Report on Personal Health Budgets – Service Users’ and Carers’ Views

 

 

 

 

 

By the NHS Confederation and the National Mental Health Development Unit

 

Click for Report

Social Rent Affordability and Benefits Cap – Report

Affinity Sutton’s analysis of new research by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (CCHPR) shows that charging a rent between social and market rent could ease the strain of soaring private rents for thousands of families if they are able to obtain a new housing association home. However, those dependent on benefits and some working families would still find this new rent model unaffordable.

 

Click here for full report.

Social care for the future must not leave working-age disabled people behind, says Scope.

From epolitix.com

 

Throughout the debate that has been raging on the future of social care, it is often said that ‘it is a matter for celebration that people are living longer’. Indeed, this is the first line of Professor Andrew Dilnot’s ‘Fairer Care Funding’ report.

But social care is not simply about providing care for older people. It is also about ensuring that the needs of all working-age UK adults with social care needs related to a disability are met in a fair, sustainable and high-quality way. A real success of Dilnot’s report is the fact that he directly tackles the issues of providing care to working-age disabled people, and many of his conclusions should be welcomed….

 

Click for full article

Deputy PM challenges Shapps over budget cuts

From Inside Housing

 

The deputy prime minister has warned housing minister Grant Shapps that council cuts to supported housing budgets in England are causing vital services for vulnerable people to be scrapped.

Nick Clegg wrote to Mr Shapps in April to flag up the impact of Supporting People funding cuts, in a letter obtained by Inside Housing following a freedom of information request.

Mr Clegg wrote in his capacity as MP for Sheffield Hallam after being contacted by South Yorkshire Housing Association.

Mr Clegg said the funding reductions had resulted in ‘dramatic cuts to the services’ that South Yorkshire HA could provide….

 

Click here for full article

 

 

Proposed changes to contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance

From the DWP Advisor website.

 

The Welfare Reform Bill currently going through Parliament is proposing two changes to contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA):

• to limit the amount of time that people in the Work Related Activity Group can receive contribution-based ESA to 12 months; and
• to remove the special contribution criteria for ESA “youth”.

If passed by Parliament these changes will be introduced in Spring 2012.

These proposed changes are not yet law. However, given their possible effect, Jobcentre Plus have decided to write to claimants to prepare them to this possible change. Starting on 19 September 2011 and running over a 4 week period, we will write to all claimants receiving contribution-based ESA to advise them that their contribution-based benefit may be limited to 12 months.

Claimants in the Work Related Activity Group whose entitlement to contribution-based ESA ends after 12 months will be able to get income-related ESA if they are eligible. There will always be a safety net to support those who have no means of supporting themselves.

What are the Proposed Changes?

The Welfare Reform Bill proposes to limit the time people in the Work Related Activity Group receive contribution-based ESA to a maximum of 12 months.

People who have already received contribution-based ESA for 12 months or more in the Work Related Activity Group will have their benefit stopped as soon as the change is introduced.

The Bill also proposes to remove the special rules that allow some young people to receive contribution-based ESA without paying National Insurance contributions. These are people aged between 16 and 20, or under 25 if in education or training at least 3 months immediately before turning 20.

If the Bill is passed, anyone from this age group claiming ESA will have to meet the same National Insurance contribution conditions as all other claimants. If they qualify for, or are already receiving, contribution-based ESA, and are placed in the Work Related Activity Group, the 12 month time limit will also apply.

The time-limiting proposal does not affect claimants in the Support Group or those receiving income-related ESA. Any time spent in the Support Group will not count towards the 12 months.

What is contribution-based ESA?

People receive contribution-based ESA if they have limited capability for work and have paid enough National Insurance contributions. It is different to income-related ESA which is paid to people depending on their income and savings.

What is the Work Related Activity Group?

If someone is in the Work Related Activity Group, it has been decided that work may not be appropriate for them now, but with support they can prepare for work in the future.

Who is going to receive this notification?

All people currently receiving contribution-based ESA in the Work Related Activity Group will receive this notification over a four week period starting on 19 September 2011. People making new claims to contribution-based ESA will also be informed of the proposed change by letter once a decision has been made to place them in the Work Related Activity Group.

What should claimants do?

Claimants do not need to do anything to continue receiving their current benefits. We will write to claimants again if the proposals will affect their benefit and tell them what they need to do.

What will happen if a claimant’s contribution-based ESA is stopped?

