Upcoming changes to benefits
Comments
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Hi, I also had a lifetime award from DLA and along with others got moved to PIP. This entailed a home visit, it was so aweful but I understand why. I got awarded more money from PIP but reduced to a 10 year award before a review. I am older and in a worse state now and reading these news comments we are all faced with every single day on different news feeds, it makes a very worrying time. No matter if you do or don't have mental health issues, all this worry is no good for anyone. 😔
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Anyone else get their council tax bill this morning? It explains how your council tax benefit has been worked out and how much the law says you need to live on. So if we need X amount to live on why are we being threatened with having our money cut? Surely there's a legal issue here? I have written to my MP asking him to call in for a chat but I'll honesty be surprised if he does
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I'm just reading a comment above, what the hell is going on in this country? Someone who was raped with HIV is expected to look for work? This is just sick and twisted madness which drives me to tears.
If I had the money I would leave Britain in a heartbeat such is how ashamed I am to be British, how can Britain be the moral arbiter on the international stage when all we seem to do is abuse and hate on the weakest, the most vulnerable in society?
I'm done, I've had enough and I'll try to take a break from commenting.
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I do take fiscal black holes with a pinch of salt.
Personal the ideology here isn't about money if the government needs money they have it without any problems.
It's about power and control and some sadistic enjoyment with going after those without power or resources.
When you live a rich life you are free of financial struggles where as poverty forces a person to constantly be in the here and now. A super rich person with the kind of ideology that seems to plague this doomed Country has to get entertainment from somewhere . They don't go after the wealthy because there is a certain respect for those who are on your level you don't have any power or control over them. You do however have power and control over those fully dependent on you to meet those basic needs to sustain life they only put pressure on those they veiw as beneath them that's why they don't do factual reporting and the name calling comes in with certain right wing papers.
If they were actually concerned about money itself they would right up a report and leave out all the scapegoating.
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can I make an added suggestion
There’s an huge amount of council members/councillors (the people we vote for in local elections) that can put added pressure on their local area mp
I’ve already seen a few labour run councils post letters on social media that they’ve sent to labour leadership about their objections to disability welfare cuts.
The more public backlash the increased likelihood backbenchers rebel and front benchers consider resigning in protest
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They also wouldn't need to keep relentlessly dish it out while boasting we are one of the richest Countries.
As Apple said they simply want to relocate it which is nearly always already wealthy and dosent need the money government constantly through at them.
IIt's got to point even some millionaire with healthy mindsets are like we would pay more tax but the government will not let us.The uunhealthy ones are the trash papers that constantly wrote up articles on how the wealthy could avoid paying tax numerous articles when Labour got in on those will simultaneously picking on disabled which has become their favourite sport.
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The article by those particular papers at that time were genuinely fearful that Labour undeŕstarmer was actually socialist and so the numerous articles were how to avoid inheritance tax or this loophole and so on.
Starmer & Reeves are as far removed from Marxist ideology as you can get.
Each according to his own ability.
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International stage ~grandstanding.
When they actually find out how ppl are treated here and few in Europe get to see it other than UN cos it's buried in press.
The mark slips. I'd join you in a heartbeat out of this place it's cruel
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as an autistic person I’ve been regularly rejected once I disclosed my diagnosis from even offering free volunteer work
One jackass thought for the ‘favour’ of offering work to me I could pay him inside (apparently disabled ppl are loaded in benefits and I could easily afford to pay him £200 a week! - irony was my esa and housing at the time only added up to £160 a week - needless to say I just got out of there)
Has anyone contacted Robert buckland yet - he’s a Tory mp who lost his his seat last GE but he has an invested interest in autism and the paper he wrote is pretty well thought out
also I’m very interested where Jonathan Reynolds the business security lands on this - he was starmers first dwp minister (and was pretty good) and has a autistic sonIf the green paper does freeze out autistic people from claiming/being successful getting pip or uc lcwra as one of the more vague rumors going around is suggesting - I will judge him if he doesn’t resign in those circumstances
any know what the last shadow disability minister (now a whip) vicky foxcroft is up to - 12-18 months she was reassuring the disabled communities they would go the Tory route (let alone this dystopian madness rumoured) - another one I’m very interested to read their stance next week once the green paper is launched0 -
Hi All, I've been keeping a watchful eye and reading all the comments and concerns.
