Upcoming changes to benefits
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"The Guardian" reports that Wes Streeting is under attack from MH experts. Moreover, the full welfare reform proposals appear not to have been seen by the whole Cabinet yet:
Wes Streeting’s comments that there is an “overdiagnosis” of some mental health conditions has prompted experts to warn against stigmatising and punishing people.
The health secretary also said too many people were being “written off”, as he was questioned about the government’s welfare measures. Speaking to broadcasters, Streeting was repeatedly challenged on whether ministers were leaving disabled people uninformed for too long about the plans – and whether they would freeze the personal independence payment (Pip) as part of their welfare package this week.
Streeting did not deny the government had dropped plans to freeze Pip after a major backlash from Labour MPs this week. There are still expected to be significant changes to Pip including making the disability payment – which is not dependent on work – harder to claim, as well as changes to employment support for those too sick or disabled to work.
Asked whether he thought overdiagnosis of some conditions was a problem, he told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I want to follow the evidence and I agree with that point about overdiagnosis.
“Here’s the other thing: mental wellbeing, illness, it’s a spectrum and I think definitely there’s an overdiagnosis, but there’s too many people being written off and, to your point about treatment, too many people who just aren’t getting the support they need. So if you can get that support to people much earlier, then you can help people to either stay in work or get back to work.”
Minesh Patel, the associate director of policy and campaigns at the charity Mind, said Streeting was right to say that not enough people were getting support, and advised against stigmatising those with mental health problems.
He said: “Applying for benefits is not an easy process. People with a mental health problem must go through a lengthy and arduous assessment process, with decisions to not award support often overturned at appeal stage. We must also be extremely careful with the language around mental health diagnoses, which risks creating a climate of stigmatising people’s real experiences and undermining the opinions of medical professionals.”
Robert Howard, a professor of old age psychiatry at University College London, said “punishing” people would not get them back to work.
He said: “I’m really anxious that the kind of language that Wes Streeting was using this morning will be used to justify further disinvestment in mental health services.
“If we want to get people with mental illness back to work, the way to do that is to make sure they can access timely and effective treatment, and pretending that they haven’t got a real illness, it just doesn’t make me feel encouraged that the government will invest sufficiently in mental health services to help people get back.
“There’s so many young people with kind of chronic generalised anxiety who can’t work. The way to get them back to work isn’t to kind of shame them and punish them and tell them they’re not ill. The way to get them back to work is to make sure that they have access to proper psychological therapy and treatment so they can be fit and go back to work.”
The Guardian reported on Friday that ministers had threatened to resign over any potential freeze to Pip, which would require a vote in parliament. But there remains widespread concern from Labour MPs about how tight the criteria to claim the disability payment will be, and about the changes to employment and support allowance, which covers those who cannot work.
“I haven’t seen the full plans, they haven’t come to cabinet yet,” Streeting said. “But what I do know is the work and pensions secretary wants to support people who need help the most and we’ve got to make sure that there is a wider range of support, and that everyone’s playing their part, including me, because with those levels of illness, for example, if I can help people back to health, in many cases I’ll be helping them back to work and that’s what we’ll do.
“I haven’t seen the proposals but you’ve seen the briefing, you’ve seen the speculation, I think the moral of the story is wait for the plans.”
Streeting said he did not come into politics to take money from the most vulnerable in society but that there was still a need for reform. “We want to support people who are the poorest and most vulnerable to make sure they’ve got dignity, independence and great quality of life,” he said.
“Without that support from an active state, I wouldn’t be here talking to you. The challenge we’ve got [is] we’ve got one in eight young people in this country not in education, employment or in training. We’ve got one in 10 people who are off work, sick, and 3 million people shut out of the labour market because of long-term illness.
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Wes Streeting's descent into ableism isn't surprising.
He has been spouting transphobic drivel for some time (he deliberately extended the puberty blockers ban for trans kids based on prejudice, effectively condemning them to death, if not the black market). And this is in spite of meeting trans kids and their families weeks before making the ban pernament. He is a monster.
source:
Transphobia and ableism go hand in hand (and a trans persons' mental illnesses/neurodivergence are commonly weaponised by bigoted doctors to deny healthcare). It was obvious Wes would support disability benefit cuts/eugenics the moment he started attacking trans kids' autonomy.
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Hope you don't mind, Iv'e found the document you were referring to as your link doesn't show the whole document. It's supposed to be the easy read option (obviously for people like myself!!)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/easy-read-the-equality-act-making-equality-real
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"3 million people shut out of the labour market because of long-term illness."
