Benefit rights / guaranteed care income

DWP Green Paper — no benefit cuts!

By winvisibleblog | 20/10/2021 | 1 Comment

Here is our response to the DWP consultation: Shaping Future Support — Health and Disability Green Paper Response by WinVisible (women with visible & invisible disabilities) We are a grassroots multi-racial organisation with a UK-wide network, enabling disabled women of different backgrounds and situations to have a voice.  On benefits, we provide self-help information, peer support, advocacy and campaigning which has helped many disabled women win or keep hold of our benefit rights.   No cut to Universal Credit!  #CancelTheCut which hits sick and disabled people, single mothers and children, 300,000 unpaid family carers, many of … Read more

Wed 6 Oct: Picket the family court — stop Universal Credit cut. Take away our poverty NOT our children!

By winvisibleblog | 05/10/2021 | 0 Comments

WinVisible is joining this protest tomorrow. Join in person or on Twitter @NotSeparation @WinVisibleWomen Support Not Separation say: NO cut to Universal Credit! Protect mothers & children NOT violent men! “The family court picket is back! Join us Wed 6 Oct, 12.30 – 1.30pm“Outside London family court First Ave House, 42-49 High Holborn, WC1V 6NP “On the day the £20 a week cut to Universal Credit takes effect, we are back from lockdown outside the family court. Tens of thousands of children are taken into “care” every year. The cut to UC will have devastating consequences, especially for … Read more

Disabled woman left in limbo wins £4,000 UC disability payments

By winvisibleblog | 28/07/2021 | 1 Comment

Under COVID, sick and disabled claimants are losing vital benefits due to delays with assessments and decisions.  But with WinVisible’s support, Ms S finally won over £4,000 disability payments in May 2021 plus ongoing payments, after being left in limbo for 16 months stuck on Universal Credit (UC) basic rate.  Ms S has a severe auto-immune condition similar to Lupus, and anxiety.  Her telephone Work Capability Assessment (WCA) interview in July 2020 by the assessor company Maximus (also known as CHDA/HAAS) was deemed “inconclusive”.  She was told no decision could be made until face-to-face interviews … Read more

Event Sat 17 July 6pm: Welfare and Social Security

By winvisibleblog | 12/07/2021 | 0 Comments

This Saturday, we’re delighted to be joining our friends in Scotland and Ontario, Canada for an online discussion organised by Action Against Austerity. WinVisible will be sharing news of how we are winning individual benefit cases, and our welfare demands under the pandemic as disabled women/of colour/mothers and family carers, immigrant and UK-born. Register free here. Email us if support needed. ** Read our conversation with John Clarke and his criticisms of the Basic Income pilot which was run in Ontario. ** Read about Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty‘s campaign to “Stop the Reviews” of disability … Read more

Justice for Jodey: Fresh evidence shows need for 2nd inquest into death “caused by DWP”

By winvisibleblog | 25/06/2021 | 0 Comments

Shared from the Disability News Service By John Pring on 24th June 2021 “Fresh evidence shows that the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were a “central cause” of the death of a disabled women who took her own life after her benefits were wrongly removed, the high court heard this week. The court has been asked to order a second inquest into the death of Jodey Whiting in February 2017. Whiting, a mother-of-nine and grandmother from Stockton-on-Tees, took her own life in February 2017, 15 days after her employment and support allowance (ESA) was … Read more

Justice for Jodey — court to rule on 2nd inquest

By winvisibleblog | 24/06/2021 | 0 Comments

We all send our love and heartfelt support to bereaved mother Joy Dove, for a positive result after the High Court hearing which has just finished. Via her legal team, the three judges heard her application for a second inquest into the suicide of her daughter Jodey Whiting. Their ruling is expected in the near future. The first inquest in 2017 only lasted 37 minutes and the responsibility of the DWP who cut off Jodey Whiting’s benefits was excluded. At the High Court this week, the lawyer for the coroner argued against her that just … Read more

Moving home: ESA to Universal Credit

By winvisibleblog | 20/06/2021 | 0 Comments

Your benefit rights — if you have to move local authority area. If you are in the Support Group of ESA and have to move out of your local authority area, your ESA is not protected anymore, you have to claim Universal Credit (UC). We wanted to share some info you may not know — if you do have to move home, and go from ESA to UC as a “natural migrant”, you won’t start from basic level of UC and don’t have to do a new Work Capability Assessment. If you are in the … Read more

Care charges push pensioner below legal minimum income level

By winvisibleblog | 20/04/2021 | 0 Comments

Norfolk pensioner Valerie Bradley contacted WinVisible about the court ruling against Norfolk County Council, and asked us to publish her statement. She writes: “I received an email from the complaints manager Imogen Palmer. According to her, as l am over pension age, she states that the judicial review does not apply to me because l cannot work. I assured her by my reply that it does apply to me, as my Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) is acknowledged by Norfolk county council, as not falling below £189 weekly [for pensioners]. But then a charge was applied … Read more

Disability benefits: STOP the reviews

By winvisibleblog | 13/03/2021 | 1 Comment

Arianna from Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty is speaking at our Zoom workshop on Wednesday 17 March 1.30pm-3pm, about this campaign. Register on Eventbrite here. Shared from ECAP: Disability Benefits Must be Extended Indefinitely – STOP the Reviews! Several claimants being supported by ECAP recently received letters informing them that either their Personal Independence Payment or their Employment and Support Allowance award was to be reviewed. This news is bad enough at any time, as the review could result in your benefits being reduced or cut completely – but it’s even worse during a pandemic when … Read more

Welcome to WinVisible’s workshops on Zoom

By winvisibleblog | 07/03/2021 | 1 Comment

Welcome to WinVisible’s workshops on Zoom — three dates and topics coming up: Starting on Wednesday 17 March 1.30pm-3pm Women fighting for disability benefit rights under COVID How we win exemption from the hated interviews – Andie Left in limbo on basic Universal Credit: fighting Maximus and DWP “inconclusive” work capability telephone interview – S Winning £11,000 backdated PIP after being cut off for “failure to attend” the interview, due to cancer – ‘Rita’ Claimants with mental distress and the death of single mum Philippa Day – Ariane Justice for Errol Graham who starved to … Read more