Green Paper Discussion - includes accessible formats and consultation event sign up links!
Comments
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I agree, confusing. She seems ok as a person, I know some find her a little dominating. I was very muddled to be honest by her comments, I think she has maybe added to the confusion. Personally, I wont be watching again as she didn't answer in her video any of the questions folk were asking about the 4 point rule and PIP. She stated her video was meant to give clarity however, she didn't actually answer that question and instead she talked about the April 7th Spring statement - NEW PIP CRITERIA for Disability Reform paper.
Oh and you only need 4 points in any one descriptor in the daily living section of PIP then the rest can be made up of points from the other descriptors to get you the 8 points needed for a standard award. I cant see anywhere where you need 12 points so 4+8 to get an award for PIP unless anyone else knows different.
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You’re doing so well, Great efforts @Catherine21!
Don’t worry if we don’t get a reply. We will have evidence to show when the time comes how they’ve been blocking doors when we’ve tried to approach. We have the upper hand!
Pls Go take a look at the Scope’s MP thread – there are some empowering outcomes we’ve achieved by supporting each other and spreading the campaign to oppose the government’s discriminatory proposal. @jul1aorways has also shared a powerful MP template and a new petition on the official parliamentary petition page. It’s worth spending some time on that thread too, and there are a significant number of signatures in our Scope campaigns –heading towards 100,000 👏👏Stay motivated, and let’s continue supporting and empowering each other through this!✌️
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Great tips @mrsBB!
I agree…..We have to try anything and everything at our disposal to turn this around. The time between now and June is so crucial – as someone in our thread stated, we need to flood the consultation mailbox, the MP mailbox, and sign every campaign petition and open letter.
Please also keep an eye on Scope’s main official threads(MP), as there are several campaigns, petitions, and MP letter templates floating around. I mentioned this in my post to our member @catherine12 too.
Best wishes!✌️0 -
I’ve watched her too and commented on scope . I asked scope to clarify what she said as it’s completely different to what I’ve heard previously. No one from scope responded disappointingly . I found her totally confusing and she’s also put up posts about claimants having money stopped suddenly then said it must be a dwp TP mistake, so scare mongering imo. At first I thought it was just me who didn’t understand but they were ppl in the comments asking the same as me .
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I watched her live too and she claimed ppl are already having money stopped suddenly, then said it was probably due to TP not being applied . Then she said the 4 points were for lcwra/ health element and 4 points for pip . I thought you got health element automatically if you get pip . That’s the point of one assessment. Then she said she thinks we’ll all be assessed for lcwra before it’s scrapped which doesn’t make sense as they won’t have staff for us all , that’s why we have a pip backlog . She did mention joining her community for case help though so I wonder if she charges ?
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Thanks for sharing @YogiBear
Here’s my opinion on the interview between Stephen Timms (Minister of State for Social Security and Disability) and Emma, the host of the BBC’s weekly disability and mental health podcast.
Stephen Timms’ interview disappointingly echoes the same scripted rhetoric we’ve been hearing from Starmer, Reeves, and Kendall over recent months - a technocratic narrative dressed up as consultation, with no real intention of addressing the lived reality of disabled people.
His reassurance that the Pathways to Work green paper opens up “consultation” falls flat when key decisions -including the tightening of PIP eligibility, the halving of the Universal Credit health top-up, and age-based exclusions -were already heavily trailed in the press before any accessible consultation documents were even available. The truth is: the most impactful and controversial proposals were pre-determined, making the so-called “consultation” little more than political theatre , merely a tick box exercise . This raises a fundamental question: How can a consultation be genuine when the core outcomes appear locked in before disabled people could even meaningfully engage?
Nowhere in the interview was there a satisfactory answer to:• Why no full Equality Impact Assessment and Analysis (EIA) was conducted prior to proposing cuts that could **** benefits from hundreds of thousands of disabled people.
• Why the impact on carers, families, and children was ignored in both rhetoric and planning.
Timms tries to justify the cuts by saying they are necessary to make PIP “sustainable.” But this framing is misleading. The rise in PIP costs reflects rising need -more people are disabled or chronically ill, especially post-pandemic, amid collapsing NHS services, long waiting lists, and deepening health inequalities. You don’t “solve” the problem by cutting support to those who need it most - that’s not fiscal responsibility, it’s social abandonment.
-DWP’s own impact assessment predicted that 250,000 people could be pushed into poverty under these reforms. That figure was barely acknowledged, let alone defended with compassion or seriousness. In Timms answer,the claim that this will be offset by “employment support” is disingenuous at best. We’ve heard versions of this for 25 years - from New Deals to Work Programme to Access to Work -yet all consistently failed to bridge the structural barriers disabled people face in employment, especially in a labour market now even more precarious, inflexible, and hostile to those with fluctuating or hidden disabilities.
