Government gets its green light for disability benefit cuts

16 March 2012

On 8 March 2012, the Welfare Reform Bill was passed into law. The new Welfore Reform Act now provides the green light for many billions of cuts to the disability benefits system.

This includes replacing Disability Living Allowance or DLA for those of working age with a new benefit 'Personal Independence Payment' or PIP.

Since the Bill was first announced, we have been working with people affected by Parkinson's to fight against these cuts.

As part of the Disability Benefits Consortium, a group of over 50 charities and other organisations, we won some battles, and lost others.

Thank you

We want to thank everyone who took part in lobbying the Government about this Bill.

Whether you took part in the Hardest Hit marches across the country, or protested in writing or online - you made a real difference.

And it's not over yet.

The Act is a framework for the welfare changes, but the detail over important benefits such as the replacement to DLA is all to play for.

There has to be more consultation this year, before changes begin in April 2013.

Image: Sachin Shah from our Campaigns team with Tina Walker, who has Parkinson's, at The Hardest Hit march in May

Some welcome changes

We welcome some of the compromises from the Government, including

• enabling people who are in residential care to retain their DLA for their mobility needs (which the Bill threatened to remove)
  
• Keeping the same 'qualifying period' rules for the new benefit PIP as for the current benefit DLA. The Bill had threatened to extend the period of time someone would have to prove they had been in need of support to 6 months, instead of the current 3 months. This would have made people wait longer for much needed financial support.

The Act now also ensures that the 2 new care rates of PIP provide a 'qualifying link' to Carer's Allowance, similar to the rules around DLA.

The original Bill was unclear and led to fears that some carers of people affected by Parkinson's would lose out financially.

Concerns for the future

We still have some serious concerns about how the reforms will impact on people affected by Parkinson's in the months and years to come.

It's unclear how people with Parkinson's who receive DLA will become eligible for the replacement benefit PIP when this begins in April 2013.

A government consultation is ongoing on the draft assessment criteria for PIP.

We know that people may also be worried about what this means for them. While some of the detail is still to be consulted we will do our best to make the changes clear as we learn more about the proposals for the new PIP.

It's possible that a small number of people with Parkinson's on the sickness benefit Employment and Support Allowance will lose it as soon as 30 April 2012. If you think this may happen to you it is really important to get advice.

Anyone who wants advice on their benefits is welcome to call our confidential helpline 0808 800 0303 or email hello@parkinsons.org.uk

Tell us your story

If want to help us campaign on welfare or disability benefits, contact Donna O'Brien in our Policy and Service Improvement team on campaigns@parkinsons.org.uk or 020 7963 9307.

Also, if you receive DLA we're very keen to hear about your experiences of the benefit to help us respond to the Government consultation on PIP criteria:

Survey: Your experience of Parkinson's and Disability Living Allowance

The deadline for survey responses is 16 April 2012.

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