TUC Urges Fight Against Devastating Legislation For Disabled People
The Welfare Reform Bill is currently in the final stages of its way through Parliament, and Peers are debating its Report Stage in the House of Lords this week.
We’re very concerned about many of its implications, especially on disabled people, large numbers of whom face a reduction in benefits as the universal benefit Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is replaced by the more conditional benefit system of Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
DLA is currently available to disabled children and adults to help them meet the extra costs associated with having a disability. It’s not work or contribution dependent, and it comes at different levels, to take into account assessed needs for ongoing help with care and mobility.
Under the new system, DLA recipients will have to claim again for PIP, and given that the government have stated they want to make savings by focussing the benefit on those who need it most, it’s a fair bet many who were found to need assistance under the lower levels of DLA payment will no longer be given assistance.
Also, increasing the initial qualifying period from 3 to 6 months will see many people face extra months of hardship before they get assistance. Many current DLA recipients will face a further blow if they’re denied access to PIP, as DLA is a qualifying benefit, which means that being assessed to receive it then means you are eligible for other assistance. Losing DLA will see people getting those other benefits withdrawn.
With such severe cuts for thousands of vulnerable people, you’d think the government would be scrupulous about understanding the impact of the reforms. But the consultation for the Bill has been rushed through, run for two weeks shorter than usual, and with the legislation presented to Parliament before the consultation was even finished.
A group of disabled activists have come together online to research the reforms. They’ve used Freedom of Information powers to get a copy of the consultation results, and conducted a thorough crowdsourced analysis of the previously unreleased documents.
The Responsible Reform report (otherwise known as the Spartacus Report) that they have written and produced tells a remarkable story, with 74% of organisations and individuals responding to the consultation opposed to the overall plans, with even higher margins against on specific measures, such as 98% opposing the extension of the period people have to wait to receive benefits.
This tells a rather different story to the government’s claims of support from the consultation responses. With only days to go now, Peers need to know what respondents, from charities working with disabled people through to Mayor of London Boris Johnson have said about the danger of these reforms.
What can you do?
You can find the report online here. Please have a look at it (there's a helpful summary at the beginning, as there's a lot of material in there) and help get this important information used as widely as possible, by taking any or all of these actions online:
1 Tell your friends
Please tweet about the report, or spread the message to friends. The hashtag #SpartacusReport has been trending today, so please use that if you can to keep it in the public eye online. If you want to share the text of this email, you can find it online here.
2 Tell the House of Lords
Please help spread word of this important report to Peers. Use the They Work For You site to find a member of the House of Lords to email – If you can only write to one, please focus on the Liberal Democrat or Crossbench Peers, who are more likely to change their vote over this issue. Getting a message to them Thursday’s report stage will help ensure they don’t go into the debate without knowing the concerns of thousands of disabled people from all over the country.
3 Add your name
And please if you’ve not yet signed up, add your name to Pat Onions’ petition to Number 10 for a pause in these hurried reforms – it’s reached over 10,000 signatures now, but needs more to be recognised by government. Rushing this legislation through at a time of spending cuts and economic difficulties for vulnerable people is creating a perfect storm for many disabled people. A pause to ensure reform is carried out more fairly and effectively is desperately needed.
See also: Spartacus Report Into Disability Benefit Reform Supports CWU Disabled Members
Source: TUC -
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