Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #DisabilityBenefits
Most recents (4)
Honestly, I know it's not due to happen until 2026, but we've got to find a way to stop or at least change the reform to #DisabilityBenefits. Under the new plan,Everybody will be effectively subject to the sanctions regime on the whim of a work coach with a target! 1
It won't matter how badly your disability affects you and your day-to-day life, if they want to sanction you for not doing the impossible, they will and they will be legally entitled to. Again, I'm not trying to scare people I'm just stating the policy and why it's so evil. 2
Perhaps the worst part is that the White Paper states the point about work coaches deciding fitness for work in such flowery and dence language is to try and make it sound as if they're helping us. They are not this is a direct attack on people who can't work....3
Imagine being disabled to the extent where the DWP have already confirmed your inability to work and then suddenly having to go to the Job centre where a work coach who has never met you before and has no knowledge of you disability can say 'you can work now, and...1
If you don't start looking, you will be sanctioned.' Now this might seem ridiculous, but unless I'm reading it incorrectly, that is the reality of the system which the Tories are looking to introduce. I get that allowing people to try work while receiving benefits is a,,,
Good idea, however this system will punish those who absolutely have no prospect of working, the White Paper pledges that such individuals will indeed be protected, but in practice how will this happen when decisions are solely at the discretion of work coaches?It won't 3
#Thread Seven years ago today I applied for income -related ESA, at times the application process was very confusing, particularly the fact that during the initial call I had to do things like confirm my date of birth three times (surely once could have been enough) 1
And attempt to explain that I could not specify the number of hours per week I had attended the history and politics university course I had just finished because it varied so much between semesters as I'm sure a lot of UK uni students and staff can appreciate. 2
It took two calls to sort out this issue, and to confirm that I would infect need to provide medical evidence of my own unfitness for work for the first 13 weeks of my claim, despite initially being told it was completely up to my GP. With that having been sorted 3
#Dispatches reporter @richardbutchins is investigating the harm caused by the way the Department for Work and Pensions implements the #disabilitybenefits system. 1/
One of the experts who advised the Department for Work and Pensions on the benefit system, and raised concerns was clinical psychologist Professor Geoff Shepherd. 2/
#Dispatches conducted a survey which shows many disabled people feel this system impacts their health. We contacted 80,000 disabled benefit claimants and had over 3,500 responses. 3/
