PIP

The Guardian view on long waits for disability benefits: the system should not push people closer to poverty

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/13/the-guardian-view-on-long-waits-for-disability-benefits-the-system-should-not-push-people-closer-to-poverty

A protest at the Houses of Parliament in July 2025. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Image

Long delays in processing personal independence payment (Pip) claims have become one of the most damaging and least defensible failures in the UK’s welfare system. Pip is designed to support disabled people with the additional costs of daily living and mobility, yet for many claimants it has instead become a source of prolonged uncertainty, financial hardship and distress. Waiting months – and in some cases more than a year – for a decision can push people into debt, rent arrears and poverty, especially as Pip unlocks other support such as carer’s allowance.

Parliament has been sounding the alarm over the scale of the problem – but it appears the Department for Work and Pensions has its fingers in its ears. The stock response is that a new “health transformation programme” will lead to efficiency gains made by replacing paper Pip applications with an online claims system. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chair of the public accounts committee, last week pointed out that MPs had been told “three years ago that improvements would have manifested by now; we are now told that they are a further three years off”.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/13/the-guardian-view-on-long-waits-for-disability-benefits-the-system-should-not-push-people-closer-to-poverty

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.

Back on track ;)

Continue ReadingThe Guardian view on long waits for disability benefits: the system should not push people closer to poverty

Revealed: The areas where more than half of disabled people could lose their benefits

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https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/benefit-cuts-pip-dwp-labour-disabled-people/

Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Image: Flickr/ Alecsandra Dragoi/ Treasury

Labour’s disability benefit cuts will impact an estimated 800,000 people, of whom half will lose their PIP entirely

More than half of disabled people with daily living needs in parts of England and Wales could lose their benefits under the government’s welfare cuts, the Big Issue can reveal.

Analysis of data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which was published in response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Steve Darling, shows that at least half of all current claimants of the personal independence payment (PIP) daily living allowance in ten constituencies could lose this benefit under the government’s plans, which MPs are set to vote on next month.

These include highly deprived Labour seats such as Tipton and Wednesbury and Wolverhampton South East – the constituency of senior cabinet minister Pat McFadden. Meanwhile the least affected constituencies tend to be those with much lower deprivation levels such as Guildford – although even here, more than a third of PIP daily living claimants are at risk from the cuts. 

The most exposed constituency is Boston and Skegness, where 52% of claimants are at risk. The seat is represented in parliament by Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice. Polling for the Big Issue recently found that 68% of Reform voters believe Labour is failing on poverty.  

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The DWP’s dataset is detailed, showing what proportion of current PIP daily living claimants with each type of disability scored under four points in all daily living assessment categories, putting them at risk from Labour’s plans:

  • There are 97 seats where at least 80% of PIP daily living claimants with arthritis are at risk, peaking at 87% in Derbyshire Dales
  • Almost three-quarters of claimants with cardiovascular disease in North Cotswolds could lose out under the cuts
  • More than 70% of claimants with multiple sclerosis and neuropathic diseases in Lewisham East and Sheffield Heeley are exposed to the rule change

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published an interactive breakdown of the figures by constituency, though not including figures for the overall PIP caseload in each seat.

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See the original article at https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/benefit-cuts-pip-dwp-labour-disabled-people/

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.

Continue ReadingRevealed: The areas where more than half of disabled people could lose their benefits

The UN blasts Labour for its failures to address income inequality and poverty

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/un-blasts-labour-its-failures-address-income-inequality-and-poverty

TORY 2015/LABOUR 2025 SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: (Above) Workers and disabled people protesting outside Norfolk County Hall against Norfolk County Council cuts to services on October 2015 Photo: Roger Blackwell/flickr/CC

DR DYLAN MURPHY asks why Labour is continuing the Tory war on the disabled, when viable alternatives have been spelt out in detail

IN LATE February of 2025 the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued a damning report into the failures of Labour to address income inequality and the deepening levels of poverty in the UK.

The UN committee criticised Labour for failing to address “income inequality or reducing poverty,” which hamper “the progressive realisation of economic, social and cultural rights.’’

Ironically enough, the UN called on Labour to increase spending on housing, health, education and social security in order to reverse the huge damage caused by blue Tory austerity from 2010 to 2024. Since this call the red Tories in power have announced their intention to make massive cuts to public spending across all government departments except defence and maybe health.

