Huge rise in homelessness among ill and disabled people is no accident
The Tories have been stepping up their hate campaign against sick and disabled people, with a 53 per cent increase in homelessness over the last year.
People with long-term illnesses who can’t work can claim Employment and Support Allowance, but the government has tightened criteria to the point at which assessments might as well start with an official telling the claimant they are lying – or deluded – about being ill.
Disabled people can claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), even if they can work – but the Tories have tightened criteria for that benefit too, meaning the chances of receiving the benefit are equally remote.
With PIP, 56 per cent of new claims, together with 28 per cent of claims by people who have been transferred from Disability Living Allowance, are refused.
Only 10 per cent of rejected claims go to appeal, which means 1,585,000 rejections have gone uncontested since the benefit – if you can call it that – was introduced.
With so many benefit claims rejected, sick and disabled people find it hard to make ends meet – especially if they have been housed in dwellings with more bedrooms than they need, laying them open to the Conservative government’s Bedroom Tax.
With all these Tory policies stacked up against them, it’s no surprise so many sick and disabled people end up presenting as homeless.
The Tories have made it the responsibility of local authorities to ensure that these people have a place to live, but – oh! That’s right – councils don’t get enough funding from Westminster to provide that service.
The upshot of all this is that, under the Conservatives, long-term illness or disability has become a fast-track to a life on the street.
A short life on the street; while Tory communities secretary Robert Jenrick says the number of people sleeping rough has fallen by two per cent in the last year, the reason for that is probably that a rough sleeper days every 19 hours in the UK.
It’s all part of the Tory plan.
The Nazis went after the sick and disabled first, too.
Source: Homelessness among ill and disabled people rises 53% in a year, figures show | The Independent
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that a rough sleeper
daysdies every 19 hours in the UK.Three months into my homelessness and all the council do is dig until they find a reason to say I’m intentionally homeless, because I always dreamt of a life like this!!! Being sick and disabled obviously isn’t hard enough!
This is an issue that needs discussion. I’m increasingly hearing about councils finding excuses to say homeless people are intentionally so.