Spring Statement Discussion (link to documents here)

AN ADDITIONAL WARNING ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ to the one that I outlined yesterday about NOT filling in the survey the DWP are sending through the post, asking you tell them what you spend your PIP on.

THEY DO NOT HAVE A LEGAL RIGHT to this information and it's none of their business anyway. Most of all, the Government are using the information to MANIPULATE AND MINIMISE the amount of support they think we should have, for their own ends!! 😡

I filled in survey for Carer's UK after finding out about it on the Benefits and Works website. They were also asking for evidence of what you spend your PIP on AND, at the end of the survey, asked permission to allow MPs to use the contents of the survey, anonymously. I found out from the Canary (read below here👇)

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/04/17/dwp-pip-survey/

that the government are also using these surveys for the same reason 😤 Carers UK aren't be the only DPO unwittingly doing this.😒

PLEASE DON'T FORGET that the Local Elections are coming up on 1st May 2025. If it is possible for you do so I URGE YOU TO VOTE. 📢 Please don't think that Local Elections are for local issues, they can make a great deal of difference to national policy making too. ✊✊✊✊

It is vitally important as we have a chance to vote against the Labour government, with 80 MPs being in unstable swing seats where disabled people in each of their constituencies (each MPs area) can easily vote them out, as long as THEY DO turn out to vote.

Each vote in every other constituency IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THOUGH.

Whatever you do please don't doubt that YOUR VOTE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. ✊✊✊✊ PLEASE THINK COLLECTIVELY, THE MORE OF US ACT TOGETHER THE BETTER!!

For those of you who believe that none of the main political parties represent you and you would normally stay at home and not vote did you know THAT YOU CAN SPOIL YOUR BALLOT? 🤔

For the sake of keeping it simple, just write a big cross ❎ like that from edge to edge of the whole paper, right through all the candidates, like the example below. 👇👇👇👇

Please don't put a mark of ANY KIND by any individual candidate as it will be considered as a vote for them.

I know by experience, of course, just how tough it is with our health conditions to even consider going out, for many of us (including me) and we all feel so ground down by the vile government treatment of the disabled but this is something that COULD MAKE A VERY REAL DIFFERENCE TO OUR FIGHT AGAINST THESE PROPOSED SADISTIC, IMMORAL AND POSSIBLY UNLAWFUL CUTS!!

THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE HAD A POSTAL VOTE WILL HAVE SENT IT IN BY NOW BUT FOR EVERYONE ELSE.👇👇👇👇

Firstly, you must be on the ELECTORAL REGISTER, if not make sure that, when the letter comes later in the year to sign you up to it, you do so for future elections.

Please check that there is an election in your area (constituency) at the link below.👇👇👇👇

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/your-election-information

ON THE DAY PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO TAKE PHOTO ID as you will not be allowed to vote without showing it!! You don't have to have a passport or driving licence, there are many other types of ID that you may already have or can easily acquire before the day. The full list is at the link here. 👇👇 👇 👇

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id/accepted-forms-photo-id

If you have trouble with either of the links highlight the text and press OPEN on the menu that comes up beside it.

Unfortunately there isn't a Local Election in my constituency this year!! 😱😱 😱 😱 so please make a difference too for those of us who have no opportunity to vote at all at this crucial time!! 😒

On Benefits & Work News today.

No legal ‘silver bullet’ to stop PIP proposals

Benefits and Work and Inclusion London have obtained counsel’s advice on possible challenges to the Pathways To Work Green Paper proposals. 

The advice suggests that at this stage there appears to be no clear or obvious route for challenge or ‘silver bullet’ regarding the ‘flagship’ elements of the policy.  Instead, individuals and organisations should focus efforts on challenging elements of the Green Paper politically as much as possible.

Benefits and Work and Inclusion London asked solicitors Leigh Day to obtain advice from counsel about the potential legal challenges to the March 2025 welfare reform proposals.  Leigh Day appointed barrister Tom Royston of Garden Court North Chambers to undertake the work.

Both Leigh Day and Tom Royston have a great deal of experience in social security law and we are grateful to them for the very detailed advice they have provided.

The advice addressed the following proposals in the Green Paper:

(I) ‘Focussing PIP more on those with higher needs’: the proposal to require at least one 4 point descriptor to be met to qualify for PIP;

(II) ‘Scrap the WCA’: the proposal to amend the process by which ill and disabled people can claim income replacement benefit, and the amount of money they receive;

(III) ‘New unemployment insurance’: the proposal to amalgamate contributory ESA and JSA into a single time limited contributory benefit;

(IV) ‘Delaying access to the UC health element until age 22’: not paying 18-21 PIP recipients any extra means tested element in UC.

