Changes to PIP and a full review

I thought those of you who claim or have attempted to claim PIP might want to know that the government has lost a court appeal about PIP. It doesn't mean you will get it if you didn't or that you will get more if you already get some PIP but it does mean a full review with more weighting to mental health issues.

www.bbc.co.uk/.../uk-42862904

Parents
  • The assessors base pip mainly on purely on pyhsical disability and the extreme scales of those types of problems with no regard to mental health at all. This is a good thing they are being held accountable. Pip is for support needs and plenty of people with mental health conditions use things like pip and ESA to pay for support workers or assisted living housing as no help is free in this country anymore. 

  • Yes, exactly.  I'm lucky enough to have a specialist autism service provider very accessible to me.  From my contact with them, they seem very well set up and have good people, but anything beyond simple signposting advice requires payment for the services.  Some of this could possibly come from the local authority, but they have no dedicated autism staff, so I'm at the mercy of whether the learning difficulties section will help me; my diagnosis specifically says "without intellectual impairment".  Even if I got that funding, I would still have to pay a service user contribution, which I cannot possibly afford from my ESA.  From what I see, my situation isn't unusual for autistic adults, so PIP is going to be essential for a significant number of people who might benefit from those services, and to the future of the organisation itself.

  • My local council has an autism support team and would offer an assessment to work out your income and what they can do. But they make it clear that whatever the outcome and whatever the scale of your needs are you will have to fund it your self and like you were saying putting people with conditions like ours and other neurological/mental health difficulties on the lower rate of things like esa/pip is detrimental and unnaceptable as that money is specifically for people than want to remain independent but need help from outside sources such as support workers and mental health services. I got turned down for pip and not currently in reciept of any benefits but if the tribunal when i go to the court and make my appeal decides to allow me even the lower rate i will take that as a blessing as i will be using that to fund a support worker that will be able to help me be more independent and get me out more. The system looks down upon anyome that is deemed with having a disability be it mental or physical as we are seen as a waste of government resources and that is the truth. But we didn't ask to be born with difficulties and they should be there to help. It kind of reminds of how doctors and nurses view older people and how they treat them in hospitals and care homes like they are the burden. The reality and the stark truth is they have a vision and the sick/ needy are not in that vision. You only have to see the rise in homelessness and rise in child suicide statistics to figure that out. We are moving back in time rather than forward and it will be such hard years to come.

  • Their will always be distraction and agenda greater than that of the real problems going on in the world no matter what they be and what country you are in. The most vulnerable in society are never going to be looked after by the governments and will not get what they are fully entitled to which is the basic right to fulfill a healthy long life. People are so easily distracted by the media like the youth for example what is going on in a reality show or what celebrities are having kids. They manipulate and brainwash the youth to keep them in line with their plans I could go on for 10 paragraphs but bottom line is we mean nothing to those in control. And I am not being negative or pessimistic in any way it is the truth and a lot of people are happy to live in a bubble but I'm a realist. 

  • Sadly, I think that your opinion of the problem is spot on.  From these recent rulings, and the high success rate of PIP appeals, it seems that the judiciary are slightly more on our side than the government - but even when an appeal is won, the DWP is not censured in any way, so they are always free to put more people through the same wringer.  There have been several reports by disability organisations pointing out the rise in suicides due to the desperation that people feel when their difficulties are not taken seriously by the benefits system, exactly as was predicted when the change to PIP was first proposed.  It's hard to see any other way to read this than that we are considered second-class citizens.

    My only hope is that with PIP, the government have cast their net too wide - to the point where nearly everybody, no matter their political allegiance, knows someone personally who is badly affected by the recent changes.  Having it become an issue which people consider when casting their votes is probably our best hope of anything much changing for the better.  However, given what masters of distraction the political elite and the media can be, and how polarised politics has become, I think it's a pretty slim hope at the moment.

Reply
  • Sadly, I think that your opinion of the problem is spot on.  From these recent rulings, and the high success rate of PIP appeals, it seems that the judiciary are slightly more on our side than the government - but even when an appeal is won, the DWP is not censured in any way, so they are always free to put more people through the same wringer.  There have been several reports by disability organisations pointing out the rise in suicides due to the desperation that people feel when their difficulties are not taken seriously by the benefits system, exactly as was predicted when the change to PIP was first proposed.  It's hard to see any other way to read this than that we are considered second-class citizens.

    My only hope is that with PIP, the government have cast their net too wide - to the point where nearly everybody, no matter their political allegiance, knows someone personally who is badly affected by the recent changes.  Having it become an issue which people consider when casting their votes is probably our best hope of anything much changing for the better.  However, given what masters of distraction the political elite and the media can be, and how polarised politics has become, I think it's a pretty slim hope at the moment.

Children
  • Their will always be distraction and agenda greater than that of the real problems going on in the world no matter what they be and what country you are in. The most vulnerable in society are never going to be looked after by the governments and will not get what they are fully entitled to which is the basic right to fulfill a healthy long life. People are so easily distracted by the media like the youth for example what is going on in a reality show or what celebrities are having kids. They manipulate and brainwash the youth to keep them in line with their plans I could go on for 10 paragraphs but bottom line is we mean nothing to those in control. And I am not being negative or pessimistic in any way it is the truth and a lot of people are happy to live in a bubble but I'm a realist.