Claimants may be entitled to income-related ESA. They will not have to make a new claim, but we may have to ask them for more information. We will write to them before their benefit ends to tell them what to do to be considered for this.

If this change takes place, claimants who receive income-related ESA and contribution-based ESA will lose the contributory element. The income-related element of their ESA will be adjusted to take this into account and will continue.

 

Questions and Answers on ESA Changes

Aspie (Asperger’s) Facial Expressions. (bit of fun)

A short post on Philip Davies

Philip Davies is right.

 

 

“If an employer is looking at two candidates, one who has got disabilities and one who hasn’t, and they have got to pay them both the same rate, I invite you to guess which one the employer is more likely to take on.

“Given that some of those people with a learning disability clearly, by definition, cannot be as productive in their work as somebody who has not got a disability of that nature, then it was inevitable that, given the employer was going to have to pay them both the same, they were going to take on the person who was going to be more productive, less of a risk.

“My view is that for some people the national minimum wage may be more of a hindrance than a help.

“If those people who consider it is being a hindrance to them, and in my view that’s some of the most vulnerable people in society, if they feel that for a short period of time, taking a lower rate of pay to help them get on their first rung of the jobs ladder, if they judge that that is a good thing, I don’t see why we should be standing in their way.”

 

 

Philip Davies is right.

But he is also very wrong.

 

The key point he made, and I’m glad he’s noticed this, is that employers will be less likely to take on a disabled employee over a non disabled. And personally, I think it will make little difference how much, or how little, they can get away with paying someone.

The reason why they are less likely to hire a disabled person is precisely what Philip Davies got wrong. They both have the misconception that disabled people are somehow ‘less productive’ than non disabled people.

Research carried out in the UK, USA, Australia and the Netherlands has shown that disabled people compare favourably with non disabled in the workplace.

 

Disabled people were rated the same as or better than non-disabled co-workers on punctuality; attendance; work quality; task consistency; overall proficiency, with slightly lower scores on work speed.

• 90% of employees with a disability record productivity rates equal to or greater than other workers.
• 98% have average or superior safety records.
• 86% have average or superior attendance records

A study conducted on behalf of Telstra Australia in 1999 found that:

• People with a disability worked on average 4.1 years in a call centre, compared to 3.2 years for people without a disability.
• Over a 15-month period, people with a disability had 11.8 days absent, compared to people without a disability who had 19.24 days absent.
• There were no significant differences when comparing people with a disability to people without a disability in the areas of performance, productivity and sales.

So the issue here is not the productivity of disabled workers, but rather the misconceptions about their productivity. Which Mr Davies has kindly added to. I would suggest, rather than finding ways to further devalue and demean us in the eyes of the general public, he could focus instead on educating employers about the benefits of hiring us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source

Background

 

 

 

Disabled People fear change in UK assisted suicide law.

 

 

 Changing the law on assisted suicide would put pressure on disabled people to kill themselves, according to new research.

The new Comres poll found that 70 per cent of disabled people were concerned that such a change would lead to ‘pressure being placed on disabled people to end their lives prematurely

The survey, commissioned by Scope, the leading disability charity, also showed that over one in three (35%) disabled people believed any move to decriminalise assisted suicide would place that sort of pressure on them personally.

Amongst blind and visually impaired people the figure was 49%.

Over half (56%) of all disabled people surveyed also said it would mean that it would be ‘detrimental to the way that disabled people are viewed by society as a whole’.

click for rest of article

March in London

From the Guardian

Disabled people to march in London against cuts to benefits and services

Organisers of Hardest Hit march expect between 5,000 and 10,000 people to attend largest event of its kind for decades

Thousands of disabled people will demonstrate in Westminster on Wednesday against cuts to benefits and services, in an event that organisers hope will be the largest of its kind for decades.

The Hardest Hit march is expected to bring between 5,000-10,000 people to London to voice their anger at the combined effects of changes to welfare eligibility, cuts to disability living allowance (DLA), and local authority reductions in funding for carers and services.

Jaspal Dhani, chief executive of the United Kingdom Disabled People’s Council – one of the coordinators of the protest– said cuts meant disabled people feared losing rights that they had fought for decades to acquire.

“Disabled people feel they are being attacked and marginalised by the government,” he said. “We’ve expressed our concerns about the impact the spending review is likely to have on the lives of disabled people, but we feel the government has not taken this on board.”

Marchers will be addressed by Liam Byrne, the shadow work and pensions secretary. Maria Miller, minister for disabled people, declined an invitation to attend, Dhani said, on the grounds that she needed to be at prime minister’s questions.