My case is I have many ongoing health issues, first starting in 1999. Things took a turn for the worst in 2021 then worse again developing further conditions in 2024. I have worked full time since leaving school 3 months before my 16th birthday (so I was still 15 and paying tax and ni) back in 1977. In 1982 I took 10 years off to have and raise my 3 children (no child care payments) then back to work. When I got very ill in 1999 I was out of action for 7 years. I did not claim one penny of government assistance/disability as my husband cared and supported me.
I have paid into the system for years and I am now coming up to 64. I should have gone down the health/disability route from 2021- 2024 but I didn't , I only started last month and only have one fit note and I was hoping to get a UC50 and WCA after 3 fit notes. I can't get my state pension soon either as the age goes up to 67 next year making working age another 3 years for me.
My point being, there is a great possibility I won't get lrwca and/or pip and the actual assesment will likely make it impossible. I live alone now so of course I can wash, dress, cook for myself, handle my budget and think for myself. There is no one here to help me.
What piddles me off is I have paid into this system for decades, not claimed when I could have, cant retire at 65 (60 when I left school) and now I might not even get the chance to get lrwca if they target new claims, I'm a newbie in regards to sickness/disability and I'm nearly 64. Also, for me, working is not good for me in any way shape or form. Is anyone speaking up for the over 60s being forced to work and likely denied disability even at this late stage in their working age life?
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Re International Stage Grandstanding.. Starmer and Reeves are all in! Last year she hoped to charm Biden by stating she was following ‘Bideneconomics’..yesterday it was a German model of shrinking the state? As for Starmer.. we all realise the defence budget has to rise but c’mon, what’s with all the International conferences he’s setting himself up to chair? I very much doubt the US or Russia! will permit British boots on the ground.. his showboating is out of control. I read the OBR’s reaction to Reeves welfare plans, nowhere do they say fiscal policy can’t be ‘slackened’ to raise defence monies. This sacrifice of the disabled is simply Reeves excuse to raise taxes for everyone. We’re a mere soundbite to a desperately struggling chancellor.
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also look into ‘labour together’ - many mps that helped build that now thinktank are now in plum minister jobs and like Cummings was to Boris, Morgan mcsweeney is in a puppet master role and anyone familiar with the ‘yes minister’ old comedy knows the pm is not the most powerful person in gov
Starmer was picked to be the face of this labour gov (rather than pm job credentials if you get my meaning) but I don’t think he was ever an actual member of ‘labour together (not like reeves was) and I do think someone else is writing the script then handing them to starmer
(I just can’t decide if starmer is actively collaborating in all these plans or just reading from the script - he may see mcsweeney as the reason for his huge majority and that’s a good enough reason to continue going alone with things)0 -
From "The Observer"
View image in fullscreenThe Observer
Downing Street considers U-turn on cuts to benefits for disabled peopleControversial plans to cut personal independence payments (Pip) may be shelved after a tense cabinet meeting and backlash from Labour MPs
Toby Helm , Political editor, James TapperSat 15 Mar 2025 19.30 GMTShare
Ministers have left the door open to a humiliating U-turn on their highly contentious plans to cut benefits for disabled people, amid mounting uproar over the proposals across the Labour party.
Both Downing Street and the Department for Work and Pensions did not deny they were about to backtrack on plans to impose a real-terms cut to the personal independence payment (Pip) for disabled people, including those who cannot work, by cancelling an inflation-linked rise due to come into force next spring.
The plans had been earmarked for inclusion in a green paper scheduled to be published on Tuesday and had been one of several elements of a wider package of welfare cuts designed to save between £5bn and £6bn on the ballooning benefits bill.
Ministers, who are facing the wrath of Labour MPs and peers over the plans, are understood to have taken fright after being accused in meetings with MPs of planning measures rejected as unfair even by former Tory chancellor George Osborne during the Conservative years of austerity.
In his Political Currency podcast last week with former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls, Osborne said: “I didn’t freeze Pip. I thought [it] would not be regarded as very fair. What I did try to do was reform Pip.”
Balls, who is married to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, infuriated Downing Street by saying on the same podcast that the plan would not work if its aim was to get more people back into work, adding that “it’s not a Labour thing to do”.
At a tense cabinet meeting last Tuesday, several serving members raised their concerns about how the Labour government would be viewed if it froze Pip payments and made it more difficult to receive them.
Any plan to freeze Pip or change eligibility rules would require primary legislation, running the risk that they could become the focus of a sizeable Labour rebellion in the House of Commons and also the Lords.
Several Labour MPs have made clear to the Observer that they could not support the plans in any parliamentary vote.
View image in fullscreen
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said protecting people in need was a principle Labour would not compromise on. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/REX/ShutterstockSpeaking to the Observer, Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, insisted that Labour was sympathetic to those unable to work because of disability.