On the issue of social security, over which Labour is determined to make killer cuts, the UN expressed serious concern about the impact of blue Tory austerity which had “resulted in severe economic hardship, increased reliance on food banks, homelessness, negative impacts on mental health and the stigmatisation of benefit claimants.”

Of course, food bank usage under Labour continues to grow as does the stigmatisation of benefit claimants which Starmer and company have engaged in with relish over the last few months.

Starmer, Reeves and Kendall seem to take a sadistic glee in attacking the disabled through the platforms of the Tory media using ultra right-wing rags such as The Telegraph and Sun to stigmatise the sick and disabled.

The biggest irony in this recent UN report is its call for Labour to actually increase the value of disability benefits such as PIP so that the UK can meet “the recommendations made by the special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/un-blasts-labour-its-failures-address-income-inequality-and-poverty

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Continue ReadingThe UN blasts Labour for its failures to address income inequality and poverty

DWP launches entirely bogus Green Paper consultation

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Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/dwp-launches-entirely-bogus-green-paper-consultation

The DWP has launched an entirely bogus consultation on changes to personal independence payment (PIP) and universal credit (UC) by refusing to consult on almost everything that matters most to claimants.

The Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper sets out proposed changes to PIP, including preventing anyone who does not score at least one 4 point or more descriptor from being eligible for the daily living component.

It also proposes to freeze the LCWRA (health) element of UC and abolish the WCA.

Non-consultation

Yet the list of things that the DWP is refusing to consult on, meaning there are no questions about them in the online consultation, includes:

  • Scrapping the WCA
  • Creating a single assessment for PIP and the UC health element
  • Freezing the health element of UC until 2029/30
  • Only awarding PIP daily living if you get at least one descriptor scoring 4 or more points
  • Restarting WCA reassessments until the WCA is scrapped

(You can find a full list of the issues the DWP will and won’t be consulting on at Annex A of the Green Paper).

Leading questions

Instead of asking for feedback on these vital issues, the consultation asks questions that make the assumption that participants accept that people should lose their PIP:

2. What support do you think we could provide for those who will lose their Personal Independence Payment entitlement as a result of a new additional requirement to score at least 4 points on one daily living activity?

3. How could we improve the experience of the health and care system for people who are claiming Personal Independence Payment who would lose entitlement?

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Article continues at https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/dwp-launches-entirely-bogus-green-paper-consultation

Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefiting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefiting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity.
Continue ReadingDWP launches entirely bogus Green Paper consultation

‘There is nothing moral about cutting benefits’

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Keir Starmer explainst the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/there-is-nothing-moral-about-cutting-benefits

Starmer under pressure over cruel plan to slash welfare budget

… KEIR STARMER came under pressure from MPs across the Commons over his cruel plan to cut benefits today.

Labour announced on Tuesday that it will slash £5 billion from the welfare budget by the end of the decade.

In the Commons, Labour’s Diane Abbott told Sir Keir to stop pretending his cuts were moral.

“There is nothing moral about cutting benefits for what may be up to a million people,” she said.

“This is not about morality, this is about the Treasury’s wish to balance the country’s books on the back of the most vulnerable and poor people in this society.”

Colum Eastwood from the SDLP told the prime minister of a constituent “who needed help, she had a disability. It meant that her children have to cut up her food, they have to help her wash between the waist, they have to supervise her when she goes to the toilet.

“Under the Tory welfare system we were able to get that lady on PIP. Under the Prime Minister’s new proposed system she will get zero, nothing.

“And after 14 years of the Tory government — and many of us wanted to see the back of them — can the Prime Minister answer one question – what was the point if Labour are going to do this?”

Green co-leader Carla Denyer urged a wealth tax instead of cuts, a policy quietly supported by many Labour MPs.

“We have a deeply unfair, unequal economic system where vast numbers of people are struggling yet billionaires are getting richer and richer,” she told Sir Keir.

“Does the Prime Minister really think that the way to tackle this is to put the onus onto older people, children and now sick and disabled people rather than on the shoulders of the super-rich with a wealth tax, those people who could most easily afford to pay?”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/there-is-nothing-moral-about-cutting-benefits

Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue Reading‘There is nothing moral about cutting benefits’