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"Backing down on pension age pip, on wfa, on 2 child uc cap are, relatively, minimum concessions, maximum brownie points for government. With this tradeoff they're trying to avoid greater concessions which cost the treasury more, see what they can get away with."

It's partly that, but also due to the fact that our political and media class deems certain parts of the population to be important and therefore deserving help, and others unimportant and undeserving of help. Pensioners are in the first category, sick and disabled people in the second. Although despite that, the backlash against disability cuts has become considerable and seems to have the government rattled.

Thanks. Well done for reading it! Carers Uk are present in each of the 3 sessions and will keep the Chair informed (-:

"5-6 MPs/Parliamentary Aids were expected, but 1 MP and two Parliamentary Aids turned up."

Good to know they're taking it seriously.....

You seem to have covered a lot of ground, but one issue which doesn't seem to have received anything like enough attention is linking UC health element to a PIP-type assessment. There are hundreds of thousands of people who currently get UC health but don't qualify for PIP, and many more who currently get UC health and PIP. We don't know if the UC health element changes will affect existing claimants or not, but if they will then that is likely to be every bit as devastating as the changes to the PIP descriptors.

Open letter to Starmer et al

@Diceman, sorry to hear of your conditions. You are likely to be protected from cuts, and concentrating on your health is the priority for you.

We'll be glad to hear from you if you ever feel like posting, though!

All the best.

@Cathedral city, I don't think we should be settling for better than nothing. Pip is also a passport benefit.

The higher rate of attendance allowance is £110.40. The lower rate is £73.90.

Switching from pip to attendance allowance is a whole new process, not automatic, and has different qualifying criteria, which a pip claimant would not necessarily satisfy. Even if it could replace daily living, it would take away any mobility element someone was receiving with pip The rates for pip are:

Daily Living Enhanced Rate: £110.40; Daily Living Standard Rate: £73.90

Mobility Enhanced Rate: £77.05; Mobility Standard Rate: £29.20

With an unlikely scenario where a greater overall award were possible with attendance allowance, it would be a gamble for someone to apply for it in the hope of matching their pip award, then fail to qualify and lose pip in the process.

Even without the mobility issue, the award could fall from higher pip daily living to lower rate attendance allowance.

It's easy to make throw away statements, but that is part of what has been so difficult about challenging the green paper proposals - the lack of knowledge and understanding of how welfare works.

Also, as an aside, many will have read that the 'youth' will not get out of bed for less than £40K.  I've looked at the Bank of England inflation tracker, and if wages had gone up with inflation from 2007 (before the financial crash) I would now be earing £40,000. Suffice to say I'm no where near that!  Historically many will go about Brexit. but the really big historical event of the last thirty years was the financial meltdown in 2008 and the consequent very long economic stagnation, austerity and little sign of sustained economic growth.

"If there are other benefits, how in heaven's name is it going to save money???"

There aren't and it won't. On the one hand, this "time to apply for other benefits" line is nonsense because they don't exist, but the fact this is even being touted as a possible "concession" is clear evidence that they're rattled. On the other hand, we need to keep up the pressure on Labour MPs and make it clear to them that these "other benefits" don't exist, because most MPs don't seem to have much knowledge of the benefits system. I'd like to think the rebels know this "other benefits" line is drivel but there's no harm in spelling it out to them.

Excuse my bitterness but this has been bothering me since Starmer said he'd make some allowances for the WFA threshold. There's something to be said about how pensioners are being constantly being put on this golden pedestal by politicians and the general public and how there seems to be some sort of pride or merit in our country and its government looking out for them and there is utter outrage when this image is tarnished. And why? Because they've "worked all their lives" and therefore "proved their worth".

Meanwhile, looking out for somebody who is handicapped and/or in a wheelchair and who cannot work through no fault of their own is seen as "giving them a handout/free money" and they should be stripped of their benefits and shoved into a sweatshop at the first opportunity for the greater good.