Spring Statement Discussion (link to documents here)

On UC LCWRA after migration from Income Based ESA Support Group my question is this,from what I am reading it appears that focus will be engage on a regular basis with jobcentre rather than WCA...hopefully...if this is true then we get to 2028/9. Providing we all get there without WCA what then? We are existing claimants so are we simply renamed UC Health chucked off or made to do the pip WCA

That's exactly what this government want.

👏👏 Well said. The clue is in the title Personal "Independence" Payment.

I have a carer but still don't score four on any descriptors

I have pointed out time and time again that the previous government has gone on about their wish for people to live independently.

How devious therefore is this proposed reform. Encourage people to remain living independently…. then take away the means for them to do so.

The current "Government" (Reeves/Kendall) absolutely has a separate agenda here.

In comparison to other rich nations the UK is particularly weird in its prejudice against sickness and disability claimants, almost certainly as a direct result of decades of right-wing newspaper propaganda.

These does seem utter disgust with this looking around the media and social media threads.

100%

So starmer dressed in his high viz jacket looking like a plonker. Saying disabled people are only slightly fearful about the cuts. Is for real ,! Going on about putting money for support

There is a very, very disturbing article in the Guardian about what is going on in the US. I am not going to link it here because it contains some very upsetting content, but in context with that we are actually better off here right now. Although I have been saying for a long time that the disparity of attitude with regard to equality, diversity etc and disability is going to wind up with more disabled people being hurt.

For example, the BBC's website hides disability away behind several clicks. It is less important than what was on Strictly or some other TV show. It is currently less important than Pep Guardiola saying Manchester City don't deserve prize money from something they haven't even competed in yet, let alone won. This is where disabled people are in the public awareness hierarchy.

The article posted from DNS earlier about that poor guy in Barnet (?) is nowhere on national news. The subject of the cuts has been shoved aside (and while I agree the earthquake etc is worthy of proper news coverage, are all news stories as existentially important as coverage of what is actually happening to disabled people?)

Getting and keeping disability related stories in the media is hard, because most folk aren't interested. They're apathetic until it concerns them.

I used to post sometimes on an autism forum and the number of parents who would suddenly rock up all indignant that there was no service or support available and that they were dealing with discrimination and barriers…then as you go on they acknowledge they never even thought about it before their child was diagnosed. The lack of awareness that disability can hit anyone at any point of life is pivotal to this disinterest. :/

With regard to how points are awarded, my MR was dismissed because one of my disability support officers at university called me academically gifted. There were several further paragraphs on that same document detailing the support I had at university through her and another autism mentor from the NAS, but the MR guy stopped at 'academically gifted' and basically said that ruled out any need for support because I didn't have a learning disability.

For my tribunal I wrote a footnoted, referenced statement, cited and quoted with all the errors, inaccuracies, inconsistencies between different versions of the DWP's case for rejection, and I cited this individual (whose name I have not forgotten even after eight years), asking whether if I used a wheelchair, or needed a guide dog, the MR would have decided I didn't need them because I was capable of study? I was never going to claim PIP on false grounds, I wanted them to know I was academically capable, intelligent and STILL AUTISTIC, and no matter how many essays I wrote, it wasn't going to heal my executive dysfunction issues. The strategy worked, but the ignorance still grates at me. It was only too clear that I was put through an appeal because the DWP think autism is a learning disability, when of course it isn't.

The false numbers are another aspect. The numbers that really irk me the most are the ones that say "PIP will rise to x in x year", based on what grounds? What do they think is going to happen to double disability claim cases? Most of those people aren't born yet? Some of the people will no longer be there to claim in the future, whether through age, or, sadly, through the health conditions they require the support for. This isn't calculating inflation, it's calculating disability. WHY would we assume disability benefits would double again in the future? Even given potential inflation, it doesn't make sense. The only reason I can see (unless the figures are just meant to scaremonger) is that the government have no intention of improving living conditions and in fact expect them to get worse, forcing more people into poverty, creating barriers to treatment and ultimately causing a disability crisis far worse than even COVID managed to spark.

Papers keep reporting these figures without questioning why or how they came about. I want to know those things. Why do they think we will be more disabled in the future?

hmmm…. doesn't need a high viz jacket to look a plonker perhaps???

😂😂😂😂

Thank you sooo much for that. Made me laugh so much - I'm crying with laughing. x

Basically, the Labour Party ("Government") is condemning us, but we still retain our sense of humour.