The Green Paper Discussion (the document link is here too!)

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Comments

  • ancojo
    ancojo Online Community Member Posts: 30 Contributor

    Crazy isn't it and yet MPs among so many others are agreeing with this!

  • Prinko
    Prinko Online Community Member Posts: 22 Contributor

    Hi all, just clarifying that the general consensus surrounding those of us on NS ESA (support group) is that we are still subject to the current WCA up until 2028?
    My award letter doesn’t state an end date and it was only awarded last month.
    Really hoping the pushback and pressure generated from this green paper results in an honouring of current claimants given the wording of “for new people claiming”, or that it’s just very watered down :(

  • noonebelieves
    noonebelieves Online Community Member Posts: 343 Pioneering

    You are absolutely right, @Maggie37: the list just keeps growing. There seems to be no logic to these decisions at all. If they truly cared about disabled people, they wouldn’t even consider cutting essential support as a way to fix the economy. Taking away money that disabled people rely on isn’t just unfair….it’s completely unjustifiable.

  • worried33
    worried33 Online Community Member Posts: 852 Championing

    The DWP consultations just keep getting worse and worse, the things highlighted in the b&w article show that they havent learnt anything from the court defeat, they will likely be banking that no one will challenge it in court.

    Also the warning that the law for the 4 point change might be in place by end of July this year even if its not kicking in until Nov 2026.

  • worried33
    worried33 Online Community Member Posts: 852 Championing

    This. Everyone gets reviewed on PIP, unlike ESA its not an ongoing award as standard. So it basically affects any review after Nov 2026, whenever that may be. For me it will be probably 2028, potentially 2029 if back logs are still bad.

  • worried33
    worried33 Online Community Member Posts: 852 Championing

    I am not convinced by that message they have even read the green paper properly.

    Resumption of WCA's is before the 2 year mark as is the 4 point change to PIP. They have an opinion that challenging the new consultation "might" delay both of these things but are not even sure if it will be challenged.

    They seem to think the only thing happening in that time frame is the shift to face to face assessments.

    Their post needs more details or a follow up to clarify these things.

  • Girl_No1
    Girl_No1 Online Community Member Posts: 190 Empowering

    @noonebelieves yet, we have Starmer banging on about their actions being 'morally correct'.

    What would be morally correct would be removing Rachel From Accounts as Chancellor, and replacing her with someone who understands governing a country does not operate like balancing a family's budget.

    I used to believe Gideon Osborne (towel-folder extraordinaire) was the worst Chancellor I would see in my lifetime.

    I was wrong.

    I've said before, when I watched Kendall with Michael Portillo (as experts sharing their wisdom on a weekly basis) on the Andrew Neil Show she really, REALLY consistently came across as much more right-wing than either Portillo or Neil.

    If even I could see that in her, it means Starmer chose her specifically for the role to which she finds herself over-promoted.

  • Passerby
    Passerby Posts: 102 Empowering

    Daily Mail, which is known of having been spreading lies about benefits and stirring up hatred against benefit claimants is now writing:
    "Welfare reforms are all pain, no gain".

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14517461/Welfare-reforms-pain-no-gain-Labour-hopes-5billion-savings-2-study-says.html

  • HollisMcBobbery
    HollisMcBobbery Online Community Member Posts: 31 Contributor
    edited March 22

    What's going on is awful but there is a hell of alot of support.

  • HollisMcBobbery
    HollisMcBobbery Online Community Member Posts: 31 Contributor
    edited March 22

    I'm all for an Angie takeover at this point.

  • evelyncourtney
    evelyncourtney Online Community Member Posts: 96 Empowering
  • HollisMcBobbery
    HollisMcBobbery Online Community Member Posts: 31 Contributor

    Brian Cox is a legend! Never one afraid to speak his thoughts.

  • noonebelieves
    noonebelieves Online Community Member Posts: 343 Pioneering
    edited March 22

    @Girl_No1 ,well said, and just to add about these three as a snapshot:

    Rachel Reeves – Known for restricting winter fuel payments, making life harder for pensioners. Honestly, it’s like she has a special vendetta against pensioners 🙄

    Keir Starmer – Believes it’s somehow “moral” to slash disability benefits for the most vulnerable disabled people in our society. It really seems like he’ll try anything irrational and immoral… Truly frightening 😰

     Liz Kendall – So obsessed with her £6 billion saving that she’d scrape the last morsel of food off disabled people’s plates. Does she even care about human/equality rights for disabled people? 🤔

    Is there any civic sense in any of these three?

  • Girl_No1
    Girl_No1 Online Community Member Posts: 190 Empowering

    Aside from all the nonsense about them doing us a favour by restoring dignity through work, a) where are all these jobs coming from, b) are they not all about utilising AI etc. to minimise jobs, and c) in the very obvious absence of said jobs, do they believe burgeoning unemployment stats. will favour them more than caring for the vulnerable?

    Also, they appear to have forgotten ESA was introduced by Labour in the first instance in order to massage their unemployment stats. that were killing them at that time.

    I'm beginning to think at least Trump (whom I loathe with every fibre of my being) was at least honest when, during his campaign, he outlined all the heinous moves he intended and is now implementing.

    The more I think about this, the more raging I become.

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Online Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 3,642 Championing

    If this consultation is also ruled illegal, the DWP still holds these files, I presume.

    Don't overshare the barriers you face in your responses because

    1. They know all this from the first reassessment programme 2011 to 2014

    2. DWP wants to develop 'personalised support' for claimants

    Think!

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Online Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 3,642 Championing
    edited March 22

    Loss of key protection is ‘nightmarish’ demonstration of green paper’s bureaucratic violence, say activists

    By John Pring on 20th March 2025 Category: Benefits and Poverty

    A tiny detail in the disability benefits green paper that suggests the government will scrap a key protection for claimants at extreme risk of harm is a “nightmarish” demonstration of the bureaucratic violence being inflicted on disabled people, say activists.

    The grassroots, user-led mental health group Recovery in the Bin (RITB) said the move was an example of “structural bureaucratic slow violence” and “the very definition of the banality of evil”.

    They spoke out after work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said she would scrap the work capability assessment (WCA) and rely on the personal independence payment (PIP) assessment process to decide if out-of-work disabled people are entitled to extra support on top of their basic universal credit allowance.

    But scrapping the WCA, which is not likely to happen until 2028, would also mean the end of the “substantial risk” regulations that have protected countless disabled people at risk of suicide and other harm if found fit for work or work-related activity.

    The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – and the Department of Social Security before it – has been trying to get rid of the regulations for nearly 30 years, but has twice been defeated by the courts.

    But it did manage to weaken the regulations in December 2015, a move which led to far fewer people with mental distress being able to rely on their protection.

    😶

  • Zipz
    Zipz Online Community Member Posts: 1,873 Pioneering

    I think we are all distressed by the changes to PIP but it's not acceptable to attack fellow claimants.

    How do you know that PIP is an "income choice" for many claimants? I'd much rather have enjoyed a healthy life.

    PIP is not a "top up". It enables somes claimants to work. It's non means-tested status is essential and must remain.

    Every PIP claimant is assessed, some on paper if they can provide adequate evidence.

    I doubt that "half the City of Birmingham" receives PIP. Do you have the data.

    To suggest that "a good proportion" of PIP claimants are claiming without real clinical need is not a "rant" it's propaganda equal to the the foul right-wing gutter press.

This discussion has been closed.