Benefit rights / guaranteed care income

Benefit exam exemptions — guidance for GPs & others

By winvisibleblog | 10/12/2017 | 9 Comments

Read our leaflets with guidance for professionals on the rules you can quote in letters and reports, for your patient or client to be exempted from the face-to-face exams: ESA or Universal Credit — read or download and print here Based on the regulations built into ESA/Universal Credit on “substantial risk to health” — mental or physical. PIP Personal Independence Payment — read or download and print here Based on the latest September 2019 PIP guidance to assessors issued by the DWP on exemption where: “there is strong evidence on which to advise on the case and … Read more

Disabled woman won housing under human rights

By winvisibleblog | 22/11/2017 | 1 Comment

Update September 2022 — this ruling has been overturned.  Read more here Previous info: We want to publicise the precedent legal case of a homeless disabled woman we helped, who won the right to housing in 2016, as we’ve heard of women in similar situations where the Council is refusing to provide accommodation.  During the time we supported her, she was often suicidal, but won in the end. (Note: the case was won on her personal circumstances, each situation is different, so anyone wishing to rely on this will need to get experienced legal advice.) … Read more

Benefit tests — evidence to MPs

By winvisibleblog | 11/11/2017 | 1 Comment

We gathered our experiences of the benefit assessments, to send to the all-party Work and Pensions Select Committee of MPs.  They are looking into assessments because so many people who are refused are winning their case at appeal. We say:  Assessments for ESA and PIP are set up to deny claimants the disability benefits they need and are entitled to. The assessor companies, Atos, Capita and Maximus which profit from these contracts, and the tests themselves, are discredited. (Since 2012, the British Medical Association has policy opposing the Work Capability Assessment and Atos.  Atos was forced … Read more

Work Capability Assessments — winning against reassessments…

By winvisibleblog | 11/10/2017 | 1 Comment

The government has announced that Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants in the Support Group, and Universal Credit claimants with limited capability for work and work-related activity (equivalent of ESA) attending a Work Capability Assessment from 29 September 2017, will no longer need to be reassessed if it finds that they: have a severe, lifelong disability, illness or health condition are unlikely to ever be able to move into work more info The DWP has not published detailed information on who is covered but Disability Rights UK has published the internal guidance on their website. And, … Read more

Stop Evictions, Campaigners Tell Edinburgh Council

By winvisibleblog | 07/10/2017 | 0 Comments

News from Mike, Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty: Single mothers hit by the Benefits Cap, and their supporters, once more descended on Edinburgh Council on 3rd October.  [Photo shows a previous protest in May 2017.] Demonstrators protested outside the City Chambers on the Royal Mile and then all moved into the public gallery to support the deputation addressing the Council committee meeting. “Scrap the Benefits Cap” and “Stop the Evictions” demand the campaigners.  The Westminster government’s benefits cap is drastically cutting the Housing Benefit paid to many families, especially – but not only – lone parents.  … Read more

Mental Wealth Alliance — action against Royal College of Occupational Therapists links with Capita

By winvisibleblog | 25/07/2017 | 0 Comments

Mental Wealth Alliance — action against Royal College of Occupational Therapists links with Capita and PIP assessments.  Sound system and open mic, placards. Thur 27 July – meet at Borough Tube at 9.45am – finish after lunch Where: Royal College of Occupational Therapists, 106 – 114 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1LB The recent conference of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) was sponsored by Capita. Their magazine has also been running adverts for PIP assessors – (an OT with 2 years post qualifying experience can earn £23.5k pa – Capita is able to … Read more

Disabled People Against Cuts week of action — local actions 18 July

By winvisibleblog | 18/07/2017 | 0 Comments

      14- 21 July Disabled People Against Cuts Week of Action    #SummerofDiscontent  #NotOneMoreDay  #CutsKill Tuesday 18th July – national Day of Action – check DPAC website for more info.     Our local action Tuesday 18th July 1-2pm Protest  vs benefit cuts & sanctions No Camden cuts  to social care Kentish Town Jobcentre 178 Kentish Town Rd London NW5 2AG with WinVisible, Unite Community Camden, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, Camden Momentum, English Collective of Prostitutes, All African Women’s Group, and others Wednesday 19th July – Lobby of Parliament for … Read more

Benefit sanctions: evidence to Public Accounts Committee of MPs

By winvisibleblog | 05/07/2017 | 0 Comments

Summary of our submission to the Public Accounts Committee in 2016 Benefit sanctions and threat of sanction are brutal, have killed people and must be ended. Women, including mothers, and families of colour, are the hardest hit by benefit cuts including the increase in sanctions. It is particularly cruel to sanction, or impose conditions that include the threat to sanction: sick and disabled people, mothers and children where the mother is on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA), mothers of children under five, and full-time carers on Income Support. Asylum seekers were the first to be made destitute … Read more

Lawrence Bond’s inquest

By winvisibleblog | 28/06/2017 | 0 Comments

With friends of Lawrence Bond at his inquest on 16 June 2017. Being found fit for work was kept out of the inquest, which lasted only half an hour. Anne Marie O’Sullivan and her mother Eileen, also bereaved, Unite Community Camden, members of Camden Momentum and other concerned people attended with WinVisible. Read more: Disability News Service interviews Iris Green, Lawrence Bond’s sister.  https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/shock-after-inquest-ignores-fitness-for-work-and-jobcentre-concerns/ At a showing of “I, Daniel Blake” in memory of Lawrence Bond, friends spoke about him and against the Work Capability Assessment (February 2017). See Payday’s short film https://vimeo.com/221415708/c5ca5f7c10   Discover more … Read more

Benefit stress and my success

By winvisibleblog | 21/06/2017 | 5 Comments

“There is a huge problem with benefits causing crises in women with mental health problems. It all started with the new ESA forms and has now been compounded by the PIP fiasco with many women being driven into panic by being denied benefits and then having to face long processes of challenge leading to tribunals which seem generally to be far more willing to understand and hear the real truth about the women’s situation and often give high rates for long periods. “What is really messing everyone up is that there is no facility for … Read more


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