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Chaos at the DWP as more MPs rebel against Labour’s PIP ‘concessions’

Following the threat of a significant rebellion, Keir Starmer has supposedly backed down on his mission to strip disabled people of support. We say ‘supposedly’ because the concessions will only benefit people who claim Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and other benefits now; not those who claim them in future. While some Labour rebels seem to have accepted this so far, there are many others who are refusing to back down:

Concessions over DWP PIP

Reporting on Labour’s DWP PIP ‘concessions’, the Guardian wrote on 27 June:

Ministers wanted to set a higher bar for [PIP] eligibility to reduce the amount being paid out. Under the new system, claimants would have to score four points in one category to be eligible.

The categories include whether a person is able to move around unaided, whether they can wash themselves and whether they can cook their own meals. The tougher eligibility rules would have meant people who could not wash half of their body or cook their own meals might not have received the payment.

Many Labour MPs who opposed the changes wanted to scrap those new rules altogether. The compromise that has been reached is a promise that the new rules will apply only to new claimants and that the entire criteria system will be reviewed in conjunction with disabled people.

While Labour is promising a ‘review in conjunction with disabled people’, it’s also the case that MPs are being asked to vote on this bill before any such review has taken place, leading to concerns that the government will ultimately just ignore disabled people’s concerns.

Some MPs, like ‘leading rebel’ Meg Hillier, have been assured by the concessions. Others have not:

Rebellion

Keir Starmer and work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall clearly want to force this bill through at any cost. People aren’t foolish, however, and they can see that the so-called DWP PIP ‘concessions’ are just a temporary grace period.

Writing in Big Issue, Cat Eccles MP said:

The past week has shown the chaos these rushed reforms are creating. Conversations around the welfare cuts have been happening non-stop and inboxes have been flooded with concerns, not just from constituents but from charities, disability groups and even from employers who feel unprepared to step in with the level of support that will be required if these cuts proceed.

We need to recognise that pushing through a bill that has not been fully thought through, without sufficient consultation with those who will be impacted, is not just unwise, it is irresponsible.

Concessions are still being negotiated. Nothing will be confirmed until Monday at the earliest.

The concessions that are being reported however, are not good enough for me. I’m seriously concerned the PIP suggestions would create a two-tier system which is a constant critique levelled at the government. The timeline of carrying this out effectively is far too short and we still have no impact assessments to base our voting on. I will therefore still be voting against these poorly thought out cuts to disability benefits.

And on that ‘two-tier system’, we also now know the following:

In an interview with BBC Politics South East, Labour MP Peter Lamb said:

I’m part of a reasonably-sized group of people who are very clear that the conditions are still not acceptable.

He added:

This is ultimately still a cost-cutting measure and that means however they try and co-produce the system for these new people moving forwards, we’re going to be taking billions of pounds out of the pockets of people with high levels of vulnerability when there are better alternatives on the table.

Summing up how far Lamb was prepared to go, the BBC wrote:

Lamb said he would vote against the bill, regardless of a three-line whip.

“I will be a Labour MP when I vote down these proposals,” he said.

When it was put to him that he might not be a Labour MP after the vote, he replied: “I’ll be living up to the spirit of the party”.

There are also plenty more Labour rebels speaking out over the party’s planned DWP PIP cuts:

 

A need for review of DWP PIP – just not the one Labour is doing

One thing being lost in all of this is that our welfare system does need to be reviewed, as it is hostile to the people who make a claim for things like DWP PIP. The problem is that Labour wants to make things worse, not better.

The following individuals gave examples of the reprehensible ways in which the DWP is screwing over claimants:

People have also been posting under the hashtag #TakingThePIP:

 

Among them are the general secretary of Unite:

The damage done

The damage around DWP PIP and other benefits has already been done, though. In May of this year, Ruth Hunt reported on the case of Katty King-Coulling for the Canary:

In 2018, Katty woke up to excruciating pain in her legs, which she described as “immense burning and shocking pain”. She was eventually diagnosed with cauda equina syndrome, a rare and often misdiagnosed condition which leads to spinal cord injury caused by compression of the lower spinal cord.

Katty was working as a healthcare assistant for the NHS when she sustained her injury but has since had to give up work. Since her injury, Katty has gone through three DWP PIP assessments and says she has struggled each time to get people to understand her disability.

On average, it’s estimated that it costs an additional £1,010 a month for a disabled person to have the same standard of living as a non-disabled person. At her latest assessment, Katty was downgraded to the daily living standard rate of £73.90 a week, or £320 a month, and has lost her mobility funding.

As Katty has full use of her arms and core, can walk short distances, and has no visible signs of her disability, she believes people have a harder time understanding her injury and her needs. She says she often feels “not disabled enough” to receive compassion, understanding, and help. She said:

“If you can wash your top half, if you can dress your top half, then you’re seen as not that disabled.”

But this is far from the reality for Katty, who needs her husband’s support to shower, dress, cook, and clean. She said:

“On a bad day, I’m lucky to get out of bed and the only reason why I do get up is because of my daughter. She needs me and I’m prepared to go through more pain if it means that she is looked after the best I possibly can.”

Further demonstrating the devastating impact that the DWP has on claimant’s lives, Steve Topple reported the following for us in 2022:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has effectively admitted it has not made progress on a plan that was supposed to reduce the number of claimants taking their own lives. In the process, the department has also failed to account for the £66m it had assigned to the programme. Moreover, it is using the pandemic as an excuse – and only admitted to all of this because an independent media outlet forced it to.

For many years, countless claimants have taken their own lives on the DWP’s watch. It’s hard to put a number on the exact figure. However, for example, in 2018 alone there may have been 750 people who took their own lives while claiming from the DWP. The department is supposed to review these deaths using Internal Process Reviews (IPRs). However, across five years the DWP only carried out 69 of these.

One such person who took their own life was Jodey Whiting. As the Canary previously reported:

“Jodey Whiting was a 42-year old mother. She took her own life after the DWP stopped her social security. Because the DWP stopped Whiting’s ESA, she also lost her Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction. Whiting lived with various health conditions and mental health issues. These included a brain cyst, curvature of the spine, and bipolar disorder. Whiting was taking 23 tablets a day for her illnesses and conditions.

“She took her own life on 21 February 2017, three days after the DWP made her last Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) payment. This was because she missed a Work Capability Assessment (WCA).”

This cannot stand

The Canary has been reporting on issues around the DWP and PIP and how it treats disabled people for as long as we’ve existed. As such, we’re well placed to say that Labour’s proposed changes will make a grotesque system even worse than it already is, and we fully support everyone who will continue to fight this rancid bill.

Featured image via House of Commons

By The Canary

This post was originally published on Canary.