PIP claimants ask government: ‘Why should we have to fight to live?’

Disabled people have described the crucial role that personal independence payment (PIP) plays in their lives, after the government announced proposals that could drastically cut support for many claimants if the Conservatives win the next general election.

Under the plans for England and Wales, which are now out for consultation, ministers are considering making it harder to claim disability benefits and replacing cash-based payments with vouchers or one-off grants.

The proposals for reforming PIP were laid out on Monday in a new green paper, Modernising Support for Independent Living.

The publication provoked an angry reaction from disabled campaigners, who called the government’s plans insulting, dangerous and dehumanising (see separate story).

One PIP claimant, Deborah, who has several health conditions and is in her 70s, told Disability News Service (DNS) that she was angry that disabled people were constantly being “attacked” by the government.

Because of her double incontinence, she needs to run her washing-machine several times a week, and due to osteoarthritis, if no-one is available to help her shop she has to pay for a taxi.

Her local council cannot afford to pay for an adaptation to her bathroom, so she has to wash sitting on the toilet.

Even with the PIP she receives, she cannot afford the walk-in shower she needs, and she has to keep her hair short because cannot always wash it herself.

She is hoping to receive physiotherapy on her arms, but she will then need her PIP for travel to and from the hospital, and if she has surgery she will need to pay someone to cook for her or will have to buy expensive takeaways.

Deborah told DNS: “Why should I have to fight to live? If you do get PIP, it is clear they are selectively leaving out the full extent of your care needs, but you don’t challenge it for fear of a reassessment.

“Citizens Advice are so limited with the help available you just live on the rate and be grateful. But if they take PIP away then there is no hope.

“At the moment I have that help at night to get to the toilet, but if they take away my PIP I would have to find extra money from my pension, which I couldn’t do.

“I would be living in my own filth.

“At the time of my next assessment I will be nearly 80 and because of my cognitive impairment I will need to be sure the help will be there and I don’t have to fight for help.”

Another PIP claimant, Margaret Robinson, from West Yorkshire, told DNS that the government was “creating a divisive dialogue as always” and was “trying to stir up hostility” towards disabled people.

She emailed work and pensions secretary Mel Stride this week about his “inappropriate plans” and told him they could “make life increasingly miserable” for thousands of disabled people.

She told him that disabled people’s needs “go beyond adaptations and living aids”.

She told him: “This benefit is designed to support recipients living in their own homes and remain as independent as possible.

“Take PIP away, and the disabled may struggle to afford their living costs at home, especially those people who rely on other enhanced benefits associated with receiving PIP.

“Household incomes may be severely reduced, increasing levels of dire poverty.

“More disabled people may end up living in care home environments or sectioned as their physical and mental health breaks down, increasing spending on social care and the NHS.

“Local authorities will not be able to meet demand for social care and care home places because the current state of budgets across the country is resulting in cutbacks and closures.

“More disabled people may end up hospitalised as their health deteriorates. This will put further strain on NHS spending and waiting lists.

“Increasing numbers of disabled people living alone may possibly die from increased isolation and neglect. Suicide and homelessness may be increased risks.”

She called on Stride to ensure there was a consultation that heard from a wide range of disabled people who receive PIP, and not just charities and representative bodies.

She told DNS that the prospect of having her income reduced to a basic level of employment and support allowance or universal credit was “deeply unsettling”.

She said: “I have considered it each time my PIP is reviewed and increasingly now the political parties have decided benefit spending is a reduction target.

“My mental health deteriorates and overwhelms me to the point of inertia each time the media report another ‘initiative’.

“My quality of life (which my family think is already poor) will be reduced even further if I lose PIP.

“I will have no quality of life, my income won’t cover the basics and [it] will increase my vulnerability.”

She added: “The attitude towards benefits recipients is being fuelled by a hostile and divisive narrative from government and, increasingly, the opposition.

“The welfare state is a safety blanket for us all and needs evolving to reflect the fluidity of the challenges we face today.

“I was a tax-payer and I felt proud to contribute to the welfare state.

“Hard work should be rewarded but… hard work doesn’t always pay off and the best of us can end up jobless, sick, disabled and on benefits – the pandemic being a case in point.”

The 12-week consultation closes on 23 July.

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