Sickness and disability benefits should be made as “easy as possible” to claim as the current system is too “stressful”, the long-awaited Government review by Sir Stephen Timms has said. The Mail has more.
The long-awaited study led by Welfare Minister Sir Stephen Timms found the current system for claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is too “stressful” for claimants – and called for a shake-up.
The cost of PIP, which is now the main disability benefit, is on course to double in a decade and is forecast to top £40 billion a year by 2030.
New claims are being approved at the rate of more than 1,000 a day, fuelled by a post-pandemic rise in mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Almost four million people now receive the handout.
But, despite the surge in claims, the new report found that the process is still too difficult for some. A draft recommendation published yesterday said the claim form should be redesigned to make it as “easy as possible” for applicants.
And it said the Department for Work and Pensions should adopt a “more respectful tone” towards people claiming benefits. Those who “struggle to articulate the impact of their condition” should be given access to an advocacy service to help them.
Government sources insisted the shake-up could eventually free up resources to focus on helping claimants with milder conditions get back to work. But opposition politicians warned that it would do nothing to cut the runaway benefits bill.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately MP said: “Labour’s answer to the ballooning welfare bill is to make benefits even easier to claim. They are so out of touch, it beggars belief.
“Labour is simply too weak to cut welfare, and yesterday the Prime Minister admitted as much. Labour put social security before national security.
“The Conservatives will cut the welfare bill, bring back face-to-face assessments, stop giving cash for anxiety and ADHD, and build a new system to support more disabled people into work.”
Fellow Tory MP Joe Robertson, who sits on the Commons Health Committee, said the review was “woeful”.
“There is nothing to address the surge in mental health diagnosis and claims, especially among young people,” he said. “The benefits bill is out of control and this review is a wasted opportunity.”
And Reform UK’s Treasury Spokesman, Robert Jenrick, said the findings “prove the Government has abandoned any attempts to tackle the ballooning benefits bill”.
Jenrick, whose plans include slashing £50 billion from the welfare bill, added: “They do nothing to stop migrants claiming benefits and many of them will actually make it easier for those who don’t need it to claim PIP.”
Worth reading in full.
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I am no fan of this government, but the Daily Mail headline ‘Make Disability Benefits as “Easy as Possible” to Get […]’, reprinted verbatim above, is blatantly dishonest.
Nowhere in the body of the text is Timms quoted as saying this. Rather, he says benefits should be as “easy as possible” to claim. This should be uncontroversial: who believes dealing with state bureaucracy should be unnecessarily difficult and complicated? Nowhere is he quoted as suggesting that the eligibility criteria should be extended to make a claim more likely to be successful.
I don’t know if some are simply unable to understand this crucial distinction. Frankly, I think many are being disingenuous.
It is a false dichotomy to assume that making the system easier for genuine claimants and harder to defraud are automatically mutually exclusive.
Make the system an obstacle course and who is more likely to stay that course? Someone deserving with serious mental and/or physical health problems, or someone undeserving in robust mental and physical health?
You are obtuse if you do not see how making benefits as easy as possible to claim will not result in more trying and with the high success rate claimants have it will increase welfare spending.
Well I guess this lunacy will eventually end with us all being on some quasi benefit or another. Or we simply don’t have enough mentally healthy people paying in to support the vast majority now on the gravy train. What ever did happen to that stiff upper lip ‘get on with it’ attitude that built an empire and won two world wars. Oh sorry, that’s now very non PC! Good luck grandkids! You are going to need it.
Why doesn’t the Uk simply pay everyone benefits and tell all your citizens to stay home, no need to work. Might as well. Your country is collapsing, nothing will stop that now. The Uk, one big flop. Oh I forgot, it is probably all Trump’s fault.
In a system that robs Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on Paul’s vote.
The end game here is Universal Credit, isn’t it? Make the majority of the population rely on state handouts and then segue into the state paying for everything… I hope they’ve worked out where the money’s coming from.
It is obviously time to give people sickness benefits from the start, automatically, and let them return them if they felt well enough to. It is the right thing to do, as it will save them the stress of having to apply.
Andy is that sort of nice guy.
Missed something here. Thought it was easy?
There is a big difference between making the application process easier (it is actually pretty confusing and excessively wordy, many many pages to be filled in which is difficult for someone with comprehension problems) and making the process of reviewing the application and deciding on making an award easier.
