Disability Benefit Cuts - Take action before July 9th.

Thank you Chiareds for posting the link to the Mayfield report.

What stuck out to me like a sore thumb was how little the report tended to touch on employee experiences. It was sympathetic to people's situations more than just assuming people didn't want to be in work, but the idea that most employers want to keep employees and support them in the workplace is highly subjective and doesn't really jive with the 50% of employers who apparently don't want them.

I remember reading a report a few years back about Disability Confident, where around 80% of organisations had not actually increased their disability employment. I wish I could find the report now (I think it was 2018, so before the pandemic, showing that this was an endemic problem even then) but it was eye-opening about how many Disability Confident employers were not actually making changes to their practices.

Mine is one that does take all that seriously - for example, they've just published a new disability strategy after consultation with disabled and neurodivergent staff groups - but although that acknowledges so many of the barriers disabled people face, and problems faced during recruitment, it still looks at employment from the perspective of interviewing and scoring candidates on points. No matter how much awareness training you have, you are never going to employ someone who can't present themselves coherently in an interview over someone who can. The playing field is never going to be level - if you make too many allowances for a disabled candidate, you discriminate against non disabled candidates, but if you are using a method that is known to discriminate against disabled candidates, then no matter how much you try and mitigate, it's still never going to be completely fair.

So how the government intend to mitigate that I don't know - if it's still a problem even in well-meaning and supportive workplaces.

As I've mentioned before, at department level I've had nothing but support from my management team. It was GETTING the job in the first place that was the barrier . And I think this is something the Mayfield report is missing - at least in any depth - because the barriers people face are so diverse.

(Meanwhile, I hope I misread a report in a paper headline yesterday in which it looked like the Chancellor referred to benefit cuts as 'low hanging fruit' - ie an easy financial target. Perhaps I just took it out of context).

well done.. as we are in no power to do anything about it.. worrying just causes health issues.. i can tell from my personal experience

Same here.

I was awarded LCWRA in 2019, I'm sure it is substantial risk. Does anyone know how likely it is that I'll be reassessed soon after April 2026?

@chiarieds I agree. Unless they get their act together, they will require three separate bills.

I think part of their gaslighting of both the general public and us (the claimants) was this idea that one assessment would benefit everyone - claimants, DWP staff, taxpayer.

They were so sold on the idea that everyone would be 'grateful' for this 'improvement' we'd simply fall in line and fail to scrutinise.

Their arrogance is backfiring spectacularly in their face.