Emergency debate is last-ditch attempt to stop unfair curbs on disability benefit
Dementia sufferers are among people who will be affected by curbs to Personal Independence Payments [Image: iStock].
A final attempt to halt controversial curbs to disability benefits will be made [today, March 29], after MPs were granted an emergency debate.
Ministers will be accused of a “troubling subversion of democracy” after sneaking through the changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIPs), hitting the mentally ill.
Ministers refused to allow a vote on ‘emergency legislation’ to tighten the criteria for PIPs, overturning a tribunal ruling that they should also cover conditions including epilepsy, diabetes and dementia.
Anger grew when it emerged the Government’s own welfare experts had called for a delay until the changes had been properly tested and “clearly understood”.
It was “not clear” how assessors would interpret the changes – raising the danger that claimants would not be “consistently treated”, the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) warned.
On Monday night, the Government was defeated in the House of Lords over the controversy on a Labour motion “regretting” the changes and demanding a review of their impact on people with mental health conditions.
Now MPs will finally get to put the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the spot, after John Bercow, the Speaker, granted the 90-minute debate.
Source: Disability benefits: MPs granted emergency debate in final attempt to halt controversial curbs
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There’s virtually no hope that this last-ditch emergency debate will have a material effect; the government has enacted emergency legislation to stop the PIP changes from happening. (They did the same thing in 2013 re the Poundland case, and that only involved £130 million. The PIP changes, on the other hand, would cost the DWP £3.7bn extra by 2022.)
We can but hope, but the reality is that the so called assessors are not in way qualified to make decisions on what is referred to as the invisible illness’, whether mental or physical, and using an idiot sheet which has no real basis in any form of decision making, for disability or incapacity.
so wrong to criticise these assessors, with there five week training what do we need a NHS for, reminds me of the documentary years ago, your life in there hands, i would not trust one of these guys or there companies to shake my hand if i chose to let them!!!
knowing what this government are like they probably had the loud-mouthed idiot from yorkshsire trying to talk about how great he is for 90 minutes, i missed the debate as was out, any news on this?
It’s time to look at Capitalism http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/capitalism-is-the-crisis/