Dear friends, Your views and support are needed on new proposals for the benefits system from the Commission on Social Security, a claimants’ panel. Please share this with your friends and networks. Responses to the questionnaire needed by 31 October Disabled mothers and family carers on the Commission, including us, pressed for proposals to include a living wage for carers of disabled people. And to extend this to mothers. A living wage would recognise the unwaged work which mothers and other carers do, including disabled women ourselves, to ensure the survival and welfare of people … Read more
This Friday morning, WinVisible is speaking at an online event for the Right to Food, held on UN World Food Day. Webinar 10am to 11am. Free registration here This webinar is organised by the Right to Food project at Sustain: the Alliance for Better Food and Farming and HEAR the pan-equality London network, as part of London Challenge Poverty Week. Info below from the joint organisers: “We will hear from speakers about what they believe needs to happen in order to ensure that all Londoners have their right to food respected.“ About this Event “On this webinar we will hear from … Read more
Shared from Disability News Service, with thanks DWP ignored coroner’s call to take action to save claimants from suicide By John Pring on 16th July 2020 The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) rejected a coroner’s call to act to prevent benefit claimants taking their own lives, following the suicide of a young woman who had told her work coach that she intended to kill herself. Documents released this week under the Freedom of Information Act show that the DWP dismissed both the coroner’s plea to take action, and the findings of an inquest jury which … Read more
We’re sharing the 17 June update from our friends at Benefits and Work welfare rights site. Opinions are by Benefits and Work, we’ve added comments below. “MINISTER REFUSES TO CONFIRM FACE-TO-FACE ASSESSMENT BAN WILL CONTINUE” Mystery surrounds how long telephone assessments for PIP and ESA are to continue after a government minister refused to give an answer today, as the ban on face-to-face assessments expires. Face-to-face assessments were banned for a period of three months from 17 March to June 17 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began to grip. Instead they were replaced by paper … Read more
WinVisible has joined in signing an open letter to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak calling for Child Benefit to be increased to £50 per week per child. From Thrive Teeside (in the North East of England) the letter is supported by women’s and community groups, and prominent people. The letter also calls for the abolition of the two-child limit and total benefit cap which deprive children of benefits, as well as no five-week wait for Universal Credit. Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP Chancellor of the Exchequer Her Majesty’s Treasury 1 Horse Guard’s Road London SW1A 2HQ … Read more
Good news of two legal challenges being prepared, to tackle: the refusal of critical care medical treatment to disabled people the struggle to get basic food supplied by supermarkets Access to critical care NHS treatment The NHS COVID-19 “decision support tool“, a chart used to refuse critical care to older and disabled people, has alarmed people, some who didn’t already know that treatment is rationed and withheld. Relatives of older people in care homes are shocked to realise that if their loved one is taken ill, an ambulance would not be called to take them … Read more
People may know already that disability benefit reassessments and reviews are on now hold because of coronavirus precautions. So if your disability benefit was due to end or be reviewed, it will continue to be paid for the next three months or longer. As far as we understand from official information, people making completely new claims will be assessed by paper evidence if it has already been sent in, and may be contacted by phone about their claim and asked questions over the phone by the assessor. You can message us on the blog about … Read more
Shared from the Guardian Benefits assessment suspension does not go far enough, says charity Efforts to fight coronavirus not sufficient to protect vulnerable, according to Mind Patrick Butler Social policy editor Mon 16 Mar 2020 ‘The mental health charity Mind has said the government’s suspension of face-to-face benefit assessments as part of efforts to fight coronavirus does not go far enough in protecting vulnerable people. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on Monday put on hold in-person assessments for disability benefit claimants as a precautionary measure against unnecessary exposure to infection. Normally, new claimants, along … Read more
STOP PRESS The DWP has just announced that they are suspending face-to-face interviews for ESA, PIP and Universal Credit. See here Info for new claimants and people affected by the Coronavirus see here Previous info: From the i newspaper, the temporary benefit changes announced in the Budget 2020 by the Chancellor about sick pay, hardship funds from your local Council, Universal Credit and face-to-face benefit interviews in general. See also info from Charlotte Hughes (The Poor Side of Life). If you have queries about booking or attending a face-to-face benefit interview, get advice from the … Read more
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