Proposed changes to PIP and other benefits

No idea. All feels scarily vague, and in the meantime all we get are  condescending analogies about 'stopping a child's pocket money so they understand the value of a Saturday job' from that MP who was doing the rounds all day yesterday exhibiting the empathy levels of a brick. 

This is one of their objectives in the Green Paper:

"Restoring trust and fairness in the system by fixing the broken assessment process that drives people into dependency on welfare."

I don't know how this is going to work. I had to submit pip review forms in May. I had a letter around Christmas time to say that they were giving themselves until December 2025 to reach a decision. And today I had a text saying that they are now looking at my case. This has taken 10 months. Have they got the staff to carry out more frequent reviews ? How much is it going to cost to employ more assessors ? 

Thanks for the link. Good to have a laugh at times like today. Horrifying.

Polotics just keeps going around in circles so we can keep recyeling the same jokes. https://youtu.be/BI7fudmO7FY

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj924xvzrr2o

'The government plans more frequent reassessments' - this is frustratingly broad, does it mean that someone who thought they had five years for instance now be told they have to report to some 'big doctor' six months from now instead? 

Broader context for this is that the Spring Statement was made today, I assume some of the mechanisms can now be disclosed... causing huge anxiety across the land I'm sure!

Bit confused - did today change things further? A government dude I just heard interviwed on the BBC appeared to say that everyone on PIP will be forced to go to a Doctor's appointment for reassessment... no timeline for that, but being the pessimist I am about this stuff it does make me fear that whatever time we thought we had left in our current award period might be cut short as soon as there's a summons to whoever the interview is with? Presumably it's not a GP with some capacity for empathy but rather someone more like a one-person equivalent of those humiliating tribunal panels? 

Green Papers are consultation documents produced by the Government. The aim of this document is to allow people both inside and outside Parliament to  give the department feedback on its policy or legislative proposals.

Copies of consultation documents such as Green Papers are available on the related departmental websites.



There's no set time-frame, but the changes outlined today aren't due to come online until Nov 26, 20 months from now.  

I wonder when a vote in the Commons would happen? I'm not perhaps as across average procedure/timeframe for this stuff as most would be... can a green paper go straight to a vote? 

I am wondering where these employers are that will take people to try work. 

I am also wondering how my autistic/ ADHD son will manage when he reaches employment age in less than two years. He currently needs a lot of support to manage college and won't tend to ask for help from any adults other than his parents. He often won't admit when he needs help either. I am wondering how he will manage to apply for jobs or even sign on. I am not even sure what work he would manage to do.

Well I thought it would be worse to be honest, I'm still not happy about the whole thing though, I don't qualify for PIP as I can do too much. I think the option to try working and not losing benefits if you can't manage it is a good idea in theory, but how it would work in practice will probably be another matter altogether.

I think it will still have several stages to go through before it can be put into practice.

Yes - good choice of words Shardovan: ‘brutalising and dehumanising system’ - just so. We have no choice essentially to live in the system that they’ve created. Autistic people often can’t thrive in this system - and because of this we struggle to get paid work that is not damaging to our mental health. Consequently we are often forced into a position where we have no option to claim benefits of various kinds. We have NO CHOICE but to claim SOMETHING - because the capitalist system is constantly demanding money from us: huge amounts of money for rent, food, heating etc etc - basics that we simply cannot live without. And then the Govt portrays us a lazy work- shy scroungers?! It IS brutalising and dehumanising. We have to spend hours and hours filling out forms about the most intimate and embarrassing aspects of our lives - just to be questioned on them and judged and doubted. And then often don’t get awarded PIP anyway. And now this lousy govt want to make the whole thing even harder?! It’s immoral and unethical and discriminatory. I’m so sorry everyone - none of us deserve this disgusting treatment from the Government.

Shardovan said:

Odd that they say 'Pip applies only in England and Wales' as that's definitely what it's called in NI

If you take the link placed by Bunny + search on NI you get this:

This consultation applies to England, Wales and Scotland. All the proposals apply in England. Note that the proposals in the consultation will only apply to the UK Government’s areas of responsibility in England, Wales and Scotland.

Social security and employment support are transferred in Northern Ireland, although the UK Government and the Northern Ireland Executive work closely together to maintain parity between their respective social security systems.

Odd that they say 'Pip applies only in England and Wales' as that's definitely what it's called in NI

www.bbc.co.uk/.../cwyd2p7dz3vo

Someone in the Commons session did stand up and ask on Scotland's behalf about this, but it was framed in terms of 'will there be consultation/advice...?' which to me implied acknowledgement of near-inevitable alignment, though I could be wrong as I'm not very good at understanding the Westminster lingo. 

What does this mean for Scotland as PIP is now Adult Disability Payment and is a devolved benefit. The amalgamation of JSA and ESA is reserved so who knows what system Scotland will follow. 2 different assessments?

Worrying and very very confusing

Thanks, Bunny. "This means that people who only score the lowest points on each of the PIP daily living activities will lose their entitlement in future." I wonder what 'in the future' means here? 2028 as Inglewood believed they heard, or will it be an immediate suspension once passed, even for those (with just 2s etc. in each category) who thought they had some time to try and save for the coming hardship.

Also, 'we will not be consulting on this' makes it seem like it's set and no disability advocate group will change their minds or intention. 

If I haven't misunderstood, it wouldn't matter if (for example) you scored 12 points across 6 categories, if at least one of those wasn't a 4 on its own. Near impossible for the autistic applicants in many cases.