She said: “I know as a constituency MP for 14 long years under the Tories that there will always be some people who cannot work because of the severity of their disability or health condition. Protecting people in genuine need is a principle Labour will never compromise on.”
But she also insisted that the system badly needed reform to ensure that people did not spend a lifetime on benefits and to prevent the overall benefits bill from soaring even higher.
“Being trapped on benefits if you can work is terrible for people’s living standards, health and opportunities,” Kendall said.
She added: “It’s terrible for the country too as spending on the costs of failure soar. The sickness and disability bill for working age people has increased by £20bn since the pandemic, with a further £18bn rise to £70bn projected over the next five years.
We must fix this broken system for the people who depend on it and the country as a whole.”
In a further measure to placate furious Labour MPs, sources said Kendall would move to legislate to create “a right to try” guarantee to ensure sick and disabled people could take a job safe in the knowledge that they would not be forced to undergo a new re-assessment and the possibility of losing their benefits as a result.
One million people would see their benefits reduced under the government’s proposed reforms, according to the Times.
Ministers are said to be examining changing eligibility for Pip in such as way that it would not be available for people who need someone else to help them wash below the waist, or need to be reminded to go to the toilet to prevent them having an accident.
The new rules would, in effect, mean that only the most severely disabled would receive Pip, while those with mental health conditions would not.
Ministers are also planning to scrap the work capability assessment, which is used to decide if people receiving universal credit are fit for work.
It is separate from Pip, which is intended to help cover the extra costs of being disabled, whether or not they can work.
About 4.8 million people receive Pip or the benefit it was designed to replace, the disability living allowance.
Campaigners say the problem facing disabled people is that even those who are desperate to return to the workforce find they cannot cope, or employers are not willing to accommodate them.
View image in fullscreen
Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls criticised the proposed welfare cuts for disabled people as ‘not a Labour thing to do’. Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/ShutterstockA government programme that supported 286,000 disabled people over the past seven years who wanted to find work was only able to secure jobs for one in five.
Anna Stevenson, a benefits expert at the disability charity Turn2us, said: “These were people who, although they were unwell, thought they were probably well enough to work and really keen to work.”
Stevenson said that if the government was serious about helping more disabled people into work, it needed to change employment law.
“If you want very high employment among disabled people, one of the things you need to change is how easy it is for employers to fire people when they’re ill.
“But that has the potential to distort the labour market. There are always trade-offs.”
In the 1970s, employers would put workers on “light duties” if they were unable to do harder, physical jobs, but that practice has all but vanished, leaving disabled people to rely on the state instead.
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With respect, you may be reading more into this than is actually there. Ultimately, these are fairly clueless party hacks with little experience of anything beyond their own narrow world. Hence their outsourcing of so much to Mr McSweeney - Labour's version of Dom Cummings.
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I hope this is true . Is the observer a reputable paper ?
technically they wouldn’t be forced into a humiliating u-turn as they’ve never said the leaks were true . Maybe that’s why it was leaked , to test the reaction then deny certain parts were ever going to happen?1 -
First post, it is a rant - apologies in advance, I've been drinking…
All this talk of "making people work" brings to mind another group which had the same idea, and a "slogan" for it: "arbeit macht frei".
I'm autistic and have various other mental health issues, have been sectioned and have tried multiple times to commit suicide - what the govt is now doing is pure sadism - keeping all this in the news without telling us what they intend to do. When the rumours of them altering the ISA rate come out they made a statement saying they weren't going to - nothing for us tho. Oh, to have enough money to be able to save any of it.
Having just been forced through the "managed migration" **** I'd finally thought that things were going to settle down - now this. Having had to deal with the stress of that I figured I'd try to claim PIP too (too much stress to deal with it whilst everything was just "chugging along" on ESA support group) - guess that's now out of the window and will have to try to find work.
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I lived through the tories screwing us - being forced to move due to the HB changes. I even used to be a Labour member. At lease the tories had the honesty to tell us to our faces whilst sticking the knife in, they didn't stick it in out back and try to tell us it was "for our own good".
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Mods: remove this if it's off topic/etc.
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This is "The Guardian - The Observer":
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I think Timms should be told that as disabled minister he has done nothing for us. That if people are talking about ending it, then it's on their responsibility.
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so it’s from the guardian not the observer ? Is the guardian trustworthy. I keep pressing on the links and they just pop up a pic of starmers face which is the last thing I want to see .
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The observer is part of the Guardian. And yes it's a reputable source.
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