Not a single organisation that responded to a consultation by the last government was in favour of replacing a monthly cash payment for disability benefits with vouchers or one-off grants, civil servants have finally admitted.
Documents obtained through a freedom of information request show a “consistently negative” response from disabled people and others who were asked about proposals floated by the Conservative government shortly before its defeat at last year’s general election.
More than 16,000 individuals and organisations responded to the consultation on the Modernising Support for Independent Living green paper, which was launched just before the election.
The green paper was described at the time as a “brutal, ideological attack” on disabled people’s support.
The new Labour government refused to scrap the consultation but also declined to publish its results or respond to it.
Now the Benefits and Work website has obtained reports – much of them heavily-redacted – prepared by civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to sum up the responses from the consultation.
The confidential reports were sent to work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall and the minister for social security and disability, Sir Stephen Timms.
The most controversial measures proposed in the green paper had been replacing cash payments for personal independence payment (PIP) with a catalogue of equipment to choose from; with vouchers to contribute towards the cost of a disability aid; with a system forcing disabled people to claim back the cost of equipment by providing receipts to DWP; or with one-off grants for major purchases such as expensive equipment.
But the DWP reports obtained by Benefits and Work show that, of 115 named organisations that responded* – including British Deaf Association, Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP), Inclusion Barnet, Disability Rights UK (DR UK), Merton Centre for Independent Living, National Survivor User Network, WECIL and WinVisible – not one of them supported any of these ideas.
Of all the named organisations that answered the question, 92 per cent were opposed to vouchers (with the others neutral), with 91 per cent opposed to using receipts, 87 per cent opposed to the catalogue, and 84 per cent opposing the use of one-off grants.
Some of them suggested the proposals could push disabled people further into poverty.
DR UK said in its response that any future changes to the support provided by PIP “should focus solely on increasing the already meagre financial support given to claimants and should be co-produced with Disabled people”.
GMCDP made similar points, telling DWP: “The current entitlement thresholds are too high, meaning people who need PIP are denied it. More people should get PIP.”
It added: “Any changes should be done in co-production with disabled people and our organisations.”
One of the DWP reports said that organisations had raised concerns that “the independence that PIP was brought in to provide will no longer be there if cash payments were replaced”.
And one individual who responded to the consultation said: “I hate the very notion of a voucher scheme for anyone, as it stigmatises people and restricts what they spend their money on. It’s treating people like second-class citizens.
“I think the government should allow people (who are already stressed and ill) to spend their benefits on how they see fit.”
*DWP told Benefits and Work that a further 445 responses to the consultation had stated they were an organisation but had taken part through an online form and DWP had failed to ask for the name of the organisation on that form
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