News

Again, please flood the MP's inboxes. We MUST apply pressure and not make this easy for them to vote into being.

Points reduced?

How can we trust that they won't deliberately mark us down from past questions/scores , what's stopping them giving us a 2 when we'd normally get 4. It's not like they're the most honest of people.

From the ME association website:

So much confusion about Contribution-based ESA and the new Unemployment Insurance any new information on this B&W? Paragraph 54 of the green paper seems to point towards it just being time limited for new claimants. Appreciate all that you're doing for us.  

I’ve got an award until 2028, so due to me not getting any 4 points does this mean I’ll lose my PIP in Nov 2026?

For me this is another question answering honestly i would get more on pip than i currently do on dla so do i wait to be "invited" to apply or just jump in and claim pip now risk losing my dla 

Email sent to my MP today: 

Having read this week's Green Paper on welfare benefits, I am appalled and alarmed that disabled people such as my husband are being treated with such brutality by this government. I would implore and urge you to stand up for disabled people such as my husband.

The proposed changes would be financially devastating for us. My husband, and hundreds of thousands of people like him, suffers a range of symptoms due to his neurological disorder, but would not qualify for PIP due to the proposed requirement to score 4 points in one category. The proposals would also exclude him from the UC health element. I would lose the carers element of UC.

My husband’s difficulties affect him so significantly that he would be unable to manage employment, however much support is offered. His significant fatigue, to mention just one symptom, will not be ameliorated no matter how understanding the employer or how much advice and support is offered by a work coach.

Disability is expensive. Disability is not a life choice! What future for us as a family with two young children? How will we keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, as we pay for the extra medication, transport and heating that my husband needs? I do my best to provide through my own low-paid NHS employment, but we would face an uphill battle without welfare support. And what if I were to become sick? He would still not qualify for PIP or UC health.

Disabled people face barriers at every turn. They have not chosen disability. Our health and social care system is a mess. Relatives acting as carers will be expected to pick up the pieces of these changes, with the financial rug pulled out from under them. In the context of the Assisted Dying proposals, the government should be absolutely ashamed to be treating disabled people with such cruelty. Many will feel there is nothing left for them, that they are a burden on society, and they will be prey to those who would coerce them towards an early end.

The consultation questions offer no opportunity to oppose these plans, and therefore the consultation does not offer a voice for the concerns of disabled people at all. The government has chosen not even to consult on many important elements of their plans.

This is an urgent matter, as I have no doubt that moves towards legislation will happen very soon. As our MP, please take a stand against this. We voted for you as a Liberal Democrat, as we believed the party had the interests of disabled people and their carers at heart. We have no power and we rely on you to represent us. 

Have just written to my mp again and my GP. I thought it wise to ensure my notes were up to date. I've updated them in the details of my disabilities. Diagnosis are one thing. The symptoms and side effects they aren't always aware of. I thought I'd let them know and asked for it to be added to my notes. 

Gives me a minimum of six 4 pointers and several above. 

This would be devastating for us. My husband would lose PIP daily living, and so the UC health element. I would lose the carer element of UC. Our children would suffer because we would barely afford to live. My husband's prospects of employment would not change one iota. And this is in the context of legislation being debated on Assisted Dying. So many thousands of disabled people will hear our society's message loud and clear, that disabled people are a burden. This will make them vulnerable to coercion towards assisted dying. I will email my MP, who will likely ignore me as she has most other communications, and will engage with any other efforts to fight this brutality. 

Looking at my most recent assessment and the points I scored, I would be eligible under the new PIP test. This reassures me that I will continue to qualify. My current claim is valid until 2028, and my last assessment was in 2022, where I was awarded Enhanced Daily Living and Enhanced Mobility for six years. Honestly, I was surprised I wasn't awarded 10 years with a light-touch review, but perhaps that will change in the future.

The government will save more than 5 billion if alot of people get pip stopped and UC health element

Thank you for this it is helpful. I have two PIP application to complete for my sons for different problems. It is the mobility element they are going to lose. They can both walk but trying to get one of them out of the house with out his carer is a nightmare He rarely leaves the house but as usual the questions don't really suit his problems. Who is going to conduct all these face to face assessments and when? How long will we be waiting for an appeal? What money is it really going to save. See the letters page of the daily mail today the people who spoil it for the genuine. Best of luck to the genuine

While this is a good practice exercise and I do score 4 points on a couple of descriptors, that's only my opinion (oh, and my consultant's), which as we all should know by now counts for nothing in the face of lying assessors and the whims of target-driven Decision Makers. It's nice to have this of course, but please don't start pinning any hopes on it.

We also don't yet know for certain how or if the descriptors will be changed in future to fit NeuLabour's now transparently despicable 'survival of the useful' agenda (I don't believe Starmer or Kendall's worthless assurances of 'fairness', and I certainly won't take any moral lectures from a man who proudly ponces all his clothes, specs and Taylor Swift tickets from billionaire donors).

But it's also equally important to remember, as the article says, that all of this is just a proposal and may never become law.

It was well worth taking the test But while what I think I should score is 19 points with two descriptors of 4 points for daily living DWP think different They have given me only one descriptor of 4 points and 14 points Which while I would still get PIP Does show This is a guide but the assessor could think differently I had my PIP review result letter at the end of Feb this year So was a good comparison Between my own predicted points and reality

The entire purpose of pip is to help with extra costs.

After 15 years of navigating my rheumatoid arthritis through the benefits system it seems to me that conditions like RA which fluctuate in intensity on a daily basis could be wilfully misinterpreted by DWP.   I believe we are supposed to be assessed based on our functionality on a “bad day”.  In practise we are at the whim of the DWP assessor.   I can just imagine with the current desire to restrict eligibility people with such conditions will be easy prey 

Thanks for putting the time into this. Tasks like this take time