-To offer “employment support” while withdrawing financial lifelines for people with long-term conditions and disabilities is not support - it’s pure coercion. It is moralising poverty, punishing those of us whose disabilities aren’t easily boxed into what this government deems “workable.”
-Timms failure to answer Emma’s question about young people under 22 being denied the health top-up of Universal Credit was particularly revealing. His response was slippery: citing “scarring effects” of worklessness while ignoring the obvious truth — disabled people don’t choose to be disabled, and cutting support will not miraculously cure them. It will, however, push young disabled people into deeper poverty, social isolation, and mental health crises.
And to top it all off, he falls back on the Treasury line - that the cost of PIP has “doubled” in five years. But this ignores:• The explosion of unmet health needs due to NHS underfunding;
• The growing burden of long-term conditions like Long COVId and the closure of Long COVID NHS services
• And the widening disability employment gap, which makes economic independence structurally impossible for many.
There’s a glaring absence of nuance in how “inactivity” is being weaponised here -as if being out of work is purely a choice or the result of a broken benefit system, rather than the cumulative outcome of societal failure, austerity-driven public health collapse, and ableist workplace practices.
To claim this is a Labour government “putting disabled people’s voices at the heart” is, frankly, insulting. Real inclusion would have meant co-designing policy, not inviting us to comment after the fact. It would have meant conducting independent evaluations, not pushing ideology under the banner of reform with the sole intent of cutting costs from the welfare budget.
Ultimately, this interview confirmed what many of us feared: this is not a plan to empower disabled people it’s a cost-saving exercise wrapped in a progressive disguise. It is austerity with better PR. And the consequences, unless challenged, will be devastating for hundreds of thousands of lives.
Let’s continue building on the excellent progress we’ve made-supporting and empowering each other within SCOPE and in our wider lives to stand firm against these devastating cuts. Our collective voice matters. By actively responding to the consultation,backing likeminded petitions, campaigns, and open letters, we can shape the narrative and demand the dignity and justice every disabled person deserves. Let’s not be disheartened;
solidarity is our strength.5 -
Thank you I have been looking on there I'll keep looking .
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I was disgusted with the interview to be honest. Felt so disheartened by it. Timms, Reeves, Starmer, Kendall are sticking to their script and it seems they're not backing down.
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MP's ask Keir Starmer about disability benefit cuts.
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Nothing on the work and benefits site unless i pay and i don't have spare cash right now its all going on bills .
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I took a screenshot of Jeremy Corbin letter to Rachel reeves , it came on my Facebook feed
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Government figures put the cost of pensions and benefits to pensioners in 2024-25 as £165.9bn.
This is for people considered OAP's. You know unless something major happens there is no way they wont argue this figure is not sustainable. As for Timms another one who deserves an Oscar, for years he went on and on about the Tories treating disabled people like dirt.
yet here we are. I notice a lot of groups are thinking about withdrawing from the talks
owing to the fact not much looks like they want to change.
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I agree, @YogiBear. What I truly cannot understand is how a government can ignore the cries and concerns of its own citizens-and I mean all citizens, not just vulnerable and disabled communities, as the majority of the nation is against these proposals. If I were the leader of a nation and had proposed a green paper, seeing all these concerns and the potential impacts, I would have immediately withdrawn it and made an announcement to offer reassurance.
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What an impactful letter! Jeremy Corbyn is a highly respected MP and an incredible advocate for the rights of disabled people. He never hesitates to challenge the government when it comes to violations of vulnerable people’s fundamental rights. A great example!
Is he your MP, @Andi660 -
I read behind closed doors she was against it, but have seen multiple clips of her backing the changes publicly. Sadly people can change once they go up the ladder.
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No, unfortunately not, The letter appeared on my Facebook feed. My labour mp dosent bother to any emails.
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I will sign but of course they already are lying claiming those who cant work will be protected.
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If she is saying this and I have no reason to think otherwise, the media really need to fact check her on it, as she isnt qualified to claim this stuff.
In her local area she has gone out of her way to ignore constituents who will be affected by this, and when have we ever seen anything showing her meet up with claimants, instead she visits job centres to talk to DWP staff, and goes on tours with Reeves and Keir.
She also doesnt need to impose poverty to help people in to work, How the DWP has got away with calling poverty as support for so long I dont know.1 -
I suggest not using youtube as a source, I think there is a fair few videos on there not understanding whats going on, maybe thats why so many on here are confused.
The 4 points change is nothing to do with the WCA, it affects PIP daily living assessment and after Nov 2026, not right now.
