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Reform UK’s Lee Anderson has claimed that Citizens Advice “gamed the system” to help people claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – but This Writer has worked in the service, and I say that’s nonsense.
Anderson made the comment during a Reform UK press conference in which he and policy chief Zia Yusuf proposed tightening eligibility for PIP, claiming it would save up to £9 billion a year.
The plan would bar people with “less serious psychological conditions” – such as anxiety – from claiming and reinstate mandatory face-to-face assessments for all applicants.
Anderson, who says he briefly worked for Citizens Advice before entering politics, said he used to “tutor” claimants to ensure their applications succeeded. He boasted:
“We used to fill the forms out for clients before that application form went in. And I can tell you now, we were gaming the system.”
He went on to say that he could take “the fittest man in Ashfield” and secure a 100 per cent success rate on disability benefit claims.
That is not the experience of those who actually know what Citizens Advice does.
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As former vice-chair of Citizens Advice in Powys, I can confirm that the purpose of the service is not to help people cheat the system, but to help them understand what the system is asking of them.
PIP forms are notoriously complex, badly written, and — in my view — designed to trip people up.
Citizens Advice staff and volunteers help clients express their difficulties in coping with the challenges of everyday life – clearly and accurately, using evidence from doctors or carers when it is available.
That is clearly not “gaming the system”.
It is ensuring that people who need help aren’t denied it because of an opaque bureaucracy.
Anderson’s claim is especially hypocritical given his own party’s long record of attacking vulnerable people while excusing tax avoidance.
For example, Reform UK has proposed that individuals with non-UK domicile status (“non-doms”) pay a one-off fee of £250,000 to obtain a so-called “Britannia Card”, allowing them to live in the UK for ten years while enjoying exemption from UK taxes on overseas income, wealth or gains, and apparently inheritance tax benefits.
Tax experts have said the scheme “would mean a £31 billion tax cut for the wealthy” given the numbers involved.
The proposal to deny benefits to people with conditions such as anxiety and depression would throw thousands into poverty — and the mockery Anderson directed at those conditions – “I’ve had persistent sadness since July last year, this awful Labour government” – reveals just how little compassion lies behind the plan.
And it comes only days after This Site exposed how consecutive governments have imposed a policy of neglect on – particularly young – people suffering from anxiety and depression through no fault of their own.
NHS and UK government surveillance data show that up to 50 per cent of young people aged 11–22 experienced elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The number of under-25s receiving treatment for anxiety and depression has nearly doubled since 2020.
Mental and emotional illness caused by pandemic lockdowns is now directly responsible for the surge in sickness and disability benefit claims by people aged up to 22.
They are showing up in PIP and ESA claims, often with diagnoses of long-term anxiety, PTSD-type symptoms, or neurodevelopmental issues exacerbated by social isolation and disrupted education.
These are people who are suffering the direct consequences of being abandoned by government during the pandemic, and the current Labour government’s attitude to them is that it cannot afford the cost of putting them on benefit, and the NHS cannot cope with their treatment requirements (look at the size of the waiting lists) so instead it will legislate that they cannot be ill.
I stated in that previous article that “to legislate tighter benefit conditions or ‘redefine’ sickness so fewer people qualify is therefore to re-victimise the very generation already harmed by previous government failure”.
And now Lee Anderson is promising that if a Reform UK government is elected, it will worsen the agony for these victims of serial government neglect.
This is not serious policy-making – it is cruelty by design.
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Reform UK loudmouth lies that Citizens Advice is ‘gaming the system’ for benefit claimants
Share this post:
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson has claimed that Citizens Advice “gamed the system” to help people claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – but This Writer has worked in the service, and I say that’s nonsense.
Anderson made the comment during a Reform UK press conference in which he and policy chief Zia Yusuf proposed tightening eligibility for PIP, claiming it would save up to £9 billion a year.
The plan would bar people with “less serious psychological conditions” – such as anxiety – from claiming and reinstate mandatory face-to-face assessments for all applicants.
Anderson, who says he briefly worked for Citizens Advice before entering politics, said he used to “tutor” claimants to ensure their applications succeeded. He boasted:
He went on to say that he could take “the fittest man in Ashfield” and secure a 100 per cent success rate on disability benefit claims.
That is not the experience of those who actually know what Citizens Advice does.
As former vice-chair of Citizens Advice in Powys, I can confirm that the purpose of the service is not to help people cheat the system, but to help them understand what the system is asking of them.
PIP forms are notoriously complex, badly written, and — in my view — designed to trip people up.
Citizens Advice staff and volunteers help clients express their difficulties in coping with the challenges of everyday life – clearly and accurately, using evidence from doctors or carers when it is available.
That is clearly not “gaming the system”.
It is ensuring that people who need help aren’t denied it because of an opaque bureaucracy.
Anderson’s claim is especially hypocritical given his own party’s long record of attacking vulnerable people while excusing tax avoidance.
For example, Reform UK has proposed that individuals with non-UK domicile status (“non-doms”) pay a one-off fee of £250,000 to obtain a so-called “Britannia Card”, allowing them to live in the UK for ten years while enjoying exemption from UK taxes on overseas income, wealth or gains, and apparently inheritance tax benefits.
Tax experts have said the scheme “would mean a £31 billion tax cut for the wealthy” given the numbers involved.
The proposal to deny benefits to people with conditions such as anxiety and depression would throw thousands into poverty — and the mockery Anderson directed at those conditions – “I’ve had persistent sadness since July last year, this awful Labour government” – reveals just how little compassion lies behind the plan.
And it comes only days after This Site exposed how consecutive governments have imposed a policy of neglect on – particularly young – people suffering from anxiety and depression through no fault of their own.
NHS and UK government surveillance data show that up to 50 per cent of young people aged 11–22 experienced elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The number of under-25s receiving treatment for anxiety and depression has nearly doubled since 2020.
Mental and emotional illness caused by pandemic lockdowns is now directly responsible for the surge in sickness and disability benefit claims by people aged up to 22.
They are showing up in PIP and ESA claims, often with diagnoses of long-term anxiety, PTSD-type symptoms, or neurodevelopmental issues exacerbated by social isolation and disrupted education.
These are people who are suffering the direct consequences of being abandoned by government during the pandemic, and the current Labour government’s attitude to them is that it cannot afford the cost of putting them on benefit, and the NHS cannot cope with their treatment requirements (look at the size of the waiting lists) so instead it will legislate that they cannot be ill.
I stated in that previous article that “to legislate tighter benefit conditions or ‘redefine’ sickness so fewer people qualify is therefore to re-victimise the very generation already harmed by previous government failure”.
And now Lee Anderson is promising that if a Reform UK government is elected, it will worsen the agony for these victims of serial government neglect.
This is not serious policy-making – it is cruelty by design.
Support Vox Political!
With social media algorithms acting as gatekeepers – allowing users to read only what their owners want them to, sites like Vox Political need the support of our readers like never before.
You can help by making a donation:
https://Ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
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