Green Paper Related Discussions

I have fibromyagia and c.f.s

I have lived with it for 15 years along with a multitude of other health issues.

My symptoms are very similar to yours.

I have been medically diagnosed by specialist consultants so if it comes down to us being required to have a formal diagnosis I do have that evidence.

I hope you manage to have a reasonably good day but I know you will always be in pain and fatigue like I am.

Take care. X

Hi Catherine,

I know but it’s the assessors, all down to luck .
Try and find time to relax Catherine, this isn’t good for our MH. Watch a good horror to take your mind off things . I get to the stage where I can’t think about it for a while so I can recharge x

If these reforms go through I hope at least the severe criteria applies to us and everyone will conditions that won’t improve . They could save money by stopping these reassessments. I was discussing this Friday and yesterday with Chiaried who explained what they think about it . If you’re up to it check out the conversation to see what you think .

I’m looking forward to that one

Honestly I don’t understand all this nonsense the governments , Tory and Labour , sprout out about making it so we need a diagnosis. Considering the amount of medical evidence we all have and how hard we fight for pip I can’t see how anyone could possibly get pip without a diagnosis. Just another media and government lie

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14835223/Labour-rebels-Left-wing-socialist-party-welfare-cuts.html

Sir Keir Starmer faces the threat of a new left-wing 'real socialist' party amid mounting anger from Labour backbenchers over controversial welfare cuts.

The Mail on Sunday has learnt that disaffected Labour backbenchers are already being approached to consider joining a new 'radical Left' political movement.

Sources said that to inflict maximum damage on Sir Keir, the proposed new party – master-minded by supporters of ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - could be launched during Labour's national conference this Autumn.

The plans emerged amid forecasts that so angry are Labour backbenchers at their Government's plan to slash disability benefits, that scores of MPs could refuse to back it at next month's crucial Commons vote.

Talk of the new party also comes just days after Mr Corbyn – who now sits as an Independent MP – said he was 'determined there will be, in short time, a strong alternative democratic socialist, left-wing voice that brings people together'.

However, it is understood that Mr Corbyn himself may not himself lead the new party, with sources suggesting that role should go to a younger figure such as Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana, currently suspended from the Parliamentary part for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

The spectre of a break-away left-wing movement comes with Sir Keir potentially facing the biggest rebellion of his premiership so far over plans which could mean cutting personal independence payments (PIP), the main disability payment in England and Wales, for about 800,000 people.

So worried is Sir Keir that Labour whips have reportedly threatened that anyone who simply abstained would never get a ministerial job while MPs voting against would lose the Party whip.

Last night, one senior Labour MP said those reports were 'rubbish' and cautioned that if the revolt was huge, it would not be possible to suspend '100 or so MPs'.

Even moderate backbenchers have privately vented their anger at the cuts while Left-winger Andy McDonald has branded the proposals 'a huge attack on the incomes of disabled people'.

However, the Daily Mail highlighted last week how spending on sickness benefits was on course to rocket by £18 billion a year to reach £70 billion by the next general election if nothing was done to trim the bill.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has warned that the country's benefits system faced collapse if costs continued to escalate.

Long-mooted plans for the new party are understood to have accelerated in the last few weeks amid mounting anger among Labour backbenchers over government policy, including the now-abandoned decision to scrap Winter Fuel payments for many pensioners and the proposed disability benefit cuts.

And last weekend, Mr Corbyn, already part of a five-strong 'Independent Alliance' group at Westminster, appeared to acknowledge that people's frustration that 'we didn't found a new political party' would soon be answered.

Sources close to the ex-Labour leader also told this newspaper that there were now 'very, very active discussions' about setting up the new movement.

However, they dismissed reports that the party would be called 'Arise' after a former Corbyn aide registered such a party with the Electoral Commission just over a week ago.

Last night, Starmer allies played down any threat from such a new party, suggesting 'a couple of ' current Labour MPs were more likely to defect to the Greens than join a Corbynsta-style group.

But one longstanding Labour MP said: 'It's all very well for Starmer's acolytes to dismiss the threat of a proper socialist party but the PM is playing with fire.