Despite the strength of unease, organisers said the scale of the protest would be constrained by the difficulties many people with disabilities face in travelling and participating in a march of this sort, and pointed out that a parallel campaign has been organised online for those unable to attend. Online protesters will be able to message their MPs and upload messages of support or videos setting out why they depend on disability benefits.

“I will not be going on the march, because like thousands of other people in the UK I have ME. A trip to the local shop costs me two days in bed with severe pain, so a march in London is unthinkable,” Amble Skuse, from Devon, wrote in an email.

For those on benefits, the cost of attending a march in London was also a strong disincentive, according to Neil Coyle, director of policy at the Disability Benefits Consortium, which is also an organiser of the demonstration.

“One third of working age disabled people live in poverty, but that figure doesn’t account for the higher cost of living they face, so they have a far lower disposable income than most people in England.

“If you are on employment and support allowance, the highest level is around £12.50 a day, which means a train ticket to London (bearing in mind that buses and coaches are still not accessible for wheelchair users) is likely to be unaffordable,” Coyle said. “And for people with arthritis or a heart condition, for example, a rally is not necessarily going to be the most appropriate way to campaign. There are a lot of reasons why it could be difficult for people to attend a physical rally like this, which is why the online campaign is so important.”

Protesters making arrangements to attend have come up against the everyday accessibility obstacles facing people with disabilities when they travel. One group travelling from a Leonard Cheshire care home north of Cambridge has been forced to stagger the journey times, after it emerged that the train service could only accommodate two wheelchair users on each train.

After the demonstration, many protesters will meet their MPs to explain what the impact of changes to disability benefits and local authority cuts to services has been.

Richard Wickerson, chief executive of Mind in Stockport, will be travelling with a dozen protesters by minibus to register their anger at funding cuts which have forced them to reduce the services they can provide. “We have had to create a waiting list, which is a bit ridiculous when we’re meant to be providing a crisis service,” he said.

Shane Roberts, 23, will be travelling from Leicester to participate in a march for the first time. “I want the government to understand how important it is not to cut services and benefits for disabled people, and in particular deafblind people like me. I need specialised communications support which enables me to live independently – go shopping, reading the post, and book doctors appointments over the phone. I currently only get seven hours of this support a week, which is just enough for me to do the bare minimum.

“The government needs to understand that if they cut benefits and support for disabled people a lot of us won’t be able to get by,” he said.

A report published this week by the thinktank Demos, and the disability charity Scope, the Disability in Austerity study, showed that rather than being protected from the cuts, disabled families across the country faced dramatic reductions in their household incomes, as a result of changes in the way benefits are uprated in line with inflation, and reforms of the way claimants are assessed for incapacity benefit and DLA.

Disabled people were quickly identified as likely to be among those hardest hit by the coalition’s reforms, the report states, because this group is at “substantially greater risk of living in poverty than non-disabled people, [and] disproportionately more reliant on welfare benefits than other low income groups”.

“We estimated that disabled people would lose £9bn in welfare support overall in the next five years,” the paper said. “We questioned whether the government had intended the budgetary axe to fall so heavily on this group and whether by attempting to ‘incentivise work’ for the majority, they had overlooked the disproportionate effect welfare cuts would have on those who were less able to join the labour market.”

Jody McIntyre : Who’s apathetic now?

From the Independent

 

“My name is Jody McIntyre and I didn’t begin fighting for equality on the 9^th December, the night that I was thrown from my wheelchair and dragged across the road by a riot police officer. I’ve spoken out against injustice, in all contexts, for as long as I can remember. As someone who was told by doctors I probably wouldn’t walk or talk, it has been my objective since the start of my journey to inspire people with disabilities to demand equality…. click for full article

Jody McIntyre – a personification of the state’s contempt for the disabled

Excellent Blogpost by Truth, Reason and Liberty. Have a read.

Daily Mail column on student protester prompts 500 complaints to PCC

From the Guardian

 

Anger over Richard Littlejohn’s comparison of Jody McIntyre to Little Britain’s Andy, as BBC interview also sparks outrage

 

A Richard Littlejohn column in the Daily Mail that compared student fees protester Jody McIntyre to Matt Lucas’s Little Britain creation Andy has prompted 500 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.

Police launched an internal investigation after footage appeared to show McIntyre being pulled out of his wheelchair and dragged across the road by an officer during last Thursday’s demonstration in central London.