The latter should be according to clear guidelines with assessors who are separated from the person making the application and are provided with information from the application and from any in-person assessment.
One reason why GPs are loathe to refuse to support claims is that a lot of their patients today seem to think that physical violence is justified. GPs often choose to protect themselves against this, especially with patients who find it difficult to communicate they feel they are at risk. Go to a Job Centre Plus and there are burly security people near the entrance, GPs surgeries do not have any such protection.
My GP seems to get around this problem by not actually seeing any patients and leaving everything up to the practice nurse…
So what is to be done?
I guess that is another 25% on the benefits bill. Up from £400bn to £500bn.
No sweat, just increase taxes.
Although, as anyone who has ever squeezed a lemon knows; eventually it will run out of juice, no matter how hard you squeeze it…
Does anyone (even Labour and LibDem MPs?) really believe that all (or even most of) Britain’s 16.8 million registered disabled really are disabled?
I still don’t understand why someone who already gets unemployment benefits NEEDS EXTRA MONEY FOR BEING ANXIOUS !!!
—“Being forced to apply for a few jobs a week is making me feel ANXIOUS & DEPRESSED” whined the young adult to the advocate. “What can I do?”
—“ANXIOUS”? “ANXIOUS”? Don’t worry, you can receive up to £194.60 a week in ADDITIONAL BENEFITS for being stressed, anxious, or depressed! And you won’t have to apply for any jobs, because it’s too stressful for you, Diddums.”
—“What a relief! Where do I sign? I’ll tell my friends about it, because they won’t like it if I get so much more cash than they already get for being unemployed.”
—“Just remember that you’ll be too stressed, anxious or depressed to attend any Patriot Protests, won’t you, Diddums? Now you just go home and rest, take drugs, watch porn and play video games, because that’s what all the Extra Disability Money is for. Got that?”
And still the insane socialists such as Nigel Nelson on GBnews tries to claim that the Timms review is about reducing welfare for scroungers and only to give it to the genuine. This is surely proof that is a load of rubbish. The socialists want everyone claiming so that everyone belongs to the client state. That way we’re all guaranteed to vote for the lunatics, just like Brown tried to achieve by giving family benefit to everyone on less than £100,000.
I am thankful to GB News for the opportunity to listen to the views articulated by Nelson, Lis, Stadlen, Twelves etc and realise what normal people are up against.
I am thankful for the invention of the remote control with a mute button to avoid having to listen to the tired droning of these Far Left twats that Ofcom force on GB News.
I feel more sorry for the really sick person with no access to the internet or anyone to help them, who land up with no help whilst the scammers get everything.
Socialism = Collectivism = bankruptcy.
Deliberate.
This is OUR money Labour (and previously Conservatives and Lib-Dems) are giving away. They are taking money from our pockets to give to people who dont deserve it.
My money. Your money. Every day.
You’ve hit the nail on the head. They see our tax money as donations, without any kind of quid pro quo attached to it.
It’s a pity “Christian” Sir Steven Timms has learned nothing from being nearly stabbed to death by a Pakistani Muslim Woman in his own constituency office, and even spoke about looking her up when she is released from prison in order to tell her he forgives her for trying to earn her entry ticket to Muslim Paradise by Offing an Infidel. He is ignoring Jesus’ teachings on the matter.
Student jailed for life for trying to stab MP to death after being radicalised online by extremist preacher is to be freed after just 15 years | Daily Mail Online
Damn! So close to doing us a favour.
“Those who “struggle to articulate the impact of their condition” should be given access to an advocacy service to help them.”
By “advocacy service”, I assume they actually mean “translation service”?
I’ve come across ‘advocates’ a few times. They might not be representative of advocates generally, but if they are then they are bolshy, argumentative, large, bespectacled ladies in their 40’s. Like I say, that’s just my experience.
What’s wrong with wearing specs?
No, I expect they mean a small army of left wing lawyer types getting paid by the state to con the state into making PIP payments.
All an effective and efficient means of distributing the highest possible amount of public tax money to the highest possible number of least deserving people.
The obvious thing is that GP’s should police PIP decisions and be given a duty to minimise them. Unfortunately all GPs and indeed all public servants lost the ability to say ‘NO’ to anybody about anything about 30 years ago.
Spot on!