'After the winter fuel fiasco and now this attack on disability benefits, he's leaving a vacuum on the Left of British politics and someone's going to fill it.' 

Mr Corbyn was originally suspended from Labour in 2020 after claiming the scale of antisemitism in the party had been overstated and later expelled for standing as an Independent against an official Labour candidate.

I read elsewhere that the rebels said let Starmer take away the whip and we’ll just start another party . I really think if he continues he could finish Labour off for good

Labour’s cruel severe conditions criteria

 Published: 22 June 2025

labour’s cruel “severe conditions criteria” (SCC) plan is not designed to protect seriously ill claimants as the government claims, it is intended to save money at their expense.  Because tens of thousands of claimants too ill to ever work again will be forced to live for years on half the additional payment that current claimants receive.

The SCC are part of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill and are intended to be a concession to Labour MPs concerned about the effect of the cuts on disabled claimants.

From April 2026, new claimants who meet the SCC will not have to face future reassessments for health element of universal credit, though they will still be reassessed for personal independence payment (PIP).

At the same time, Labour is almost halving the limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA) element payable to new claimants, but claimants with LCWRA who also meet the SCC will get the full amount.

The SCC qualifying conditions

The current qualifying conditions for LCWRA require one of a number of descriptors to apply to the claimant “for the majority of the time”.  For example: 

• Cannot pick up and move a 0.5 litre carton full of liquid.
• Cannot press a button(such as a telephone keypad) with either hand or; cannot turn the pages of a book with either hand.
• Cannot cope with any change, due to cognitive impairment or mental disorder, to the extent that day-to-day life cannot be managed.

The severe conditions criteria require claimants to meet the same criteria “constantly”.

Constantly is defined in the Bill as “at all times” or “on all occasions on which the claimant undertakes or attempts to undertake the activity”.

However, many degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy follow a slow path of decreasing ability, with periods of remission.  So, most days you may be unable to turn the pages of a book, but you may have occasional good days when you can do so.

Or your manual dexterity may be better first thing in the morning but get rapidly worse as fatigue sets in.

At the moment, a claimant in these circumstances would get the full LCWRA amount, which from April 2026 will be £423.27 a month, because they meet the descriptor for the majority of the time.

However from April 2026, new LCWRA claimants in the same position will only get around half this amount, £217.26, because they do not meet the descriptor constantly.

But the same claimant will never improve, their condition will only get worse.  So, if they are already unable to work because of a degenerative disease, they will never be able to work again in the future. 

Under Labour’s new rules, however, they will have to exist on half the LCWRA element, possibly for years after there is no chance of their ever being able to work again, until they can show that they are constantly unable to carry out an activity, rather than just for the majority of the time.

So, far from guaranteeing  that people who will never work again are supported, the SCC guarantees that they will live  on a severely reduced income for years, until their degenerative disease enters its most debilitating stage.

For some conditions, including some severe mental illnesses, there may never be a time when the claimant is certain not to have periods of remission, so they may never get the full LCWRA award.

How long will protection last?

The SCC are claimed to protect claimants from ever being assessed again. But, as noted above, people who meet the SCC can still be reassessed for PIP.

From 2028, Labour are planning to abolish the work capability assessment (WCA) and make receipt of PIP daily living the gateway for the UC health element.  But they have repeatedly failed to explain what will happen to someone who meets the SCC if they lose their PIP daily living award on review.

Will they still be able to claim UC health even though they no longer meet the basic qualifying conditions?  If not, then the SCC guarantee may only last a few years, rather than a lifetime as Labour claims.

Peace of mind

In unveiling the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, Liz Kendall claimed that it “represents a new social contract and marks the moment we take the road of compassion, opportunity and dignity.  This will give people peace of mind, while also fixing our broken social security system so it supports those who can work to do so while protecting those who cannot. . .”

In reality, the Bill simply seeks every opportunity to take more money from disabled claimants, whilst telling them it really is in their own best interests.

40 against is nowhere near enough I think it has to be near 200. Which isn't going to happen because the mps who plan to vote against it are bring threatened and bullied. 😓

I read somewhere we need between 83 and a 100 , I guess depending on how many from other parties vote against. Tory’s have said they’ll vote against as will independents apart from reform