Welfare Reform - out of control?

Notwithstanding there may be other agendas like pensions here, the thing to worry about is the Government's attack on people claiming DLA, by setting out to achieve a 15% reduction under PIP (500,000 people).

If you go back to the link in my second posting on this thread, the Equality Impact Assessments, where I took from a list the one for DLA Reform. This gives an explanation of the Government's thinking.

On page 3 is their Rationale for Intervention. In just 9 years DLA claimants have risen from just under 2.5 million to 3.2 million, That's an increase of 700,000.

This data comes from a Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study in May 2011 "Disability Living Allowance: Growth in the number of claimants 2002/03 to 2010/11" Paragraph 5 of the Equality Impact Assessment states:

"Despite the fact that an individual can receive Disability Living Allowance both in and out of work, it is widely perceived to be an out of work benefit, and receiving Disability Allowance in itself, appears to reduce the likelihood of being in employment, even after allowing for the impact of health conditions or impairments".

Where did they get this profound insight? Why of course, one of THEIR reports: DWP Research Report 648 "Disability Living Allowance and work:exploratory research and evidence review" While I've not seen this I've seen other examples of DWP's "exploratory" thinking.

What they appear to be saying is that DLA is partly to blame for people avoiding work, and while some claimants may have a real disability, the way to get the unemployment benefit figures back down is to target DLA claimants.

Now just stop and think for the moment. Statistics in the States reckon autism diagnoses in children, depending on how you define it, increased 78 percent since 2007. Other statistics based on a sample population of 8 year olds estimated diagnosis to have increased from 0.066% to 0.113% from 2002 to 2008.

I couldn't find any indicative statistics on the NAS website. And there are figures around in UK Government circles claiming autism diagnosis is now levelling off. But the fact remains it does seem to have been increasing dramatically over the last ten years or so.

Depending on how you look at it, and what you include as "autism", for example in relation to milder end, there are between 500,000 and 700,000 people in Britain with autism.

Of course they haven't just "popped out of the woodwork" (a metaphorical allusion to woodworm I think) in the past 9 years to account for the 700,000 increase in DLA.

But consider the likely numbers of diagnosed children over the last 20 years, who are now of working age, and I reckon that a significant proportion of DLA claimants comes from autism.

So it is hardly surprising that autism figures prominently amongst those treated harshly in the DLA interviews, and making up a high proportion of those thrown off DLA and being obliged to find work.

Autism after all, its impacts being hard to define and very individual, is a difficult condition to find work with.  And no-one in Government is trying very hard to change workplace legislation to make it easier.

I think that, whether directly or indirectly, DWP in their various exploratory researches, have sussed that autism figures largely in the increase in DLA claimants in the last 9 years. And whether they spell it out, I think that there is little doubt that DWP are targetting people with autism as one of the main scapegoats for the 700,000 increase in claimants.

For that reason I would strongly advocate to parents, keep detailed records of what happened to your sons or daughters when they were reviewed for DLA.

I rather anticipate that in ten years time, we may be seeking compensation in the European courts for the harm done to people with autism by this shabby government. And I hope if that proves to be the case we can also bring to trial the Ministers of Government and senior civil servants responsible for such atrocity.

I would also urge NAS to pursue vigorously any evidence they can find that autism is being used as a scapegoat to get the figures down.

Even if we cannot do anything to alleviate the situation in the short term, I think parents need an assurance that they will have the opportunity to find remedy later.

Notwithstanding there may be other agendas like pensions here, the thing to worry about is the Government's attack on people claiming DLA, by setting out to achieve a 15% reduction under PIP (500,000 people).

If you go back to the link in my second posting on this thread, the Equality Impact Assessments, where I took from a list the one for DLA Reform. This gives an explanation of the Government's thinking.

On page 3 is their Rationale for Intervention. In just 9 years DLA claimants have risen from just under 2.5 million to 3.2 million, That's an increase of 700,000.

This data comes from a Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study in May 2011 "Disability Living Allowance: Growth in the number of claimants 2002/03 to 2010/11" Paragraph 5 of the Equality Impact Assessment states:

"Despite the fact that an individual can receive Disability Living Allowance both in and out of work, it is widely perceived to be an out of work benefit, and receiving Disability Allowance in itself, appears to reduce the likelihood of being in employment, even after allowing for the impact of health conditions or impairments".

Where did they get this profound insight? Why of course, one of THEIR reports: DWP Research Report 648 "Disability Living Allowance and work:exploratory research and evidence review" While I've not seen this I've seen other examples of DWP's "exploratory" thinking.

What they appear to be saying is that DLA is partly to blame for people avoiding work, and while some claimants may have a real disability, the way to get the unemployment benefit figures back down is to target DLA claimants.

Now just stop and think for the moment. Statistics in the States reckon autism diagnoses in children, depending on how you define it, increased 78 percent since 2007. Other statistics based on a sample population of 8 year olds estimated diagnosis to have increased from 0.066% to 0.113% from 2002 to 2008.

I couldn't find any indicative statistics on the NAS website. And there are figures around in UK Government circles claiming autism diagnosis is now levelling off. But the fact remains it does seem to have been increasing dramatically over the last ten years or so.

Depending on how you look at it, and what you include as "autism", for example in relation to milder end, there are between 500,000 and 700,000 people in Britain with autism.

Of course they haven't just "popped out of the woodwork" (a metaphorical allusion to woodworm I think) in the past 9 years to account for the 700,000 increase in DLA.

But consider the likely numbers of diagnosed children over the last 20 years, who are now of working age, and I reckon that a significant proportion of DLA claimants comes from autism.

So it is hardly surprising that autism figures prominently amongst those treated harshly in the DLA interviews, and making up a high proportion of those thrown off DLA and being obliged to find work.

Autism after all, its impacts being hard to define and very individual, is a difficult condition to find work with.  And no-one in Government is trying very hard to change workplace legislation to make it easier.

I think that, whether directly or indirectly, DWP in their various exploratory researches, have sussed that autism figures largely in the increase in DLA claimants in the last 9 years. And whether they spell it out, I think that there is little doubt that DWP are targetting people with autism as one of the main scapegoats for the 700,000 increase in claimants.

For that reason I would strongly advocate to parents, keep detailed records of what happened to your sons or daughters when they were reviewed for DLA.

I rather anticipate that in ten years time, we may be seeking compensation in the European courts for the harm done to people with autism by this shabby government. And I hope if that proves to be the case we can also bring to trial the Ministers of Government and senior civil servants responsible for such atrocity.

I would also urge NAS to pursue vigorously any evidence they can find that autism is being used as a scapegoat to get the figures down.

Even if we cannot do anything to alleviate the situation in the short term, I think parents need an assurance that they will have the opportunity to find remedy later.