Disability benefit reforms: Minister undeterred by campaigners' anger.

Neil Coyle from Disability Alliance wrote the following letter to the Guardian Newspaper voicing concerns about reforms to welfare and the impact upon Disabled People;

Disabled people recognise the need to reform welfare support and services. The repeated need for assessments and the complexity of the current framework are problematic for disabled people as well as Jobcentre and other DWP staff. Simplification and reduced bureaucracy is welcomed by disabled people – as is support to find and keep appropriate work.

But disabled people have not ‘misunderstood the Government objectives’. The Government has been clear about the level of cuts to welfare spending and the reforms proposed are driven by this aim. What people do find difficult to understand is the fairness of the approach and who is being targeted. Contributions-based Employment and Support Allowance (ESA, only accessed by disabled people with significant needs) will be cut by £2 billion and a further £1.5 billion is to be axed from Disability Living Allowance (DLA). The ‘disability contribution’ to reducing the national deficit is therefore larger than that sought through the banking levy: £2.5 billion.

Sadly, the way reforms have been announced has also generated anxiety. Inaccurate statements on the number of people to be affected have not helped the Government’s case. The figures for the number of people who face losing mobility support in care homes rose from 50,000 to 80,000 apparently due to DWP oversight on the original estimate. DWP also initially stated the cuts to contributions-based ESA would affect very few disabled people but eventually revealed about 280,000 would lose access to all out of work support. This Government confusion increases disabled people’s concerns that the reform proposals have not been properly analysed.

In the silos of Whitehall cuts to one Department’s expenditure may appear achievable without impact elsewhere. But it is extremely likely that the cuts in DWP spending will cause: higher NHS costs (including hospitalisation of disabled people); greater need for council support (residential care and housing); and disabled people and carers being unable to retain employment due to reduced financial help. Disabled people in work earn less, sometimes as a result of limited hours of work being possible, but require DLA to help maintain, fuel or tax adapted vehicles to get to work for example; without DLA this may not be possible. These ‘domino effects’ on non-DWP spending, or revenue in the case of lost income tax contributions, appear to have been overlooked in the speed and level of reform which hasn’t provided the time or forum for an adequate collective analysis of the impact across Government.

The Government’s approach should perhaps be to better demonstrate a full understanding of the impact of proposals as well as to ensure disabled people and their representative organisations’ help partner the process of mitigating risks and developing workable solutions. Disability Alliance welcomes a partnership approach.

Best wishes,

Neil Coyle
Director of Policy
Disability Alliance http://www.disabilityalliance.org/

More about this can be found on The Guardian Newspapers website. 

Story: Disability benefit reforms: Minister undeterred by campaigners' anger.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/16/maria-miller-disability-minister-benefits-reform