Unsupported tropes used to cut disability benefits
One of the government’s most common tropes when it is discussing welfare is a desire to focus support on ‘the most needy’. Superficially...
top of page
Search
Mar 15, 202310 min read
Turning a terrible mess into a toxic one: #Budget2023
The budget today announced a lot of stuff, and most of it I’m not qualified to comment on. I’m interested, because I have a sister with...
Dec 11, 20194 min read
PIP: locking chronically ill people out of disabled benefits
PIP isn’t supposed to be about diagnoses. But even with my diagnoses, I have major difficulties getting benefits assessors from a range...
Dec 11, 20195 min read
Learning to live with chronic illness without independence
Recently I failed a PIP appeal. I get standard rate mobility - which at one point the Tribunal were minded to take away - but was...
Dec 11, 20194 min read
PIP: maintaining poverty, removing choice
The point of extra-costs disability benefits is to meet some of the costs experienced by people with disability, in order to raise them...
Jan 17, 20194 min read
How is PIP expenditure high, when disabled people are struggling?
The Office for Budget Responsibility has recently reported that spending on PIP, the Tory’s new extra-costs disability, was 20% higher...
Nov 12, 20186 min read
PIP appeal – overprepared fraud?
I had a PIP appeal today. I’ve been waiting for it for ten months. I don’t think it went well. There are some points in my favour: the...
Feb 27, 20174 min read
Governments have no right to be ignorant
The government still doesn’t know what its talking about. But this time it’s almost seven years on from when it gained power, and its...
Dec 12, 20159 min read
The government’s rationale for PIP shows it doesn’t understand disability
On Thursday the government released its response to the consultation on Personal Independence Payments (PIP), the successor to Disability...
Aug 23, 20134 min read
The importance of medical evidence for disability assessments
When it’s their word against yours, medical evidence is what proves you’re not the one lying. Medical evidence is what says that you are...
Aug 17, 20134 min read
Conservatives have ignored their history on disability benefit reform
A new disability benefit should reflect the policy intent that the important factor is not the medical condition but the effect that it...
Jun 15, 20134 min read
Mobility scooters aren’t an adequate replacement for legs
A couple of weeks back I wrote about a recent experience using trains as a disabled person. As one reader pointed out, part of my problem...
Jun 6, 20134 min read
The government doesn’t understand disability
On Monday the government started the roll-out of its new disability benefit, Personal Independence Payments. According to the government,...
Mar 29, 20133 min read
Disabled man is not a fraud
Yesterday, the Daily Mail ran the astounding story that a disabled man qualified for the benefits he received. Their surprise was great...
bottom of page