Littlejohn said if McIntyre was “looking for sympathy he’s come to the wrong place”. Littlejohn described McIntyre as “like Andy from Little Britain” before imagining a spoof dialogue between McIntyre – as Andy – and David Walliams’s Lou.

A BBC News channel interview with McIntyre also prompted a “considerable” number of complaints from viewers, who said interviewer Ben Brown asked inappropriate and “insensitive” questions.

Protests against Littlejohn’s column gained momentum today on Twitter, where people posted a link for the Press Complaints Commission, echoing – to date on a much smaller scale – the response to fellow Mail columnist Jan Moir’s piece on Stephen Gately last year.

One tweeter described Littlejohn as “shameful [for] mocking the disabled”. Another, referring to the Mail’s coverage of Frankie Boyle’s joke on Channel 4 about Katie Price’s son, said: “When Frankie Boyle makes jokes about disabled people, the Mail complains. When Littlejohn does it, the Mail prints it.”

A spokesman for the PCC said it had received around 500 complaints and was looking to contact McIntyre directly. It has not yet launched a formal investigation into the article.

The BBC News channel controller, Kevin Bakhurst, said the corporation had received a “consider number of complaints” from viewers about the Brown interview, which aired on the channel on Monday evening….. Click for full article

If you thought the students were trouble, wait for the disability movement

From the Telegraph

My esteemed colleague Toby Young makes a brave attempt to stand up for Ben Brown’s interview of Jody McIntyre on BBC News 24. He really needn’t have bothered. The clip speaks for itself. To be honest, Brown looked like a police stooge when he repeated their claim that prior to the clip on YouTube McIntyre was rolling his wheelchair towards them. “Aw, diddums, did the man with with Cerebral Palsy scare you, and you in your riot gear and all” would have been the right response to whichever Metropolitan Police flak had the chutzpah to offer up that nonsense. But when McIntyre responded:

I can’t physically use my wheelchair myself. My brother was pushing me.

it was game, set and match to him. But the whole government should have shivered when McIntyre asked Brown:

Do you seriously think a person with Cerebral Palsy in a wheelchair can pose a threat to a police officer?

For this is the next wave of protest they face…. click for full article

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Apt rewriting of the Christmas Carol from Where’s the Benefit (click link)

BBC Interview with Jody McIntyre

I’ll be complaining to the BBC about this interview.

Independent Living Fund to be shut down by 2015

From the BBC

 

A fund which supports more than 21,000 people with severe disabilities is to be phased out by 2015.

The £359m Independent Living Fund pays out an average of £300 a week, to help people pay for carers so they can live at home and not in a care home.

It was already shut to new applicants for this year and will now shut to new claims permanently, said the minister for disabled people, Maria Miller.

Payments to existing users are to continue until 2015.

Ms Miller said: “An independent discretionary trust delivering social care is financially unsustainable.”

But Richard Hawkes, chief executive of disability charity Scope, said the decision to phase out the fund was “bemusing”.

“The fund is comparatively very small and is designed to support disabled people to live at home rather than in care homes,” he said.

“It’s hard to see how phasing out this fund will do anything but narrow down options and push people towards greater dependence on the state.”

The phased closure was described as “foolhardy and lacking in humanity” by Labour peer Lord Morris of Manchester.

Lord Morris, who was the first minister for the disabled, said: “This will not save money. If you make it harder for disabled people to live at home, it will cost more because more of them will have to be in hospitals and other places of full-time care.

“It will mean far more of them having to be in institutional care at far greater cost to the taxpayer.”

Removal of Mobility Allowance – A Sister’s Perspective

From Leonard Cheshire Disability

 

Mary shares how Government plans to remove the Mobility Component of DLA for people living in residential care homes will impact her sister’s day-to-day life.

My sister has lived in a residential care home for many years – all her adult life – and for the last few years I have had Power of Attorney for her finances. I am therefore only too aware of how dependent she is on her Mobility Allowance. Without this payment she is totally reliant on her weekly allowance of £22. I receive the State Retirement pension, so there is limited scope for me to help her financially…….. Click for full post

National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts

From benefitclaimantsfightback

 

“Take action now to defend the Welfare State. We will not pay for their crisis.

The National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts on 15th December 2010 aims to be the first of many and this time will concentrate on the Housing Benefit cuts.

Facebook event page at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181074851903167&

The National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts on 15th December 2010 aims to be the first of many and this time will concentrate on the Housing Benefit cuts. With this in mind, why not organise a sit in, protest or demonstration in your local Civic Centre, Housing Benefit Office or Town Hall.

