Green Paper Discussion (from 24th March, 2025)
Comments
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not at all as Debbie is one of the few good ones and it's a cross party board
Completely wrong! She's even more insincere than Stephen Timms, the man she replaced.
Was a healthcare professional herself before Work and Pensions. No, not a good one!
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The problem is that, when you start reiterating and validating the idea that 'some people are cheating', you are actually causing harm to disabled people, especially those whose disabilities are less easy to codify in the current system.
The DWP's official stats for fraud in PIP are negligible (0%) and ESA are very low as well. The DWP are not friends to disabled people, and many, many claimants have struggled to prove their claims, gone through tribunals, had issues with assessments and reports…this forum is full of those testimonials. This is good evidence that the DWP is not letting people claim disability benefits or related benefits easily. If even the DWP - who want to monitor our banks for fraud - think there isn't much or even any going on, then it probably isn't.
When disabled people start questioning other disabled people, that's when we lose this fight. It ultimately comes down to - "I know I'm disabled, but I don't know you are, so maybe you're not". Or worse, "My disability affects me like this, but yours affects you differently, so maybe you're not really disabled." These are all ideas floating around at the moment, in the media, on social media, and in comments sections on threads and stories.
This is not a rhetoric we should jump on board with.
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These changes to LCW and LCWRA were planned way back in 2011. The last two welfare reform Acts need to be revisited and understood - the WRA 2012 and the changes to substantial risk rules in 2016.
Those were cross-party agreements! It's a stitch up.
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Good points. I'm not validating it. I am saying some people know how to navigate the point scoring WCA and others don't. It is unfair like that.
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Labour said no more pocket money. These people don't live in the real word most of the little money they give goes to energy bills and council and VAT on goods. They have no idea. They make me laugh, they have no idea at all.
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Our money goes back into the economy while they get pay rise, claim concert tickets and other things while they themselves never pay for it.
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I think it's incredibly naive to believe absolutely no-one is able to cheat the system to obtain disability benefits.
Does anyone else remember the old advert from the 1970s/80s? Tagline: Behind every scheme, there's a schemer ….
That's what I believe, it's in some humans' nature to cheat. Look to tax avoidance, infidelity, draft-dodging in times of war etc. as proof of that.
Does that mean there is wide-spread, systemic abuse of the system as promoted by the right-wing media? I tend to think not.
As mentioned upthread, if you "know" someone is cheating the system, report them. However, the only way you can possibly "know" they are cheating is via access to their application form, their assessment interview, and their life behind closed doors.
If you don't have access to all of those, then you "know" nothing really, don't you?
Cynicism, suspicion, jealousy and bullying are, sadly, also elements of human nature.
It's depressing to see those traits openly aired on a forum such as this. A forum where the majority of contributors are the very ones who are likely to be on the receiving end of such unattractive traits/behaviour from others.
Orwell was right.
Some on this forum appear to be going down the route of some disabilities being more equal than others.
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Thank you! I was exactly going to ask that.
They're worried about rise every year, when the vast majority of people on LCWRA are worried sick, as they would be prone to lose it altogether.
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"The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that 1.8 million people claiming Universal Credit have now been categorised under the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) group."
If we add those on LCWRA who are still on ESA, the figure would be bigger than that.
The worst is that all these people are prone to lose their LCWRA all of a sudden once the damn 4 point assessment system gets in place!
People are only worried about PIP, but people who are only on LCWRA/Support Group would be hit the hardest.0 -
Ed Miliband was leading the opposition 2010-2015
Corbyn 2015-2020
Those changes agreed before Corbyn’s time?
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"
"some disabilities being more equal than others"
This is how the government is framing it…😟
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yeah of course , but he's out all day so maybe he's getting better .
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That reads as your only concerned about your own circumstances.
Think of someone living alone who is going to lose 2/3 of their income, with no ability to work and no one to fall back on for support.Since the first day I claimed incapacity benefit, after my health problem came out of nowhere in a split second without warning, this is by far the most severe reform I have witnessed on the benefit system, in one part because its targeting sickness and disability benefits at the same time. But also in another part it has wide sweeping eligibility changes (remember there is also more planned after the 4 point change), and that sickness will no longer be recognised at all for the first time in several decades. The country on a social level is going back by a large step. I wish the UN had the balls to kick us out for breaking their own rules.
The welfare reforms in this form are also not needed at all. As a % of GDP social security spending for the working age has been stable. Its pension age spending thats growing.
