Disability and illness test U-turn is a small victory but the fight goes on

The Tories have simply fixed one piece of an altogether broken disability benefits system

It has finally happened: the government has announced it will scrap the retesting of chronically ill and disabled benefit claimants.

Instead of being forced to prove their illness or disability every six months, many will now continue to receive the out-of-work sickness benefit, employment support allowance (ESA), automatically. The exact beneficiaries of the policy are still to be decided – criteria will be drawn up with health professionals – but it is thought thousands will qualify, including people with severe Huntington’s, autism or a congenital heart condition.

It’s difficult to comprehend what this means for the ill and disabled put through the system or indeed, the sheer scale of suffering that has led us to this point. Two years ago it was discovered that more than a third of people with degenerative conditions – some of the very people who may now finally be helped – were having their benefit cut because the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) deemed that they had somehow recovered enough to look for work.

For the best part of six years, severely ill or disabled people have been tested and retested, often to have their only income taken from them.

Imagine it – you’re diagnosed with Parkinson’s or multiple sclerosis. You’ve had to give up your job and, on top of the pain and the exhaustion, you can’t pay your mortgage or afford to put the heating on because the government says you’re not really ill. This is now the reality of living in Britain if you’re disabled or chronically sick – where desperation is the new norm.

Most days I receive an email, letter or tweet from a disabled reader in despair. They’ve been given notice for their fifth assessment for ESA in less than three years and are too tired to understand the paperwork. Their benefits are late so they have not been able to eat for four days and social care cuts mean there’s no one to help them get out of the house to get a voucher for a food bank. Or they’ve been found “fit to work” but can barely get out of bed and are suicidal because there’s nothing they can do.

For thousands with a disability, it has become a part of everyday life to be anxious, desperate and scared. That isn’t their illness or disability inflicting that on them but the people in power who should be helping them.

As they settle into party conference week, the Conservatives will proudly announce the abolition of retesting for some ESA claimants. Theresa May can distance herself from the era of George Osborne’s “skivers and shirkers” and Iain Duncan Smith’s memory. The message of this policy change will be that this government is the epitome of compassionate conservatism – and proof that all is well for the long-term ill now. In reality, the Tories have pulled back on one part of an assessment they themselves accelerated, and introduced a policy change that anyone with an ounce of empathy or common sense knew years ago was needed.

No one should believe this is over. The Tories have simply fixed one piece of an altogether broken disability benefits system. The government has still made no effort to address the test itself: the notorious work capability assessment used by the DWP to determine who is eligible for out-of-work sickness benefits in the first place. Nor has gone it back on its impending move to cut part of the benefit by £30 a week – when it is fully aware that, even on the current rate, disabled people are having to skip meals.

By Francis Ryan in the Guardian. Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/01/disability-and-illness-test-u-turn-is-a-small-victory-but-the-fight-goes-on?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=soc_3156#link_time=1475345103

 

Conservative Think Tank at Tory party conference-: Cut pensioner benefits ‘immediately’

Ministers should waste no time to make unpopular cuts to pensioner benefits, a think tank director has said.

Many of those hit by a cut to the winter fuel allowance might “not be around” at the next election, said Alex Wild of the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

And others would forget which party had done it, he added.

At the group’s meeting at the Conservative conference in Manchester, former defence secretary Liam Fox said spending cuts must be “for keeps”.

Mr Wild said the Tories could not wait until a year before the next election to make the necessary cuts to the winter fuel allowance, free bus passes, the Christmas bonus and other pensioner benefits.

Mr Wild, who is research director of the think tank which campaigns for lower taxes and highlights examples of Government waste, said the cuts should be made “as soon as possible after an election for two reasons”.

“The first of which will sound a little bit morbid – some of the people… won’t be around to vote against you in the next election. So that’s just a practical point, and the other point is they might have forgotten by then.”

He added: “If you did it now, chances are that in 2020 someone who has had their winter fuel cut might be thinking, ‘Oh I can’t remember, was it this government or was it the last one? I’m not quite sure.’

“So on a purely practical basis I would say do it immediately. That might be one of those things I regret saying in later life but that would be my practical advice to the government.”