Looking in summary at the above proposals, counsel told us that substantial challenges to central aspects of the envisaged legislation would ‘be likely to fall at various places along a spectrum from ‘hopeless’ to ‘challenging’.”

In other words, given the information currently available, the chances of preventing the proposals being made law or overturning them subsequently appear to be limited.

In relation specifically to PIP, a range of issues were considered, including - but not limited to -the decision not to consult on this measure, challenges under the Human Rights Act 1998 and challenges under the Equality Act 2010.  But the probability of any challenge succeeding in relation to the PIP 4-point rule specifically was considered to be low and heavily dependent on circumstances.

Counsel did stress, however, that there may well be successful legal challenges in the future to elements of the above proposals, but these are likely to be to “contingent aspects of the proposals which emerge along the way, rather than to the elementary principles which were clear at the start.”

In other words, if the laws are enacted, then the courts may have a major role to play in examining the way they are interpreted and implemented but not in upsetting the basic foundations, such as the PIP 4-point rule. Benefits and Work will aim to support any such challenges in any way it can.

We are not able to publish the advice at present and we should add that it applies only to the four issues listed.  The Green Paper contains many more proposals that were not covered.

In addition, we did not ask for advice on whether the current Green Paper consultation is lawful, because our initial enquiries are primarily about proposals which are not being consulted on.

We know that this news will be greeted with considerable dismay by many readers, who had hoped that the courts could prevent such clearly cruel and discriminatory proposals coming into force.

Sadly, there seems unlikely to be ‘silver bullet’ or straightforward legal answer.

Instead, by far the best hope of preventing these cuts is to persuade MPs to pledge to vote against them, as evidence grows that the Labour Party is struggling to contain a rebellion.

As one Labour MP, Neil Duncan-Jordan, who won his seat with a majority of just 18 votes but who has 5,000 constituents receiving PIP, told the Guardian  “The whole policy is wrong. It goes without saying that if these benefits cuts go through, I will be toast in this seat.”

More facts about the effects of the cuts are being uncovered with each passing week. 

Making MPs, especially those with slim majorities, aware of how dramatically the cuts will affect claimant’s lives provides the best hope that they will never come to pass.

I have read this just now after receiving the B&W's Newsletter, I was putting off reading it as I had a feeling, it would basically say we are stuffed.

I know we have to keep at it and we will, but its so very disheartening that even the courts have their hands tied when these policies could be life or death for some. I am truly appalled and exhausted that we have this draconian level of thinking, acting and policies being implemented, we live in 2025 for goodness sake, and all without so much as a by your leave from anyone or anywhere.

Sorry if this is a little convoluted, I am struggling to even get my thoughts onto paper as such, hope it makes sense. Even the tone of this newsletter by B&W is so transparently downbeat, something they strive to steer clear of usually by adding uplifting sections, you can feel their anguish seeping through. If I am feeling this way just now there must be millions of others feeling it too.

I really had hoped B&W would have, given the legal help onboard, brought us just a little bit of a ''yes, the legal team have said we can do this or that'' that there might have been a silver bullet even if, a very small one. Sorry for my depressive writing here, I don't want to bring anyone down with it, I am just deeply appalled by our Government, our country and its leaders.

It's fine pushing back but greed is the contributing factor that MP's surrender to. ....

Ie , they don't want to lose their 100K salary

Please Sign and Share!! 👍

Yes it is. All I can say is that we are still doing a great job of getting the situation over to MPs and others about just how devastating these cuts will be.

Many Labour MPs are now frustrated about ministers misrepresenting these cuts to them and that they won't wait until the MPs have seen the OBRs impact assessment in October before pushing these proposals through.

I've recently read that 55 MPs are going to vote against the cuts and 100 others are considering their position. Ministers have also recently decided that they are now going to let MPs abstain from voting instead of forcing them to vote for the proposals, under fear of being suspended, as this issue is now undermining the unity of the Labour Party and therefore government.

The fact that they are in that position and so many of them realize that they are going to get voted out at the next general election (if not sooner) by us is only a good thing and hopefully it may bring about the situation where they will bring about some serious modifications.

I don't know that one myself and can't find out if it needs to be a 100 MPs or not. All I do know is that 55 MPs voting against the proposals and another 100 considering their position is a big rebellion.