campaign against welfare cuts and poverty
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tonysingh
Random Clever and Witty Strapline
They’re really doing it.
Mental health focus of PIP disability benefit overhaul
Disability payments that help with extra living costs could be scrapped in favour of more tailored support.www.bbc.co.uk
This terrifies me. I depend upon my PIP payments.
Silas Loom
Advanced. Forthright. Signifficant.
Labour’s manifesto is already written. They have announced that the triple lock for pensions is intact. They are in a position to make a clear statement on PIP and ESA. It would be helpful if they would do so.
For people with mental health, PIP could be replaced by treatment. You mean, what people are already supposed to get? Quite apart from the fact that, for some people, treatment can only get them so far and can never be a full cure. I also love the fact that they’re picking on people with anxiety and depression. Severe anxiety or depression can be just as severe as a condition like psychosis or bipolar.
Silas Loom
Advanced. Forthright. Signifficant.
Unfortunately Labour’s response so far to the green paper on PIP has been to talk about welfare traps and pathways to work, which may be relevant to ESA but is of course nothing to do with PIP. Oh, that and pointing out that PIP was a Tory invention to replace DLA anyway.
That doesn’t augur well.
That doesn’t augur well.
tonysingh
Random Clever and Witty Strapline
The part about possibly offering treatment is laughable. There simply isn't any help out there for some people and even for those who could access therapy and suchlike, the waiting lists are often horrendous. Quite where Sunak think he's going to magic up the different mental health clinicians from is beyond me.
Its electioneering of the worst kind, punching down at the most vulnerable in our society.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
I work on the treatment side of mental health. The level of provision is parlous - it's a constant game of pushing people around between agencies trying to find some kind of short-term fix that will keep them going until the next one.
To remove support from people who are already going through this is an act of calculated brutality, no less.
tonysingh
Random Clever and Witty Strapline
Even just the threat of it is bad enough, I can wager that a great many people are having a crisis right now over this
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
I have no doubt that you're right. And - at least in our area - there is now no longer the GP surgery-based services to help them. It absolutely boils my piss.
tonysingh
Random Clever and Witty Strapline
It's designed to scare people away from claiming any form of help or support as well, i'm sure of it. This could and probably almost certainly will, end with some people harming themselves or worse. Given we already know the Tories care not a jot about the blood on their hands, they likely want that result. I'm really concerned for those who are going to be affected by this. God this government makes me so angry. The General Election and the evisceration of them cannot come soon enough.
tonysingh
Random Clever and Witty Strapline
btw, any criticism I've made of the mental health services on this thread or elsewhere here is purely aimed at the situation in my hometown and not at you so apologies for any offence I may have caused.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
It is a fairly universal problem - which gets rid of the silly whataboutery that happens when supporters of the current government try to write it off as a localised problem.
I've had involvement of one kind or another with the mental health system for the last 35 years or so, and it's been pretty poor throughout that time. We see a series of failures and disasters across the board, and every time some catastrophe arises, the health boards go on about "lessons learned", while the Government bangs on about how they just put another £4.23 into the mental healthcare system, so everything will be fine.
The reason we are having this massive explosion in PIP applications is because - duh - there is a massive explosion in people experiencing mental health difficulties, not being able to get any help, so the can gets kicked down the road, and many of them get worse. When I see what even comparatively short - and, by NHS standards, cheap - interventions can achieve, it appalls me that, in those 35 years, no government seems to have had the wit to realise what the downstream costs of chronic and pervasive mental ill health in the community are. Now we're seeing an extreme uplift, largely I suspect thanks to a combination of economic uncertainty, Covid, and current government health policy, and they're acting all surprised and as if it's just that a great chunk of the population has decided to experience moderate-to-severe mental ill-health, for a laugh and a handout.
Waiting lists for NHS post-traumatic treatment around here are 2 years. There is a barely-functioning primary care CBT therapy option, waiting list currently 6 months, and god help you if you need an acute bed.
Suicide rates are climbing alarmingly - they have pretty much doubled since I started working in this area - and yet every time someone dies by suicide, the official reaction is surprise and shock, as if they really didn't have a clue how it came to that...when in reality, the vast bulk of those who die by suicide were known to someone in "the system" long before they ended their life.
None of this is aimed at those working at the coalface. I know quite a few of them, and they are caring, dedicated professionals trying to do far too much with not enough. They know that the big task is hopeless, and it ends up being a situation where you just try to help whoever is in front of you through whatever they're going through, and not get yourself into a state about the bigger picture, and all the people you can't help.
Modernising support for independent living: the health and disability green paper
This consultation seeks views on the approaches government should consider around modernising the welfare system for people with disabilities and health conditions.