Also I am not even sure you understand the green paper, there wont be a LCWRA in 2030.6 -
LBC this morning from 8-9 talking about benefit fraud
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I dont think 18 year old work coaches is the best idea of deciding eligibility. You will easily get what happens now with the wider ignorant public, making decisions based on emotions and hear say.
The existence of the WCA has merits, it can recognise and support people who have been let down by the NHS. The problem with the WCA really is the abusive way it has been implemented by successive governments in the aim of trying to use it as a tool for ideological purposes. Even with all that manipulation it has provided protection for people which has led to the government of taking the nuclear option of removing the entire sickness safety net. With proper fair meaningful descriptors along side a regulation 35, and without the attitude of we must reassess frequently it serves a purpose, but for people who have managed to get a diagnosis from the NHS that makes it clear in itself there would be challenges working the WCA could be bypassed.
PIP I expect is heading in the DLA direction where the focus will be on diagnosis instead of functional problems, I expect all aid descriptors will be removed completely eventually and for those needs it will revert to DLA style of needing a carer to qualify. When instead they needed to ease the requirements for mobility, and perhaps add a lower rate daily living for 4 points. They have gone completely in the wrong direction, because of an ignorant population and ideologically drive in the country to not properly support people, the amount of comments I find on social media where people are only thinking about themselves is unreal, and I think the catalyst for this change was brexit. Once brexit was enacted, the anti benefit and anti immigration movements sky rocketed.
It doesnt take much reading of comment sections and listening to LBC calls to realise how ignorant the population has become, every person claiming to know a dozen fraudsters, PIP cars and so on, it has become fashionable to lie about it now as if its all a game. These people remain ignorant as although they primarily complaining about mental health and PIP cars, they not realising the 4 point change is primarily targeting daily living physical conditions when someone has issues doing multiple daily tasks (typically multiple adaptation descriptors). Nothing to do with what they moaning about, yet they support it blindly. The presenters at LBC are very good at what they do, I have listened to multiple calls where they managed to get the caller admit they making it all up. That takes some doing.1 -
I have seen someone else mention it is seeded in an earlier change as well, but I would love a link to these two acts so I can read myself, because if it was in those acts then surely it would have led to changes been enacted earlier, so I would prefer to read these acts. But maybe I can skip that, If I am right you mean the planned removal of LCW/LCWRA in their entirety?
We need Greens and Lib dems to merge, for some reason they wont do it, the latest polling graph has Tories, Labour and Reform at the low 20s support, if Lib Dems and Greens merged, they would have combined 23%.0 -
watch from 02:55 till 04:05
Lies lies and more lies and no one is doing anything about it. Then they accuse Donald Trump for lying. Well these lot are on equal footing to him
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I made a FOI request to see whether the government could have frozen PIP rates - which was originally suggested as an option.
"The relevant primary legislation here is section 150 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, which places a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to review the rates of benefits and pensions each year, following a review of trends in prices and earnings over the previous year. The Social Security Administration Act 1992 requires that Personal Independence Payment (PIP) must increase by at least the growth in prices.
The relevant secondary legislation is Article 15 of the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Or-
der 2025 (S.I. 2025/295), which increases the rates from April 2025."So - NO they couldn't
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I agree with you with most things.
I don't think age matters as long as the right training is provided, and how do we know the age of current WCA staff, they could also be 18. How do you know the next batch of staff won't be outsourced to a company for cheap? Why are these unknown people determining who is disabled and who is not?
The WCA might have some merit but there are a lot of problems with it, the main being it does not cover all disabilities. Now they are going to make it harder and technically remove LCWRA.
Yes, the propaganda has been around a very long time about people conning the system and the gov having no money because of it, the gov have no problem finding the money when they need to. It is a lie, someone is probably getting rich off these reforms that is why it is happening. If they wanted to tackle fraud claims they only had to make the descriptors tougher, why are they reducing the money, it doesn't make sense. They are using the propaganda to take from the disabled that is what it is about.
They can't remove descriptors from PIP or LCWRA because what will follow will be unthinkable. We will be third world. Millions will be affected and millions more in the future. Disability is only going to rise. The only thing they can do if they do not want to invest in the wider society is fund welfare more. I think the gov is making a big mistake with current reforms, they will have to reconsider the reforms otherwise I don't think anything good will come of it.
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That annoys me the people on FB tiktok giving tips alot of people never knew about pip but I'm sure dwp see the forms copied word for word I always write my own way from my heart but that is annoying I agree
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