Ian Malcolm-Walker

Given the PIP

Ian Malcolm-Walker

Around 160,000 people, mostly with mental health issues, will lose their entitlement to help with getting around under Personal Independence Payments (PIP). The Tories claim this is not a cut but only reversing an entitlement that they never intended. That is a lie.

Under the old Disability Living Allowance, the lower mobility component was available to someone who needed guidance or supervision to follow an unfamiliar route. This included blindness, some mental health problems such as anxiety, autism, learning difficulty, etc.

Under PIP, eight points are needed. Due to the weighting of the descriptors, these can be scored only by someone who cannot undertake any journey due to distress, or to someone who cannot ‘follow the route of an unfamiliar journey’ alone.

The government now claims that recent judgments have broadened the way the PIP criteria should be interpreted, going beyond the original intention. Last year when the government did a U turn on PIP but not on Employment and Support Allowance, it promised no benefit more cuts this parliament which is why it has to make out they never intended to help people with mental health issues.

Had this been true, there would have been an even bigger fuss in 2012 during the consultation on the PIP assessment criteria and Regulations. Indeed in response to the consultation, the government said, “Concern was raised that the activity takes insufficient account of the impact of mental health conditions on mobility. We do not consider this the case. Individuals could potentially score in a number of descriptors in the activity if they cannot go outside to commence journeys because of their condition or need prompting or another person to accompany them to make a journey.”
.A full DPAC briefing is at
http://dpac.uk.net/2017/02/briefing-mps-lords-changes-pip-regulations/ 

Ian Malcolm-Walker

Somme thoughts

The Somme was a bloodbath.  The armies of the British Empire took nearly twenty thousand dead and sixty thousand casualties on the first day alone.

Ian Malcolm-Walker
Ian Malcolm-Walker

Letter to the Editor

Owen Smith has been quoted linking the word 'lunatic' to the leadership of the Labour Party.

Ian Malcolm-Walker
Ian Hodson

WHAT THE TORIES’ ‘LIVING WAGE’ MEANS

THE TORIES’ ‘LIVING WAGE’ has been a disaster for many low paid workers. Figures from the Low Pay Commission suggest that nearly half of all low paid jobs are in two sectors - wholesale/retail and hotels/ restaurants. The introduction of the living wage has resulted in a further widening of inequality in workplaces, with workers below the age of 25 being paid less and, in many cases, other workers having their overtime, shift premium and bank holiday payments slashed in order to fund a paltry increase. As a result of this, our union has seen strikes across the 2 Sisters Food Group, with potentially more to come.

Ian Hodson
WHAT THE TORIES’ ‘LIVING WAGE’ MEANS
Our correspondent

How PIP killed my sister

Diane Hullah killed herself by throwing herself under a train. Her sister, Helen Young, says she was driven to it by the anxiety of filling in a form for the controversial Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefit. Helen is calling for this barbaric system to be scrapped.  

Our correspondent
How PIP killed my sister