Alternatively hold a public meeting, organise an info stall or even just leaflet your local Council offices. If you are organising an event please contact us asap to be added to the facebook page website which can be found at: http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/

Local groups, individuals, ideas and support needed, please get in touch.

This is just the beginning, further actions and events are planned for the New Year.

—————————————————————————————-

15th December – Everywhere – National Troll A Tory Day!

http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/national-troll-a-tory-day/

Brighton Confirmed

15th December

Clock Tower Brighton – Bring a large cardboard box!  4:30PM http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128786790513854

Lancaster Confirmed

15th December – Outside the benefits office in Lancaster – Mitre House – Near Castle

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=151054254941752

London confirmed

12th December (getting it in early)

Squattastic – In the face of government plans to make squatting illegal, see how we can organize and resist. 52-56 Lancaster Street, SE1 from 2pm: http://squattastic.blogspot.com/

15th December

12.30 Downing Street, Housing Emergency Coalition protest, take cardboard boxes and sleeping bags

3pm Trafalgar Square, Disabled People Against Cuts – No Room at The Inn nativity under the tree: http://disabledpeopleprotest.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/housing-emergency-coalition-a-call-to-action-15th-december/

Newcastle Confirmed

15th December – Newcastle Monument, 12 noon

Called by Tyneside Claimants Union

Come and join us for an afternoon of activity against welfare and housing benefit cuts and reforms.

http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/newcastle-confirmed/

Norwich confirmed

15th December – Defend Council Housing And Fight The Welfare Cuts Public Meeting – Belvedere Centre, Belvoir Street, Norwich, 15th Dec 7.30pm – 9.30pm:  http://norfolknonaligned.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/defend-council-housing-and-fight-the-welfare-cuts-public-meeting/

Oxford Confirmed

15th December – Uninvisible People – Bonn Square, Oxford – 12:30pm – 2:00pm

A speaker’s corner for disabled people and their families, job-seekers, anyone who relies upon social care, housing benefit, or any other form of welfare that is being cut, as well as those who (currently) use none of these services but who stand in solidarity with them: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177479322282134

Actions called for/enquired about in Bristol, Nottingham, Lewisham, Stoke, Lydney, Nuneaton, Hastings, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Southampton, Stoke, Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Cambridge, Hackney, Oxford, Leeds, Lincolnshire, Exeter & Ipswich

Called by autonomous benefit claimants around the UK.”

Email your local council about cuts to mental health services

Rethink has produced a form and letter template to enable you to easily contact your local councillor to express your concerns about cuts to your mental health services. Click below to send your email.

 

Bring mental health in from the cold

Your council today received their total budget from central government, so now they will decide how to spend it. We need to speak out on behalf of the most vulnerable in our communities to protect mental health services from unfairly deep cuts.

Help make your council’s job easier and tell them how important it is to protect services for people affected by mental illness. Don’t expect that they already know what services you value because, unlike the harsh weather, mental illness is too often an invisible issue.

Don’t leave people affected by mental illness out in the cold. Email your council now.

Footage of Jody McIntyre being pulled from his wheelchair by police.

Below is footage of Jody McIntyre (who has cerebral palsy) being dragged from his wheelchair by the police at the tuition fees protest in London last week.

The images are quite dark, but he can clearly be seen being pulled across the ground by a police officer, from about 1 min 25 onwards.

He has written about his experience on his blog and was featured in yesterday’s Telegraph. (Also The Independent on 14th Dec)

Here is another video from earlier in the day, featuring Jody at the front of the protesters, when the police start hitting people with batons.

Police dragged me from wheelchair twice during protests, says demonstrator

From the Sunday Telegraph

 

 

A disabled protester is to lodge a complaint against the Metropolitan Police, claiming he was twice dragged out of his wheelchair by riot officers during last week’s chaotic protests against student fees.

 

Jody McIntyre says officers beat him with batons and pulled him across the ground and has now accused the police of premeditated violence during Thursday’s protests.

The 20-year-old told The Sunday Telegraph: “I wasn’t the only one to suffer that day. The police deliberately used violence to try and provoke the protesters into fighting back and in that way losing public support.”

His claims came after the Independent Police Complaints Commission launched an investigation into claims that student Alfie Meadows, 20, was left fighting for his life after being struck by a police truncheon as he walked away from the scene of the protests…. click for full article

Also see Jody’s blog -  Life on Wheels.

