UK: Disability benefits (UC, ESA and PIP) - news and updates 2024 (including PIP consultation)

FFS. The criteria are a bit absurd, aren't they!

If you had a prescription for antidepressants, an asthma reliever or an angina spray, you'd probably qualify even if you were at the mildest end of the spectrum. But because there's no treatment for ME/CFS and you can't see a specialist because there aren't any, it's hard cheddar no matter how ill you are.

You'd think people who're mostly housebound by any combination of illnesses would qualify automatically, as it's an indicator of significant disability.

Might be worth a letter to your Senedd member if you've got the energy?


The Octopus Agile scheme is good, by the way, if you can shift your heaviest usage out of the 4pm to 7pm window. I'm on track to save about £130 over the first year, even though my electricity consumption's only half the national average for a small house.

I still use the stove during peak times, I just try to avoid laundry, running the dishwasher, using the electric shower, and cooking things that need ages in a hot oven. I save up laundry for breezy days if I can, because it's cheaper; if it's really windy, they sometimes pay you to use it. That's the only time the tumble dryer ever goes on!

 

With the PIP you have to be able to do a thing
-reliably
-repeatedly (as often as needed, like cooking two meals per day)
- to a reasonable standard
- no longer than twice as long as someone without your illness

So I can indeed walk 200m, but if I do that once in a day I then can’t walk more than 5-10m for the rest of that day and the following day. I also can’t do that more than twice in a week. Therefore in PIP terms I can’t walk more than 20m, for the majority of the day/week.

I really recommend Benefits & Work to help, as well as the CAB, with PIP applications.

 

Why do NEST class it that way when the WHO and DwP class it as neurological?

 

DWP to introduce PIP benefit change under new Labour plans

DWP to introduce PIP benefit change under new Labour plans

 

Not to speak of feeding ourselves, and paying our bills, and buying necessities on an inadequate basic income.

The danger in exercises like this is that there are no questions allowing people to make clear that some of the extra costs of disability result directly from government welfare policy.

There are a lot of small costs that disabled people earning a liveable income can absorb without even thinking about it. I know this because it used to apply to me. Some of them can appear to be lifestyle choices even when they're not, including avoiding food intolerances by buying more expensive brands because they don't contain particular ingredients, and using specialised skin products to avoid eczema that used to be supplied on prescription and no longer are.

There are so many of these that it's incredibly laborious to calculate them, but as soon as you're in a position where there's no headroom at all in your finances, they start to have a big impact on your ability to stay well.

 

DWP to end key benefit payment two years earlier than planned

DWP to end key benefit payment two years earlier than planned

 

But....I was under the impression...that according to the current government.....UC was unfit for purpose, and that it would be scrapped when they got into power, which they have now done.

Diametrically opposed to the position they have now adopted, that UC is so fair and perfect that it should be rolled out much faster than the previous government intended.

Of course, as a disabled person on UC, I have absolutely no position on this, as that could be seen as a political statement if I had, but even so....it suggests that many of our leaders, of all parties, are [please insert polite and diplomatic term for 'bare faced liars', saying whatever is convenient for them at the time], as this is not a minor adjustment of their previously stated, shouted, position, it's even more than a complete and absolute reversal.

 

It's usually around a 50 minute wait, sometimes longer, and calls are not infrequently dropped halfway. It's frustrating, but unfortunately normal.

I wouldn't mind so much if they didn't alternate extremely loud music with much quieter announcements, so that you can't just turn the phone volume down, put the handset on the sofa, and wait until the racket stops. You have to keep picking it up to make sure it IS a recorded announcement, not a real person answering. When I'm in charge of the world, that will be classified as a form of torture and outlawed.

 

PS: you can claim by post by sending a request for a form to Freepost DWP PIP 1 (nothing else is needed on the envelope).

Allegedly it takes longer to claim that way, but that might not take into account the fact that it takes forever to get through on the phone at the moment.

Th other thing to say is that new claims are time limited. A clock starts ticking when your form is sent out, and if you don't return it within a period of time (Benefits & Work may be able to tell you roughly what that is), the claim's deleted from the system and you'd have to request a new form. It's not a ridiculously short time, but it's less than some people may need to finish an application. Thought I'd mention that, in case you hadn't picked it up.