MSE News: Welfare reforms 'to hit disabled'

"Around 500,000 disabled people are expected to lose out when the Disability Living Allowance is scrapped, says a report ..."
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Welfare reforms 'to hit disabled'

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Comments

  • Whilst the Gravy train at Westminster rolls on and on
    The DWP = Legally kicking the Disabled when they are down.
  • krisskross
    krisskross Posts: 7,677 Forumite
    Whilst the Gravy train at Westminster rolls on and on

    Reading some of the amounts claimed via disability real and exaggerated I would suggest that to many people it is a Disability Gravy train.
  • miduck
    miduck Posts: 1,800 Forumite
    Why do the forum team post these things on this board? The threads only ever seem to go one way ...
  • rogerblack
    rogerblack Posts: 9,446 Forumite
    krisskross wrote: »
    Reading some of the amounts claimed via disability real and exaggerated I would suggest that to many people it is a Disability Gravy train.

    Despite government ministers who would dearly love to be able to say 'Fraud is 30% of disability benefit payouts' - DWP research based on checking up in detail on a random set of claimants found it to be around 0.5%.

    The continued spinning against the disabled by ministers has been very obvious, often coming not much short of flat-out-lying.

    Statements like 'Only 7% of claimants to ESA are found to be unable to do any work' - implying that 93% are workshy scroungers.

    When the reality is that ESA is claimed for periods as short as a week, for short-term injuries and illnesses.
    Someone claiming with a broken leg will never get to the 13 week assessment, so will never be 'found unfit for work'.

    It also neglects that you can be found 'sort-of-fit-for-some-work.'
    People in this position are often severely disabled - and yet the assumption that they can work if they try has been used to justify everything from housing benefit cuts to time-limiting ESA.

    The real figure if you go through all the problems with the '7%' figure is closer to 70%.
    (assuming everyone had representation to properly put their case to the tribunal, and to assist them through the process).

    It's also important to realise that the remaining 30% are often quite disabled.
    Simply being found fit for work doesn't mean you are.

    This sort of spinning has been directly linked to the rise on attacks on disabled people.
  • Dunroamin
    Dunroamin Posts: 16,908 Forumite
    rogerblack wrote: »
    Despite government ministers who would dearly love to be able to say 'Fraud is 30% of disability benefit payouts' - DWP research based on checking up in detail on a random set of claimants found it to be around 0.5%.

    The continued spinning against the disabled by ministers has been very obvious, often coming not much short of flat-out-lying.

    Statements like 'Only 7% of claimants to ESA are found to be unable to do any work' - implying that 93% are workshy scroungers.

    When the reality is that ESA is claimed for periods as short as a week, for short-term injuries and illnesses.
    Someone claiming with a broken leg will never get to the 13 week assessment, so will never be 'found unfit for work'.

    It also neglects that you can be found 'sort-of-fit-for-some-work.'
    People in this position are often severely disabled - and yet the assumption that they can work if they try has been used to justify everything from housing benefit cuts to time-limiting ESA.

    The real figure if you go through all the problems with the '7%' figure is closer to 70%.
    (assuming everyone had representation to properly put their case to the tribunal, and to assist them through the process).

    It's also important to realise that the remaining 30% are often quite disabled.
    Simply being found fit for work doesn't mean you are.

    This sort of spinning has been directly linked to the rise on attacks on disabled people.

    Describing something as a "gravy train" doesn't necessarily imply fraud.
  • clemmatis
    clemmatis Posts: 3,168 Forumite
    krisskross wrote: »
    Reading some of the amounts claimed via disability real and exaggerated I would suggest that to many people it is a Disability Gravy train.

    I guess you'd know.
  • rogerblack
    rogerblack Posts: 9,446 Forumite
    Dunroamin wrote: »
    Describing something as a "gravy train" doesn't necessarily imply fraud.

    I was assuming that this was the posters intent.

    We want disabled people into work, if they can possibly manage it.
    Reducing support, or providing poorly targetted support may mean they can't obtain, or keep employment.

    In general, for various reasons - timekeeping, impairments, ... the disabled are in lower paid work.
    Additional help can be crucial in enabling them to keep in work.
  • clemmatis
    clemmatis Posts: 3,168 Forumite
    rogerblack wrote: »
    I was assuming that this was the posters intent.

    We want disabled people into work, if they can possibly manage it.
    Reducing support, or providing poorly targetted support may mean they can't obtain, or keep employment.

    In general, for various reasons - timekeeping, impairments, ... the disabled are in lower paid work.
    Additional help can be crucial in enabling them to keep in work.

    Yes. And just today we hear -- again -- that councils are cutting back drastically on care given to disabled people, including care that helps them stay in work.
  • Dunroamin
    Dunroamin Posts: 16,908 Forumite
    rogerblack wrote: »
    I was assuming that this was the posters intent.

    We want disabled people into work, if they can possibly manage it.
    Reducing support, or providing poorly targetted support may mean they can't obtain, or keep employment.

    In general, for various reasons - timekeeping, impairments, ... the disabled are in lower paid work.
    Additional help can be crucial in enabling them to keep in work.

    You'll have to ask Invalidation what he meant by the term.

    Additional help and support doesn't necessarily mean additional funding for the individual which can often be counterproductive.
  • JohnRo
    JohnRo Posts: 2,887
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Dunroamin wrote: »
    Describing something as a "gravy train" doesn't necessarily imply fraud.

    Yet the implication is, in all honesty, quite clear, so why the pretence. The upshot is that support for those with disability is a drain on finance and resources, that's a fact.

    Whether it is the massive problem that those with an agenda portray it to be, all other things considered as a whole, is another matter entirely.
    'We don't need to be smarter than the rest; we need to be more disciplined than the rest.' - WB
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