Upcoming changes to benefits

@worried33 I don't know how to link im sorry, it was mostly management jobs, there was only 2 pages. Bottom of first page was an admin type job in Wrexham. I think it was the second page that was work coaches jobs or the work psychologist that refers to work coaches.

I'll be posting very shortly re Equality Act 2010.

Looks like the average weekly PIP rise for enhanced / enhanced over the last 8 years was £6.01

I think i should 🤐🤣

We have similar diagnoses 👍.. I'm back in St Thomas' London again in 2 weeks time.

Maybe i shouldnt go, as these cuts will miraculously make my symptoms disappear😎

They're going to have to almost rewrite PIP as part of the primary legislation process to achieve anything like they're proposing. I imagine that the Committee Stage of a future Bill, following its Second Reading will be very long with every word scrutinised and multiple amendments tabled.

you flatter me 😘

In all seriousness as other members will tell you I’ve made many a suggestion of how incapacity welfare could be reformed but some members called me out for being discriminatory in terms of fairness

I do try my best working on my empathy but my autism makes me a very black and white thinker

Autistic ppl are like sponges (not just in childhood) and I was very fortunate in the area which I grew up and the locals I got to know.

I do understand that the treasury needs to balance the books and yes the sharp rise of incapacity claimants is concerning and needs to be looked into further. (Though the gov is ignoring that a pandemic wrecked the nations health (both via new disabilities and many people first taste of mental health issues) as well as cost of living and the gov didn’t invest in more gp and mental health services to tackle that rise - the last gov are hugely responsible for this mess and this gov are ignoring the original source)

I also think the gov official definition of ‘disability’ is too open and that is causing (if all levels of mental health are classed as disability that would include 50-90% of the uk population and if everyone with a mental health issue could potentially qualify for incapacity benefits it would crash the uk economy)

If only 100k ppl were claiming highest level incapacity benefits then these reforms would not be happening because there’d be no financial need

But at the same time the gov refuses to address the major reasons why the amount of disabled have grown and aiming to cut 1m pip awards is ludicrous (1-2% of total pip claimants is more realistic and ‘fair’)

The reason I’ve set aside my own personal idealisms these past few months on ‘fairness’ is that the gov haven’t been playing fair since getting in power using media for the past 9 months selling an image of disabled that aided their future agenda pitch (which has endangered disabled in uk society as a result - sadly I got some bruises over the holiday season due to not looking disabled that made me learn the hard way) - I can’t offer fairness if I’m not being offered it back and right now this Labour gov aren’t playing by the rules so they don’t deserve my understanding

Hence why I’m currently very much team disabled rather dipping my toes between both sides

(I went off at a bit of a tangent there- sorry all)

Very true!…when you have cfs & fibro, youre stuck in that quagmire of more exercise triggers the cfs, and vis-versa.. Its a nasty nasty trap!

I was diagnosed in 2011 by a Rheumatologist, who on paper said i am(at that time) right down the middle for both illnesses.

The awful aspect of this condition is the fact that in the summer when im at my base-level of 75-80% pain..(its never gone lower in 14yrs) I'll attempt to do something in the garden, and anyone looking at me would think I'm physically able & fit; but they never see the seizing of the muscles and doms hrs after and the proceeding days., unless they see me shuffling to my bin when i can.

I'm sure you also have many debilitating co-morbid conditions that come along with these issues( though i have always been a migraineur since 13 , also c5-6 spinal stenosis-cluster headaches(oxygen tank) trigeminal/occipital neuralgia.

I'll just mention this quick: When i first applied, i'd heard so many negative views regarding fibro and me/cfs…but the sheer fact that i spent 3 weeks in St Thomas', have tried every procedure they have offered, to attempt to get better and well (its simply not worked).. plus PIP contacting the hospital and having a very lengthy chat really helped my position, as it was all based on facts and no hyperbole..Now we're facing all these benefits changes and i just dont know what more i can show them..Unless they come to live with me for a week, maybe then they can see without any doubts.

I think it is to the usual standard. CPI was only 1.7% in September which is very bad luck, as its the lowest month for the entire year, but using Sept is normal for the DWP uplifts.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/d7g7/mm23
Pensions have the triple lock which means they always get the highest of earnings growth, 2.5% or CPI, earnings was the highest at 4.1% thats why they got 4.1%.

So my £8.70 is actually too high for the 2025/2026 uprate. If I redo the maths for 1.7% it becomes, £4.94 every 4 weeks or £1.24 (rounded up 1.235p) per week.
A double enhanced award at 1.7% is an extra £12.50 per 4 weeks or £3.13 per week, so yes I think £5 is too high, I am not sure what happened in your calculations. I guess you based it on higher historical inflation and enhanced awards.

I find it interesting as apparently the people doing the random means testing UC reviews are remote workers, which is why it uses an upload system, so my first thought after learning that was to look for these jobs, but yep, they not advertised which of course is no surprise.