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Welfare Reform - out of control?

longman

I've been trying to find out how the DWP measures the impact of changes to the welfare system, particularly with regard to disability - what they term "equality impact assessment".

I've had two replies to this. One is from the DWP Ministerial Correspondence Unit: 

"it is nearly impossible to measure the impact of such a wide range of reforms and changes, particularly as they are not in place fully, and case loads are dynamic"

The second is from the Minister for Disabled People - Mike Penning M.P. Seems he is briefed by his team....

"It is nearly impossible to measure the impact of such a wide range of reforms and changes, particularly as they are not in place fully, and caseloads are dynamic. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has also said that it would be nearly impossible to do a cumulative impact assessment".

But he does say also:

Reforming the benefit system aims to make it fairer, more affordable and better able to tackle poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency. We have tried to make fair choices and to protect those who are most in need and have looked closely at the impact of decisions on different groups, including disabled people"

Very commendable if these assurances mean anything, but if they are unable to measure the impact, how do they know they have protected those most in need?

Wheeeee... aren't we having a wonderful time scrapping the welfare state, the national health service, state education........  Never mind that we haven't a clue whether we're doing any damage. we're having a whale of a time being a Government again......

Tough if you're recently homeless as a result of the welfare reforms, as is the case for one of the correspondents in this forum .........

Parents

  • The Minister also directed me to the Fulfilling Potential Framework odi.dwp.gov.uk/.../index.php

    OK a lot of this is around genuine disability initiatives, and is based around the Office for Disability Issues and its public arm Disability Action Alliance disabilityactionalliance.org.uk/.../ where there are good stories.

    But this Fulfilling Potential scheme, like Disability Confident, contains a lot of measures hastily put together with the supposition that it compensates disabled people who lose out on PIP. And it really is too little too late.

    It also has too many pictures and stories of paraplegic olympiads - ready press material, but little other disability awareness - one blind man and his dog, and a judge with bipolar.

    The theme is reforming welfare, and allowing disabled people to become more independent through work. Great idea....but have they any real clue how it is to be done?

    Also, in contrast to the accountancy driven interview process to reduce disabled claimants by 500,000 they do give figures in section 5 - only 46% of working age disabled people are in employment compared to 76% non-disabled. And different disabilities have different percentages, mental health given as 15% (no mention of autism though).

    Also disabled young people fare particularly poorly in the labour market.

    But what you really have to read is the plan - how this is to be achieved - a separate document.

    This is full of great ideas, some underway, some still only on paper. I'm just not convinced that they understand the difficulties of implementation. They are all talk - no action.

    On education they say they are going to introduce new standards and improve SEN.

    On employment they claim to have a specific evidence base around disability employment to inform the stategy. Where did they get this "evidence base"?

    On Income they give the usual guff about Universal Credit as a liberator. Health and Wellbeing promises massive reforms as to how disabled people are treated, but on autism there is only a tiny paragraph 4.14 mentioning the Autism act.

    Section 5 on choice and control is in cloud cuckoo land. Section 6 is a whole load of everything else - transport, community volunteers, bullying, the criminal justice system (illustrated by learning disability but no mention of autism) everything bar the kitchen sink. Oh that might be there as well, I wasn't wide awake by that point.

    Disability Charities should be reading this and challenging it. And parents do need to look at the intended prospects for young people compared to what is actually happening.

    But I wasn't greatly cheered this morning by the reports on the news about the Government's boasted reductions in claimants, to which disability groups seem only to whimper that the interview system is ridiculously harsh.

Reply

  • The Minister also directed me to the Fulfilling Potential Framework odi.dwp.gov.uk/.../index.php

    OK a lot of this is around genuine disability initiatives, and is based around the Office for Disability Issues and its public arm Disability Action Alliance disabilityactionalliance.org.uk/.../ where there are good stories.

    But this Fulfilling Potential scheme, like Disability Confident, contains a lot of measures hastily put together with the supposition that it compensates disabled people who lose out on PIP. And it really is too little too late.

    It also has too many pictures and stories of paraplegic olympiads - ready press material, but little other disability awareness - one blind man and his dog, and a judge with bipolar.

    The theme is reforming welfare, and allowing disabled people to become more independent through work. Great idea....but have they any real clue how it is to be done?

    Also, in contrast to the accountancy driven interview process to reduce disabled claimants by 500,000 they do give figures in section 5 - only 46% of working age disabled people are in employment compared to 76% non-disabled. And different disabilities have different percentages, mental health given as 15% (no mention of autism though).

    Also disabled young people fare particularly poorly in the labour market.

    But what you really have to read is the plan - how this is to be achieved - a separate document.

    This is full of great ideas, some underway, some still only on paper. I'm just not convinced that they understand the difficulties of implementation. They are all talk - no action.

    On education they say they are going to introduce new standards and improve SEN.

    On employment they claim to have a specific evidence base around disability employment to inform the stategy. Where did they get this "evidence base"?

    On Income they give the usual guff about Universal Credit as a liberator. Health and Wellbeing promises massive reforms as to how disabled people are treated, but on autism there is only a tiny paragraph 4.14 mentioning the Autism act.

    Section 5 on choice and control is in cloud cuckoo land. Section 6 is a whole load of everything else - transport, community volunteers, bullying, the criminal justice system (illustrated by learning disability but no mention of autism) everything bar the kitchen sink. Oh that might be there as well, I wasn't wide awake by that point.

    Disability Charities should be reading this and challenging it. And parents do need to look at the intended prospects for young people compared to what is actually happening.

    But I wasn't greatly cheered this morning by the reports on the news about the Government's boasted reductions in claimants, to which disability groups seem only to whimper that the interview system is ridiculously harsh.

Children
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