Sheffield Centre For Independent Living

This letter to a disabled reader written by Laurie Penny , contributing editor to The New Statesman magazine, was brought to our attention by a member. Although the letter makes uncomfortable reading as it attempts to reach out to one individual in crisis it shows the despair, fear and anger felt from and at the portrayal of unemployed and disabled people as ‘scroungers’ and the impact on individuals of disability benefit cuts.

You are not a scrounger letter

A quarter of home-care services provided in England are failing to meet quality and safety standards, according to a new inspection report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).One of the most common issues identified relates to late, rushed or missed visits. In addition, the CQC also highlight assessments that miss vital information, care records that are incomplete, and concerns about the way services are monitored and complaints handled.Among the CQC’s recommendations are that home care providers, many of which are private companies, need to work closely with local authorities to remedy the problems it identifies.

CQC Review of Home Care Services

The Department for Work and Pensions has produced an online Personal Independence Payment (PIP)toolkit with the aim of providing clear information to individuals and organisations that support Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claimants. Included in the toolkit are the following sections:- All about PIP – information about conditions of entitlement, assessment criteria and examples of forms and letters; Introducing PIP – timings for the phased approach to introduce PIP and when existing DLA claimants will be affected; The claimant journey – how the claims process will work and what happens after PIP is awarded.

DWP PIP Toolkit

Some key comparisons between the DLA and PIP by May 2018 (the PIP migration end date) include:- overall, the PIP caseload in May 2018 will be around 608,000 lower than the DLA caseload would have been without the introduction of PIP; the number of people receiving the highest rate of the Mobility component will be around 428,000 lower in PIP than would have been the case in DLA; around 510,000 DLA claimants will have a reduced award. As around a third of all Blue Badges are currently issued to people who receive the higher rate of the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance, the Department for Transport consulted between July and October 2012 on the options, in England, for dealing with the impact of the welfare changes. The government has issued a statement saying that it remains committed to ensuring that the Blue Badge scheme continues to be focussed on those people who will benefit most from the parking concessions that it offers, and that it is sustainable in the future. When DLA is replaced by PIP, there will still be a legislative link that means those people who score 8 points or more in the ‘moving around’ activity of PIP will be automatically eligible for a Blue Badge. This activity assesses a person’s physical ability to get around and a score of 8 points or more will be awarded to people who are either unable to walk or who cannot walk further than approximately 50 metres. This means that future eligibility for a Blue Badge will be ‘as similar to the current eligibility criteria for the scheme as possible’.

The Government’s Response to the consultation on Personal Independence and Eligibility for a Blue Badge