (obviously review conditions you can 100% recover from over time but you can’t regrow body parts or cure conditions such as ms, autism and many many more - it’s insulting that every few years the dwp judge if the incurable has been cured)

my personal biggest barrier to work (excluding how my various conditions affect my daily life) is possible employers either not wanting to deal with the disabled and/or treating them unfairly if hired. Employers don’t want to hire someone who aren’t as efficient as the full abled and neurotypical and years of Tory down talking on us hasn’t helped

that realistically leaves self employment which is fine but the minimum income floor screws us over on that

if there was a permanent way to get a disabled status in this country which meant the minimum income floor would never effect us and also that we would always qualify for free prescription (and treatment) of conditions that for me would be a game changer 

people will always fear the system if it is a unqualified dwp staff trying to save money over a legit health professional saying whether you are sick or not

lastly make it easier for the disabled to contribute via volunteering - right now it’s risky as if you do so you could be judged as fit to work - undertaking volunteer work on the days we feel able no pressure/no push to find paid work instead should be another option (the over 50s and disabled shouldn’t be the go to groups to fill the job market just saying)

(sorry about the length of post)

apple85

Jonnyc said:

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 ...

This is worst case scenario and my fear that we may all be judged ‘fit to work’ regardless of condition and health implications 

Alex_Alumni

Hi everyone, all the news around the upcoming budget might be quite worrying or concerning to read about, so if you do need to step away or take a break for your own wellbeing, then I'd encourage you to do so

The Budget speech will be delivered on Wednesday, 15 March 2023. It usually starts at about 12:30 UK time and lasts about an hour. 

There's a lot of speculation being reported right now about what might be being proposed around WCA, so if you need any support then the community is here for you.

2oldcodgers

apple85 said:

Jonnyc said:

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 ...

This is worst case scenario and my fear that we may all be judged ‘fit to work’ regardless of condition and health implications 

Your GP is likely to have to report what work in their opinion is possible for you.

poppy123456

2oldcodgers said:

As an example I was receiving DLA at the highest rates for both elements as well as being classed as in the Support Group of ESA. Yet that only meant that I could not work at my normal occupation.

That's not correct. For the work capability assessment they assess your ability to do any type of work, not just the work you would usually do.

JBS2022

If there is some kind of work that people can do, that is a good thing. As a full time carer ( I gave up part time work recently), I find being stuck at home boring and would rather work a full time job, there used to be charity organisations that would hire and pay people with severe mental health disorders but they no longer exist. If the DWP can find a job my partner can do, I see that as a positive thing. Staying at home is just making his mental health deteriorate, but working in a normal work environment is not fully doable, if they do go ahead with this then they should have proper support in place and set up specific companies for the disabled/mental illness like they used to do.

apple85

I’d rather Brown than Sunak to be honest - sunak and ministers may be the nastiest gov in my lifetime (can’t remember the thatcher years)

Love to take alex_scope suggestion (if only to stop the panic attacks) but it’s very difficult to withdraw when you have ocd and the probability that life is about to much harder

the optimist in me is trying to tell myself that wca can’t be binned and a work forced assessment can’t be introduced immediately - this should be a process that takes years to fully implement (aka dla to pip and esa to uc) and it should be a year before anything kicks in. Also if the new policy is as cruel as we fear then hopefully the public outcry will either force a u turn and/or get labour to rethink their disability policies for the next election.

the pessimist in me thinks neither the left or right in this country care about disability or sickness and there is no fight left in the disabled community. I also think since sunak became pm he’s pushing everything through for optics regardless of cost or just badly thought out

the ‘fear’ & ‘sadness’ from pixars inside out in me thinks it would not surprise me if they roll this out in full next week and our current awards are null and void - and that very dark part of me thinks this is a culling exercise from the dwp, that the wca’s just werent killing enough of us quick enough!

the worst scenario should never happen because of human rights - but the tories are pushing to scrap the eu human rights we are still part of so there’s that 

Gary Liniker may need to expand his outrage come Wednesday! 

Jonnyc

Hopefully, the new system will mean that disabled people who feel they 'can' work some hours, will be able to do so without fear of losing  all their benefits. By work, I mean more than just the 'permitted work' that current ESA claimants can do. There should be no coercion whatsoever for the most severely ill to work.

The devil will be in the detail on Wednesday - if we get any detail at all.

Ray212

I read this will take years to implement, not sure how accurate that is. 

apple85

JBS2022

Ray212 said:

I read this will take years to implement, not sure how accurate that is. 

It will take a while to implement. I can't see them having this fully up and running for at least 2 years probably longer. They haven't even been able to transfer Legacy Benefit claimants to UC in the time originally planned, fair enough COVID probably delayed that even further, but still this is the government and DWP we are talking about

apple85

This is from the guardian’s disability writer

The consensus seems to be that it will take years to roll out (with the next election having to take within 22 month realistically this should be set up by whoever wins the next election.

However you can’t forgot this is an 80 majority government and a pretty desperate Tory party that will do anything to retain power. There are many people in this country who think the benefit system should be scrapped and that many disabilities don’t actually exist. In the same way that the new migrant bill many retain Tory support this may too I’m sorry to say

This feels like a crossroads moment 

apple85

edit to above post - sorry wrong screenshot 

apple85

https://benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/wca-to-be-abolished,-claimants-to-be-sanctioned-by-bots

apple85

Todays the big day

so far the big winners are those that earn enough to add to private pensions and parents (though parents on us will need to work at least 18hrs to get this)

unclear yet who’s going to balance the books as these are big giveaways (and hunt/sunak we are talking out)


also the disability white paper is being published today so lots of reading and double checking

apple85

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/15/what-to-expect-from-jeremy-hunt-spring-budget-pensions-pools-welfare-energy

I think any catch for the sick/disabled may be buried in the footnotes - I really hope our community has over panicked but if not we can’t be quiet 

apple85

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/03/15/government-spending-tens-of-millions-a-year-on-disability-benefit-appeals/

Not on budget but interesting nonetheless 

apple85