Whenever Conservative governments are in trouble they reach not for solutions, but for scapegoats. For weeks, in the run-up to this month’s local elections, the Conservatives spoke of little else other than small boats carrying refugees across the English Channel, and their ludicrous and illegal Rwanda scheme.
Lifestyle choice: Mel Stride, the Tories’ work and pensions secretary
Alongside that, the work and Pensions Secretary, Mel Stride MP, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak opened a new offensive on disabled people – in particular taking aim at those claiming Personal Independence Payments, or PIP.
Sunak derided a “sicknote culture”, and even in the past week Stride has joined forces with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to suggest that being on benefits is somehow a “lifestyle choice” – even though being on benefits means a life of poverty, at a time when there are nearly twice as many people unemployed as there are job vacancies.
But back to Personal Independence Payments, which were introduced by the Conservatives a decade ago to replace Disability Living Allowance. PIP is intended to help with extra costs arising from long-term disability or ill-health. It is divided into two components – a daily living and mobility component – both of which can be paid at either standard, enhanced or nil rate depending on the person’s condition and its impact on their daily life.
It is claimed by people with a range of disabilities including musculoskeletal, psychiatric, neurological, and respiratory problems. For many claimants it is PIP that enables them to work, providing extra support for specially adapted cars or daily assistance.
That’s 7,192 in Steve Reed’s Croydon North constituency, 6,220 in Sarah Jones’ Croydon Central and 4,250 in the Croydon South constituency held by Chris Philp.
Across England and Wales, a little more than 3million people claim the benefit.
Whether out of ignorance or driven by deliberate dishonesty, Stride has claimed that the PIP benefit is worth “thousands of pounds per month”. In fact, the maximum claim possible is less than £1,000 per month – and many claimants are entitled to considerably less.
Disability organisations say that around 40% of people who apply for PIP are turned down by the DWP. It is telling that 70% of those originally refused are then approved on appeal.
According to Inclusion London, “The high rates of PIP decisions overturned at tribunal with no additional information needed show that many disabled people are turned down for benefits they are eligible for.”
Currently, there is a massive backlog in claims, too – with 430,000 disabled or seriously ill people waiting for their PIP claim to be processed.
Sunak has said: “It is part of our plan to make the benefits system fairer to the tax-payer, better targeted to individual needs and harder to exploit by those who are trying to game the system.” The Prime Minister provided no evidence that the rise in claims is because of people “gaming the system.”
One of the main reasons for a recent increase in PIP claims is the number of people with mental health conditions applying. This should not be a surprise: first, studies show a strong correlation between economic downturns (we’ve just had the sharpest and deepest cost-of-living crisis on record) and mental ill-health.
Secondly, among the 7.5million people on NHS waiting lists, 1.9million are patients awaiting treatment for a mental health condition.
A bit rich: PM Rishi Sunak, now worth £651m, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List. He says that disabled people claiming PIP are ‘gaming the system’
With a record NHS backlog, it is no wonder that there are more people with both severe physical and mental health conditions requiring further support.
One supposedly cost-cutting proposal in the Sunak’s government’s consultation is for claimants to be required to submit receipts, in the manner of business expenses. The hope, presumably, is that this would deter people in two ways – those who do not have the funds upfront to buy equipment themselves, or those too busy or impaired to be able to claim.
It has the appearance of a bureaucratic block, another barrier to people making claims. It has not been explained how DWP staff, already stretched and with the government considering 90,000 more civil service job cuts, will cope with this additional administrative requirement.
Either way, this would be a perverse deterrent and could worsen conditions – with knock-on costs for the NHS.
The plans are subject to a 12-week consultation, which ends on July 23. You can respond to the consultation by clicking here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/modernising-support-for-independent-living-the-health-and-disability-green-paper
The charity Scope is unimpressed: “It’s hard to have any faith that this consultation is about anything other than cutting the benefits bill, no matter the impact on people’s lives… the government should end this reckless assault on disabled people and focus on how to fix the real underlying issues.”
The campaigning group Disabled People Against Cuts is encouraging its supporters to respond to the consultation and adds, “DPAC intends to fight this with ongoing resistance and campaigning”.
‘Lifestyle choice’: use of food banks in Britain has risen to record levels under the Tories
Being disabled in Britain means you are disproportionately likely to be living in poverty. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the proportion of families with disabled children living in poverty rose by nearly one-third in the last two years.
And, as the Trussell Trust has highlighted, disabled people were three times more likely to have turned to a food bank last year, compared to non-disabled people.
Disabled people deserve better than to be used as a political football by a deadbeat government on their way out. Thankfully, the next election is likely to come before any new legislation can be put through Parliament, but in the meantime expect this flailing government to demonise various groups in a last-ditch desperate attempt to find scapegoats.
- If you need advice with a benefit claim or think you may have been denied unfairly, visit the Citizens Advice website or call 0800 144 8848
- If you wish to challenge a benefits ruling, you can contact South West London Law Centres on 020 8767 2777 or click here to use their online benefits advice checker
- From 2015 to 2019, Andrew Fisher was the Labour Party’s Director of Policy under Jeremy Corbyn. Fisher is also the author of The Failed Experiment – and how to build an economy that works, and now writes columns for InsideCroydon, the i newspaper and is a regular pundit on BBC and Sky News programmes
Andrew Fisher’s recent columns:
- ‘Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others!’
- The shifts below the waterline that require action from all sides
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- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
