Disability Living Allowance reform
Disability Living Allowance reform

Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-12-06

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780101798426

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The Government is committed to maintaining an extra-costs, non-means-tested disability benefit to support disabled people. Disability Living Allowance (DLA) has become confusing and complex and the Government proposes to introduce a new benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), in 2013/14 when it will begin reassessing the working age (16-64 year olds) caseload. PIP will consider the impact an individual's impairment or health condition has on their daily lives. Support will be prioritised for those who face the greatest day-to-day challenges. PIP will have two components: "Mobility" - based on ability to get around; "Daily Living" - based on ability to carry out other key activities necessary to participate in daily life. The benefit will only be available to those with a long-term health condition or impairment, and individuals will have to qualify for a period of six months and be expected to continue to qualify for a further six months before an award can be made. There will be an objective assessment of individual need, with no automatic entitlement. The assessment is being developed in collaboration with a group of independent specialists in health, social care and disability, including disabled people. The Government is considering how best to take account of use of aids and adaptations, and how they are used and paid for. Awards will be reviewed periodically, but individuals will still be responsible for reporting any changes in circumstances. The feature of DLA entitling the individual to other help and support will be retained.

Government's response to the consultation on Disability Living Allowance reform
Government's response to the consultation on Disability Living Allowance reform

Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-04-04

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13: 9780101805124

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On 6 December 2010, the Government published Disability Living Allowance reform (Cm 7984, ISBN 9780101798426) which set out its reform proposals and sought people's views. This document outlines the responses received, from both individuals and organisations, and provides further information regarding the replacement of DLA and the introduction of Personal Independence Payment for people of working age (16-64) from 2013/14. The Government will ensure that the new Personal Independence Payment remains a non-mean-tested and non-taxable cash benefit which people can spend in a way that best suits them. The aim, through the introduction of Personal Independence Payment, is to make the benefit fairer, more straightforward to administer, and for it to be easier and clearer to understand. There will be two components of Personal Independence Payment; a daily living component and a mobility component, each with a standard and enhanced rate. The Government is developing the assessment for Personal Independence Payment in collaboration with a group of independent specialists and will consider an individual's ability to carry out key everyday activities. The greatest priority in awarding the benefit will be that it goes to those individuals who are least able to carry them out. The application and administration process will be made as straightforward as possible. The Personal Independence Payment will not be extended to new or existing claims for children from 2013/14. And the proposal to withdraw the DLA mobility component from people in residential care will not now be implemented.

Government support towards the additional living costs of working-age disabled people
Government support towards the additional living costs of working-age disabled people

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-02-19

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 9780215041791

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The Government's Welfare Reform Bill includes measures to introduce a new benefit in 2013: the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for working-age claimants, to help meet the additional living costs of disabled people. A new eligibility assessment process will also be brought in. But this report finds that the Government should not introduce Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments nationally until it has satisfied itself, in the planned initial roll-out of the new assessment in a limited geographical area, that the assessment is empathetic and accurate. The report highlights a number of areas of concern. The current draft criteria on which the assessment will be based are still too reliant on a "medical model" of disability, and may fail to take sufficient account of the impact of social, practical and environmental factors, such as housing and access to public transport, on disabled people's ability to participate in society and the additional costs they therefore incur. The Committee believes that the Government should listen to the views of disabled people and their representative organisations and conduct a further trial before the criteria are adopted and the new assessment is introduced. Once the initial assessments for PIP have been completed in the first geographical area, the Government should look again at the value of face-to-face assessments for PIP claims where claimants' conditions are severe and unlikely to change. It is also important that DWP gets the contracting process with the private suppliers right.

Austerity Bites
Austerity Bites

Author: Mary O'Hara

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2015-04-16

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1447315707

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Since taking power in 2010, the Coalition Government in the United Kingdom has pushed through a drastic program of cuts to public spending, all in the name of austerity. The effects on large segments of the population, dependent on programs whose funding was slashed, have been devastating and will continue to be felt for generations. This timely book by journalist Mary O'Hara chronicles the real-world effects of austerity, removing it from the bland, technocratic language of politics and showing just what austerity means to ordinary lives. Drawing on hundreds of hours of first-person interviews with a wide range of people and, in the paperback edition, featuring an updated afterword by the author, the book explores the grim reality of living amid the biggest reduction of the welfare state in the postwar era and offers a compelling corrective to narratives of shared sacrifice.

Vox Political: Strong Words and Hard Times
Vox Political: Strong Words and Hard Times

Author: Mike Sivier

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2013-07-18

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 129149314X

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Always irreverent, often scathing, Vox Political has been commenting on the UK political scene since late 2011. Strong Words and Hard Times collects the best articles of 2012 into a handy volume, providing guidance and insight into the facts behind the rhetoric - in a way that everyone can understand.