Okay so suddenly they won't no longer have the illness??
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Despite really not feeling it's in my best interest I asked for a diagnosis appt as I've had lifelong MH issues that have prevented me from working for 16 years. I was told that there were no diagnostic services available in my local NHS trust anymore, my therapist can write me a letter stating her opinion on my probable diagnoses but that I could not get a psychiatrist to confirm.
So what am I supposed to do now? I get LCWRA & PIP for MH, with the support of my NHS therapist, but with no formal diagnosis. If Labour's proposals are to be believed, I will lose both. If that happens I will be homeless because I won't be able to afford my housing costs, never mind the things in my life that PIP covers which are the structures that keep me from unaliving.
What are they doing? Do they know what effect this is going to have on us? I'm feeling very lost right now.
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So Wes streeting pathetic excuse was a thousand people a day are signing up for Pip, which is the size of Manchester.
Any excuse to put the boot in with more lies
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They seem to think you'll be fully cured if you have a job and feel like you are contributing to society
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100%. Even when there are well-intentioned staff within services (ie. PIP assessors, employers), there's too many ableist decision makers that will destroy progress or cause obstructions. They don't understand, many refuse to learn, and some will use their jobs to go on a power trip, knowing that the DWP and other organisations will protect them as long as they can.
Also as an autistic woman looking for a remote job so I can move abroad and travel (while making life a lot more accessible), UC just don't have the resources to help. Ironically that will mean giving up my PIP, but at least the lower cost of living will offset the costs!
(Although I know how privileged I am I can even consider that, i know a lot of people here cannot).
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if no one’s bothered to tell him their plans maybe he should read the guardian and get clued up . Either he’s lying or the msm are wrong and spreading fake news imo
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He comes from Tower Hamlets and was helped by the state, so now he turns against those who are on it and need help
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The way they keep going on about sick and disabled must work you would think there aren’t any fit healthy job seekers out there that aren’t working. Why not concentrate on them first . But of course we know it’s a money saving exercise hence cutting back on pip. The Tory’s lost in court over the same thing
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Ok give me a time machine, I'll go back to my birth and just hope I don't have meningococcal meningitis, appendicitis, asd, eupd, childhood depression & societal anxiety... they really don't get what long term illness is, ffs! 😡
When will the demonising of disabled STOP!😭
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oh they are. but in reality, unemployment will always exist as there will never be enough jobs for everyone. that's basic economic theory. The rise of AI will lead to more healthy people being forced out of work.
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so if their idea is to increase basic uc because of that what difference is it if there’s lcwra . It’s not that we get much it’s that basic uc isn’t enough. You’d think someone in the media would actually question Them on it , would love to hear their reasoning
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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15vcRSnUv7/
From disability page Black triangle about cuts
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the link doesn’t work. Could you post some screenshots please 🙏
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If they cut universal Credit LCWRA or make any changes to the rules etc.
I just hope they wont affect those on Legacy ESA benefits etc before they get migrated to Universal Credit and it maybe messes or interferes with transition protection.
There are loads of people on Legacy waiting to be naturally migrated rather than applying for UC themselves for this exact reason and to make sure they get their protection.
If im correct you dont get the protection if you voluntarily or through a change of circumstance get moved to UC?
So just saying they better not change any rules or ammounts that will affect any upcoming transition protection, because after waiting years to be migrated, you may aswell have moved voluntarily already if youd lose it with any new changes.
Hope that makes sense.
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Black triangle copied from the times
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@charlie72 Oh don't mind at all! - Thank you! I don't know why I'd got the full document but couldn't upload it, I think it's very well written with very clear explanations and examples. Thanks again 😊
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thank you for that . The points system worries me as I’ve found that answers I’ve given assessors would say give me 4 points but I’ve been awarded 2 . This certainly happened during my last assessment where I was awarded enough points for highest but never getting more than 2 points per answer . This is open to assessors being able to fail ppl . So if they ask someone with say arthritis or fibromyalgia etc where pain changes to different areas , can you wash between you waist and shoulders and they answer is most of time no , they then ask can you wash your hair . Obviously you can’t if you can’t wash up your your shoulders. So depending on your assessor do you get 2 points or the needed 4 ? This to me is just starting the whole pip assessor situation where when I first went to pip I was bullied and lied about not only the assessor but the first tier tribunal.
Secondly if they’re admitting that this is to stop the amount of claimants and not to get people working is that lawful ? And Kendall as good as admitted they haven’t done a risk assessment. Didn’t Ellen Clifford win her court case because for the same reasons.1
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