Eventually when the WCA is scrapped PIP daily living will be used as one of two pathways to qualify for the health top up on UC, but thats nothing to do with LCWRA, as by then LCWRA will no longer exist.
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Three firms of solicitors working with disabled people on possible benefit cuts legal cases
By John Pring on 10th April 2025Category: Benefits and Poverty
At least three legal firms are examining ways in which they could support disabled people and their organisations to challenge some of the government’s proposed cuts to disability benefits in the courts.
Public Law Project (PLP), Leigh Day and Bhatt Murphy – all of which have previously supported disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) to challenge the government – are examining the possibility of taking legal action.
The discussions follow last month’s Pathways to Work green paper, and the subsequent spring statement, which have proposed billions of cuts to disabled people’s support, particularly through £4.5 billion a year cuts to personal independence payment, and billions more from disabled people’s out-of-work benefits.
Some of these measures will now be consulted on, including plans to delay access to the health element of universal credit until a claimant has reached the age of 22, deciding which disabled people should be exempt from universal credit work-related requirements, and delaying the move from disability living allowance to PIP until the age of 18 (from 16 at present).
But other measures, including the £4.5 billion cuts to PIP, and cuts to the health element of universal credit, will not be consulted on – which will make it harder to challenge them in the courts – and will instead be included in a bill to be debated in parliament in the coming weeks.
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) has been in discussions with PLP, the legal firm which acted for disabled activist and author Ellen Clifford in a groundbreaking high court victory that saw the last Conservative government’s consultation on plans to make “substantial” cuts to out-of-work disability benefits declared unlawful.
Linda Burnip, DPAC’s co-founder, said she was “certain” that there will be a legal challenge to the consultation, “given how dire the green paper’s layout is and the fact that accessible formats have only just become available”.
But she said there could also be a human rights challenge to any legislation that is taken through parliament, which could put pressure on the government to amend it.
Georgia Bondy, DPO Forum England’s secretariat – which is funded by Disability Rights UK – said the forum was “exploring a legal challenge to stop the incredibly harmful legislation proposed in the green paper.
“Labour failed to meaningfully engage with disabled people when putting together the green paper, despite the DPO forum’s continual attempts to facilitate co-production, starting from before they were elected.
“They continue to fail to engage meaningfully with disabled people, given that half the points in the proposed legislation are not part of the consultation.
“In no way does this represent Labour’s own commitment to ‘championing the rights of disabled people and to the principle of working with them, so that their views and voices will be at the heart of all we do’.
“Prior to the publication of the green paper, the DPO forum made it clear to the disability minister that no cuts to disability benefits would be in line with supporting disabled people to have a minimum quality of life. This has been ignored.
“We will fight the proposed cuts every way we can.”
Leigh Day solicitor Carolin Ott said: “We have been approached by both affected people and organisations that support affected individuals and… they have all expressed serious concerns.
“They are very concerned by the scale and depth of the cuts proposed, particularly the changes to PIP which will inevitably impact the most vulnerable in society.
“We will be looking very carefully as the details are unveiled and considering whether legal action can be pursued.”
Jessie Brennan, from Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, said: “We are exploring all available legal avenues, having been approached about a number of significant concerns arising from the changes announced by the government that have left many feeling scared and anxious at the impact these cuts will have.”
And Aoife O’Reilly, from PLP, said: “We are disappointed that the government has opted not to consult on key welfare benefit cuts set out in the green paper.
“The government says that many of these proposals will be implemented via primary legislation.
“Parliamentarians must therefore ensure that they properly scrutinise the details of any draft bill, and we consider that MPs would be in a much better position to do this if they had the benefit of the output of a comprehensive consultation process, which sought views of those Deaf and disabled people who will be directly impacted.
“We also call on the government to be transparent about the labour market impacts, given that its stated motive for many of these reforms is the fact that it will lead to more people entering the labour market and not being reliant on benefits.”
The 12-week consultation on the green paper was officially launched this week, after DWP finally published accessible versions of the document, in British Sign Language, large print, audio, and easy read, as well as Welsh and large print Welsh versions.
Accessible versions of the green paper’s equality analysis and impact assessment have yet to be published.
Physical copies of the consultation can be ordered, including in braille, large print, audio and easy read.
The consultation applies to England, Scotland and Wales, although not all the proposals apply to Scotland and Wales.
DWP has also announced the dates and locations for nine in-person consultation events across England, Scotland and Wales in April, May and June, and six virtual events in May and June.
Meanwhile, the government has published a call for evidence of pay discrimination on the basis of race and disability, enforcement of the public sector equality duty, and other areas of equality policy, ahead of the publication of its draft equality (race and disability) bill.
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/three-firms-of-solicitors-working-with-disabled-people-on-possible-benefit-cuts-legal-cases/
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