We only have 3 weeks before the 30th April deadline for the PIP (Personal Independence Payment) Consultation on the assessment criteria, thresholds and definitions. This is the most important consultation as it determines who will qualify for the new benefit, which will replace DLA (Disability Living Allowance) for claimants of working age.
Dr James Bolton, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the DWP, has told us he has received 300 responses so far. This is disappointing, but as we have pointed out to him, this consultation is exceptionally complex and difficult to understand, despite all our efforts to make it easier.
Some of the clever brains on the Spartacus consultation team have been looking at the consultation in detail over recent weeks and picking apart the descriptors. Our aim is to write a response on behalf of Spartacus, but we can’t do this without your input.
So please can you take part in our survey – you can find it here http://survey.spartacusforum.
The survey should take no more than 10 minutes
You can do as little or as much of the survey as you feel able; there is an assumption you have read some of the documents, which you can find at http://wearespartacus.org.uk/spartacus-publications/pip-consultation-downloads/ (the unofficial guide to the PIP consultation is the best document to look at). If you’ve looked at the documents but still don’t understand it we do want to know – there is a question in the survey about how easy or difficult you have found it.
Note: Doing the survey to contribute to the group response does not replace taking part and giving your views as an individual; we need both. The more individual responses we can send to the DWP, the louder our voice. To find out how to respond as an individual, see http://wearespartacus.org.uk/pip-consultation/
If you only do one thing today, click on the link and help us make the DWP listen.
If you need help, go to the PIP consultation area in the Forum at http://www.spartacusforum.org.uk/forum/index.php/board,3.0.html
And remember – Alone we Whisper, Together we Shout!
Only 300 responses? Well they didn’t exactly go out of their way to advertise this second consultation – no Social Services team knows about it, no OTs know about it, most of the charities have already protested and withdrawn, no disabled people know about it either. Wonder what they were expecting or hoping for.
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This Isle of Wight ruling (http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/care-victory-for-disabled-people-41648.aspx) cited improper consultation; I suspect that the current PIP consultation process is similarly flawed.
Samuel Miller
E-Mail: disabilityinliterature@gmail.com
Blog: Hephaestus: Disability Studies
http://illnessandcivilization.blogspot.com/
Blog: My Disability Studies Blackboard
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(Montreal, Canada)
This consultation is extremely flawed – very badly laid out, appallingly written, inaccessible to anyone except the academically brightest… need I go on? But how to challenge?
That is disappointing, but their responses to previous consultations don’t exactly motivate people to participate! It’s very dispiriting spending hours on earlier consultations, which then make virtually no difference to anything substantive.
That said, I would imagine that a lot of people, like me, will submit pretty close to the deadline. It takes an inordinate length of time to actually read through all the documents (even given spartacus’ extremely helpful guide, (try and) make sense of them and then respond in a meaninful way.
As long as people are protected and the deaths stop as reported in the daily mirror things will be ok or if not i would think the police need to get involved to offer some protection if they aren’t already they should be
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html
The government’s programme is about cutting the money available to disabled people so I expect I will lose my benefits. My wife is my ‘carer’ and I use a powered wheelchair full time. The whole system was drawn up by some Tory dickhead, hell bent on robbing us. Never have so few hurt so many!
I think the latest consultation is cause for even greater concern with the implication that a WCA will be required IN ADDITION TO a PIP face to face to access any Disability Premiums paid by default if on DLA at the moment.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/pip-detailed-design-consultation.pdf
An example of the wonderfully convoluted DWP English:
7.14 “The component and rate of Personal Independence Payment that will form a gateway to Pension Credit and Carer’s Credit of will be set out in Regulations.”
From page 27 of the document linked to by Ian in the above comment.
“Personal Independence Payment is designed to target support to those with the greatest needs therefore. The entitlement criteria for Personal Independence Payment will be different to those of DLA and will result in some people who have health conditions or disabilities but lesser barriers to participation relative to others receiving reduced support.”
From page 32 of the document linked to by Ian
Thanks for putting up the survey, and I hope others find it as easy to complete as I did. Now, on with my individual response – if my brain can take it
I looked at the large print version which was a strain to see on my I-pad. Most in receipt of DLA are older, so I can see this would be a problem. Neither is it easy to understand. There are many ways a person could become disabled but PIP takes little account of this.and one thing overlooked in all debate over disability benefits is the length of time a person needs help. In my case my disability is permanent, many years , and all the things I use in my home as well as clothes, bedlinen, need replacement now and then. There are big expenses and I have no other choice but to rely on benefits to do this. Some people will get well and be working again, some of us won’t so costs mount uo.
I just despair. I am too mentally tired (chronic depression) to look through all of this. they are consulting people here (if they are ‘consulting’ at all
) with the vulnerable who either don’t have the ability to articulate their views, I am luck I have had a good education and am a teacher by profession, yet due to very low moods and a lack of motivation and inability to concentrate for lengthy periods, I find it difficult enough to fill in the bloody ESA and DLA forms as they are, to read drafts of new forms is a bit much now.
We are very much the underdogs in society, and frankly, many don’t give a four X whatsoever. It is with regret I have little or no energy to read thorough the draft compare it to the old DLA and make an informed decision. On whether there are any benefits to a new system or if the coalition are trying to remove welfare altogether from the disabled. I suspect the latter in all honesty. I also doubt now that the views of us will be taken into consideration in any case, just look how they run rough shod on the NHS bill and in education. Sorry, to be so pessimistic, maybe it is just the depression, but sometimes it is based on the realities.
Pip Pip
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I only just found this PIP consultation and realised there is no way I can complete it in time for the dealine. (I have a provisional diagnosis of Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome -ME/CFS – after suffering the symptoms for over 6 years,and do not have the energy…) I have recently applied for DLA and am waiting for the inevitable refusal, appeal and onto tribunal which most with my condition have to do… I simply don’t understand why the government believe that they can save money by changing to the ‘easier PIPS’ – who are they kidding? We know this is an excuse to change the goal posts so that even less genuinely disabled people will be able to claim the benefit. This government has shocked the core of Britain with the extent of cuts to the most vulnerable. I was one of the voting public who genuinely believed that they would seek out REAL benefit scroungers, multiple claimants, people working and claiming benefits, etc. I am truly shocked at what they have done especially as David Cameron claimed DLA for his son when he clearly did not need or rely on this money as most who claim it now do. This government has to be told very clearly that this will not be tolerated – even if they push it through. I really hope the large charities such as Disability Alliance UK and MIND really do challenge the government legally as they have threatened.
You may be able to respond, Christine, if you go to http://piphelp.me.uk/consult/public/survey.php?name=pipconsult_1_1 fill in the survey and get it sent back to you for submission to the DWP. It makes it easier, but you do have to have some knowledge of the proposals. The best place for you to get such knowledge without having to read too much is to download the following Spartacus guide: http://wearespartacus.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/unofficial-guide-to-pip-consultation1.pdf The document is split into sections to help you find your way around it.
You may find the Disability Rights UK impact assessment report encouraging – encouraging that they’ve published it, at least! See http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/dlaimpactassessment.htm
I definitely understand why you don’t feel you can respond, but if you have a bit of energy you could write to your MP to express your concern. It’s horrible for all of us