Effect of benefit reforms on disabled people not known says Minister

From Community Care

 

Minister for disabled people, Maria Miller, has said she does not know how many disabled people will be affected by government plans to reform disability living allowance (DLA), or how much the changes will cost.

The admissions came in an interview with Community Care that followed the publication of plans to replace DLA with a new benefit – personal independence payment – that would have tighter eligibilty criteria.

Miller said: “Because the assessment process hasn’t been finalised we don’t have those figures. You can’t estimate the impact of something until you have finalised it.”

Community Care pressed Miller to disclose how many people the DLA reforms would effect. Listen to her answers…. click here for full article.

ONS publishes Life Opportunities Survey Interim Report

From the ONS website.

 

The interim findings of a major survey, which explores disability in terms of social barriers to participation, is published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The Life Opportunities Survey (LOS) is a new large-scale survey of disability in Great Britain. It is the first major social survey in Great Britain to explore disability in terms of social barriers to participation, rather than only measuring disability in terms of impairments or health conditions. In addition, an estimate of people with rights according to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) is provided.

LOS is run by ONS on behalf of the Office for Disability Issues (ODI).

 

Key findings:

The key findings of LOS between June 2009 and March 2010 are presented below.

 

Disabled people

29 per cent of adults had an impairment.

26 per cent of adults were disabled, as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

Participation restrictions for key life areas

On LOS, an adult has a participation restriction if they experience at least one social barrier to taking part in at least one life area.

 
• 17 per cent of adults with impairments experienced participation restrictions in their learning opportunities compared with 9 per cent of adults without impairments

• 56 per cent of adults with impairments experienced restrictions in the type or amount of paid work they did, compared with 26 per cent of adults without impairments

• 74 per cent of adults with impairments experienced restrictions in using transport compared with 58 per cent of adults without impairments

• 45 per cent of households where at least one person had an impairment were unable to afford expenses or make loan repayments. This compares with 29 per cent of households without any people with impairments

• 83 per cent of adults with impairments experienced a participation restriction in leisure, social and cultural activities compared with 78 per cent of adults without impairments

• 24 per cent of adults with impairments experienced a participation restriction to social contact (that is, being able to meet with close contacts as much as they would like) compared with 22 per cent of adults without impairments

• 12 per cent of adults with impairments experienced difficulty accessing rooms within their home or difficulty getting in or out of their home compared with 1 per cent of adults without impairments

• 29 per cent of adults with impairments experienced a participation restriction to accessing buildings outside their home compared with 7 per cent of adults without impairments

 

Click here for full report

Government cannot sue for benefit overpayments, court rules

From the Guardian

 

Department of Work and Pensions cannot take legal action to recover money paid as a result of its own error

 

The supreme court ruled today that the government cannot recover overpayments of social security benefits through the courts where the claimant is not at fault.

In a landmark judgment, the court declined to accept the government’s argument that the Department of Work and Pensions could sue recipients in the county court if they did not pay back overpayments that arose as a result of the department’s error.

Between March 2006 and February 2007, the government wrote to more than 65,000 claimants saying it could sue them for overpayments.

The legal argument, put in writing to those affected, was that the department was entitled to take benefit claimants to court under common law although the money was paid due to the department’s error and would not be recoverable under social security law…. click for full article.

Public Consultation on DLA Reform

More information about the proposed changes to DLA have been published and can be found here.

 

Main points:

 

• It will be renamed Personal Independence Payment.

• It will be non means tested, and payable in and out of work.

• It will be introduced in 2013-14.

• There will be a Mobility component (two levels), and a Daily Living component (two levels).

• There will be a medical assessment for eligibility for the majority of people. It will be similar to the ESA medical.

• It will only be available to people who have had their disability for 6 months (currently 3), and are likely to have it for at least another 6 months.

• There will no longer be automatic qualification for people with certain disabilities, except for those who are terminally ill.

• All claimants will be periodically reviewed, instead of many having indefinite awards.

• More account will be made of aids and adaptations used by the claimant eg in assessing higher rate mobility a person’s ability to use a wheelchair may be taken into account.

• The document says they will take into account fluctuating conditions.

 

 

The Government is consulting the public about their proposals, which must be submitted by 14th February 2011. You can contact them by writing to:

DLA Reform Team
1st Floor
Caxton House
Tothill Street
London
SW1H 9NA
Fax: 0 2 0 7 4 4 9 5 4 6 7
Email: consultation.dlareform@dwp.gsi.gov.uk