House of Commons - Scottish Affairs Committee: The Impact of the Bedroom Tax in Scotland: Interim Report - HC 288
House of Commons - Scottish Affairs Committee: The Impact of the Bedroom Tax in Scotland: Interim Report - HC 288

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Scottish Affairs Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780215065827

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The Scottish Affairs Committee calls for the repeal of the Bedroom Tax. While this is being considered, the Committee calls on the Government to suspend application of the Bedroom Tax for all those tenants to whom a reasonable alternative offer cannot be made. There are not enough smaller houses available for tenants to transfer into. The lack of any alternative offers means that tenants have no choice but to go into arrears if they simply cannot afford the extra costs. Other amendments proposed for the operation of the tax include: exemptions for those disabled people who require a room to store or use equipment or aids; non application where it would be financially perverse to do so - eg where removing fixed aids and adaptations, and then reinstalling them in a smaller home, would be more expensive than the savings over two years; all children of secondary school age should be allowed a bedroom of their own to allow quiet study; all disabled children, of whatever age, should have a bedroom of their own. The Committee also calls for changes to the system of Discretionary Housing Payments, which have been designed by the Government to mitigate the worst impacts of the Bedroom Tax. There should be a standard nationwide entitlement system, across the UK as a whole, rather than the present postcode lottery. The UK and Scottish Governments should make longer term commitments to the provision of DHP payments in order to allow local authorities to plan and structure their budgets.

Implementation of the Right of Disabled People to Independent Living
Implementation of the Right of Disabled People to Independent Living

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: Joint Committee on Human Rights

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-03

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 9780108475320

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This report discusses the implementation of the right of disabled people to independent living in the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which was ratified by the UK in 2009. It draws attention to a number of significant human rights issues, including: the need for freestanding legislation to protect the right to independent living in UK law; the effect of current reforms to benefits and services on the ability of disabled people to enjoy independent living; the role played by the UNCRPD in policy development and decision making at all levels of government; the use of equality impact assessments; the effects of devolution on implementation of the UNCRPD; and hate crime. The right to independent living does not exist as a freestanding right in UK law. Although it is protected and promoted to some extent by a matrix of rights, the Committee believes that this is not enough. It argues that the Government and other interested parties should immediately assess the need for, and feasibility of, legislation to establish independent living as a freestanding right. The Committee finds that reforms to benefits and services risk leaving disabled people without the support they need to live independently. It also finds that the Government had not conducted an assessment of the cumulative impact of current reforms on disabled people. This report urges them do so, and to report on the extent to which these reforms are enabling them and local authorities to comply with their obligations under the UNCRPD

Dealing with the Complexity of the Benefits System
Dealing with the Complexity of the Benefits System

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2005-11-18

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 0102936153

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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its agencies, are responsible for administering around 40 social security benefits to the value of around £100 billion a year. Many of these benefits are linked together; hence some customers are in receipt of more than one benefit. The need for equity and fairness in interpreting legislation, is a cause of complexity. Incentives (e.g. to work) and rewards (e.g. for an individual's savings) have been built into procedures. Problems are caused by the interface between DWP benefits and tax credits (which are administered by HM Revenue and Customs); and by the constant flow of major and minor legislative and administrative changes. Simplified procedures would enable both staff and customers to understand the system better, and to avoid duplication of effort. There would also be less scope for benefits fraud (estimated at £2.6 billion in 2004-05). This NAO report also highlights the need for improved communication with customers and better use of new technology.

Understanding Disability Policy
Understanding Disability Policy

Author: Alan Roulstone

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1847427383

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We live at a paradoxical time for many disabled people: some achieve new freedoms while others face cuts in services and attempts to restrict who counts as disabled. Locating disability policy within broader social policy contexts, Alan Roulstone and Simon Prideaux critically explore the roles of social support, poverty, socio-economic status, community safety, spatial change, and other issues in shaping disabled people's opportunities. They also consider implications for future policy developments, including the impact of changing government and academic understandings of disability.

Austerity Bites 10 Years On
Austerity Bites 10 Years On

Author: Mary O'Hara

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2024-09-17

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 1447374525

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Austerity has proven deadly. Over the last decade, the damage caused by austerity measures in the UK has had a long-lasting and profound effect on many lives. The first edition of Austerity Bites offered on-the-ground reportage of one of the most significantly regressive economic strategies of any post-war government. Over a year Mary O’Hara toured the UK to gauge the immediate impact – and expectations of people affected – and found many clinging to the hope that austerity cuts would not last long as the damage became increasingly apparent. Alas, this was not how things unfolded. Instead, much of the Welfare State had its vital support systems systematically undermined. The public sector, including the NHS, is now on its knees. Schools are buckling under multiple structural and budgetary pressures. Councils – even big ones – are going broke. Homelessness is rampant. While Brexit, the pandemic, and war have no doubt impacted the economic health of the country, previous austerity cuts left the UK less prepared to weather such extraordinary events. With new commentary, Austerity Bites 10 Years On assesses on the true scale of the damage these policies have inflicted on the country’s most vulnerable groups, public institutions and on the wider society. It reflects on where we have been, where we are now and what needs to happen next to undo the damage and avoid the same mistakes again.