- This topic has 13 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 4 months ago by
.
- Topic
The Conservative green paper on UC making PIP means tested is very worrying as i can not get UC due to a small pension will we lose out here is the Article.
You are here: Home / Benefits and Poverty / Conservative conference: Coffey says merging PIP with universal credit is ‘on the table’
Conservative conference: Coffey says merging PIP with universal credit is ‘on the table’
By John Pring on 7th October 2021Category: Benefits and Poverty
ListenFocus
The possibility of merging personal independence payment (PIP) with universal credit is “on the table” as part of a fresh wave of social security reforms, work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey has admitted.In response to a question from Disability News Service (DNS) at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, Coffey twice refused to rule out the possibility of bringing the two benefits together.
DNS had asked her about suggestions of a merger between means-tested universal credit and non-means-tested PIP, raised in July’s disability benefits green paper.
Responding to the question, she initially spoke about a pilot project on productivity in work, but then conceded that “everything is on the table is the best way of saying it, because the green paper is quite broad and we want to get some focus on genuine innovative thinking”.
She added: “Are these benefits actually working? That’s the question I often say past my officials.
“Are they having the intended desire? And if not, what are we going to do about that?
“Or is there something that we can have [that is] better… in that regard.”
Asked again by DNS if she could confirm that she was not ruling out folding PIP into the universal credit system, she declined to do so.
She said instead that the reforms were about “the broader outcome of… improving processes, but also how we encourage and reduce the disability employment gap”.
PIP is paid to disabled people both in and out of work, is not means-tested, and is supposed to contribute towards the extra impairment-related costs they face.
The fringe event was hosted by The Centre for Policy Studies, the right-wing thinktank co-founded by Margaret Thatcher.
Coffey also made repeated references during the event to the need to cut spending on disability benefits, particularly PIP, which again was discussed in the green paper.
She said that “probably” the biggest increase in benefits spending had been on “health benefits”, while PIP had “grown in a way that was not anticipated when it was introduced”.
She said that three out of four young people who claim PIP – a total of 189,000 – state that their primary reason is their mental health.
Coffey appeared to suggest that reducing the number of young people in mental distress claiming PIP would help more people “think of the benefit system as fair”.
She said that targeting PIP on “people who really need that support” may improve the “public perception” that the system is fair.
But James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation thinktank, and former political editor of the Daily Telegraph, blamed the media and its use of words such as “feckless, idle, workshy” to describe benefit claimants, as well as the rhetoric of an “earlier generation of politicians”, such as George Osborne.
He said: “There has been a problem with the way we all collectively, media and politicians, talk about welfare.”
- Replies
thats the tories for you. they grudge it like it was coming out of their pocket
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoistAustralian welfare to work company carrying out combined PIP and WCA assessment pilot
From Benefits and work web site:
The UK branch of an Australian company heavily involved in the welfare to work industry is carrying out a combined PIP and WCA pilot with almost 1,500 PIP claimants in the DWP’s ‘Health Transformation Area’, the government has revealed.
As we highlighted in September, the DWP are to introduce a major change to the assessment system for PIP and the work capability assessment for ESA and UC, with just one company carrying out both assessments for any given claimant from August 2023.
The DWP say that are not planning to have a single assessment for both PIP and the WCA. But the same company will carry out both assessments using the same software platform and sharing information between the two assessments where possible.
In a written answer to a parliamentary question, minister for disabled people Chloe Smith revealed that Advanced Personnel Management Group (UK) Limited employs the health professionals currently working in the DWP’s Health Transformation area. This is a pilot area in which the new assessment system is being trialled.
According to Companies House, Advanced Personnel Management Group (UK) started out with the bizarre name of ‘Macbeth 22’ in 2003, before becoming Pertemps People Development Group (PPDG), which was a contractor on the Work Programme.
PPDG was bought out by the Australian company Advanced Personnel Management (APM) in 2015 and its name was changed to make it part of the APM group. APM appointed the late Alan Cave, a former DWP employee who ran the Work Programme, as the chief executive of its UK arm.
In Australia APM are one of the main providers of Jobactive, which aims to move welfare benefits claimants back into work.
In 2019 APM bought out another leading a leading UK government Work and Health Programme provider, Ingeus. At the time, APM Chief Executive Michael Anghie said:
“Around the world, governments are facing many challenges such as ageing populations, increasing mental health issues, pressured health budgets, migration and integration, and technology that is changing job opportunities. Some important solutions to these challenges relate to work, health and behaviour change, which is what Ingeus and APM both do really well.”
The DWP say that they intend to recruit their own healthcare professionals for the Health Transformation Area, but have given no timetable for when this might happen.
Joss
Current car: BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In metallic Portimão Blue. 04:10:2025
Previous car:Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.When ever we need to start making our feeling know about the injustices of this government the past decade here is a little pointer of what we can achieve.
?
it doesnt show disabled people in a good light. that isnt a protest its bloody mindedness
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoistHi struth
Yes I admit he is cantankerous for want of a better word and on that occasion had nothing to do with any protest and God knows I’ve seen a lot of his type around, disabled and non disabled.
Unfortunately its seems the only way to get heard these days and with all the hate crimes against the disabled that go unrecorded and a government, with the backing of most uninformed Joe public think cuts to PIP and other benefits is an easy option they can get away with as indeed Cameron and Osborne did after the great bank robbery of 2008.
Today protest here in Bristol is the hippies are blocking the exits to the local Amazon warehouse because its Black Friday and they don’t like Amazon. Tomorrow it will be something else they don’t like.
i agree we disabled get poorly treated in general by govt and by many businesses. at times you feel that your just a problem they want to disappear, or sweep under carpet. Of course we are not alone in that. But there is no doubt the press do govt’s dirty work for them at times.
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoist
The reason the Government gets away with their shoddy (and I’m being polite) treatment of the disabled is because we can’t/don’t riot in the streets of London, lobbing bricks through windows and setting cars on fire. Our peaceful protests never get any column inches (other than The Guardian) so the general public never see the counter-argument to the toxic drivel they get spoon-fed by the Daily Moan and all the other Tory mouth-pieces. Remember, even the ‘Lefty’ Press are owned by billionaires (via Media Companies) keen to look after their own financial interests.
I would argue that they get away with it because the yellow press “media” heavily plays into it. “Unfair that people get monies when the tax money could go into other, better things” – if you rile up the, frankly, pretty smooth-brained majority, as has happened multiple times over the last few years, it’s easy to get away with murder.
I just now realised that you actually said it yourself, so.. yeah, i agree. I disagree with rioting though, that wouldn’t make the problem go away or fix it. See every riot ever, where people afterwards are even more antagonistic towards the cause.
What we really need, imho, is an overhaul of the antiquated election system (FPTP), that by itself might already help enough. Once politicians have to fight for every vote, rather than “just enough votes”, stuff like this won’t be an issue anymore.
edit: or rather.. not that big an issue anymore, since they now are in a position where they could just push these changes through with no repercussions.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.I don’t say rioting is a good thing – just that it gets the splashy headlines that quiet dignity never gets.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-34732084
That’s fair, i misinterpreted your post. My bad.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.No worries! 😉
I feel sorry for those it effects ,isn’t it 2028 if they do that & effects disabled of working age. Yes ?
Bless you keep safe.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.