The consultation is here, if you have the energy.
tonysingh
Random Clever and Witty Strapline
Modernising support for independent living: the health and disability green paper
This consultation seeks views on the approaches government should consider around modernising the welfare system for people with disabilities and health conditions.www.gov.uk
The consultation is here, if you have the energy.
I get PIP because I have several serious Personality Disorders, autism and and chronic heart failure.
How screwed am I?
I think they’re aiming for the low hanging fruit (as they think). People with more severe conditions will be ok, is my theory. Try not to worry too much because worrying means you live the bad stuff twice (says a chronic worrier).
tonysingh
Random Clever and Witty Strapline
I worry about the people this will affect, should it happen but thank you for being kind and easing my somewhat frazzled head.
newme
Giant in Pastyland now
We need to get help get someone on these kind of things soon, anxiety/depression which probably should have been claimed for years as it absolutely interferes with the ability to work but the whole process is obviously not great for someone with those conditions. Then the things about how it affects your daily life seem a weird qualifier to begin with, sure they can wash and dress themselves and basically not die. None of which has any impact on whether they have a massive panic attack during work, which could happen daily.
Karl Masks
Birds Angel Delight
That indeed is what charities are reporting. When the Tories annoucnbed this latest round of oppression calls to crisis teams and support lines increased.
teqniq
DisMembered
Please sign and share:
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Review and reform Carer's Allowance to increase support and reduce overpayments
We want a full review and reform of Carer’s Allowance to ensure that it works well at supporting unpaid carers, including raising the level and eligibility criteria for the benefit. We want systems to be modernised and urgent action from DWP to cap and prevent large overpayment debts for carers.
petition.parliament.uk
MrsArcanum
This is Ruby, conqueror of the Scotland 500.
Also PIP is regardless to whether someone works or not. The Personal Independence Payment could be the difference between someone funding a car to get to work or not working at all.
There are a lot of misunderstandings about PIP that the Tory government deliberately chose to not put right in order to demonise benefit claimants.
MrsArcanum
This is Ruby, conqueror of the Scotland 500.
Hopefully the new government will set up a new petitions committee soon, then this Petition will take off - certainly amongst Carers and Lib Dems.Please sign and share:
Petition: Review and reform Carer's Allowance to increase support and reduce overpayments
We want a full review and reform of Carer’s Allowance to ensure that it works well at supporting unpaid carers, including raising the level and eligibility criteria for the benefit. We want systems to be modernised and urgent action from DWP to cap and prevent large overpayment debts for carers.
Dystopiary
putting up a hook to hang my hopes upon
Liz Kendall, the new Work and Pensions Secretary, has already begun with the attacks on benefit claimants.
That's after the new Labour government mentioned disabled people just once out of more than 19,000 words in six days.
The DfE said in the press release that the education and care system “does not currently meet the needs of all children, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)” and talked of plans to improve inclusion in mainstream schools.
Aside from that, nada, until Kendall's "economic inactivity" statement above.
Six days and 19,000 words into a new government, and just one mention of disability… then DWP claimant-blaming begins again
That's after the new Labour government mentioned disabled people just once out of more than 19,000 words in six days.
The DfE said in the press release that the education and care system “does not currently meet the needs of all children, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)” and talked of plans to improve inclusion in mainstream schools.
Aside from that, nada, until Kendall's "economic inactivity" statement above.
Six days and 19,000 words into a new government, and just one mention of disability… then DWP claimant-blaming begins again
MrsArcanum
This is Ruby, conqueror of the Scotland 500.
The real economically inactive are those like my husband who managed to retire early with a final salary pension. Or my former boss who reached a point when they could afford to quit work and do something for the challenge/enjoyment rather than the grind.
There is no forcing these people back into work.
Continuing to pick on the disabled is nasty and vicious, and completely misses the point that an NHS on its knees is the real reason people are not working. Sort out Care and Support, cut waiting times and actually do more to get people seen and treated correctly for MI and maybe more people could get back to work.
LakieLady
Well-Known Member
Reeves was on Tory Laura's show this morning, and again ruled out removing the two-child limit on benefit payments.
I'd like to say that I'm horrified that a Labour chancellor could continue with a policy that directly affects the children of the poorest households so badly, but these days I don't expect anything different from them.
I'd like to say that I'm horrified that a Labour chancellor could continue with a policy that directly affects the children of the poorest households so badly, but these days I don't expect anything different from them.
MrsArcanum
This is Ruby, conqueror of the Scotland 500.
At least the Lib Dems will keep pushing them to change this policy.
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