Disability benefits campaign

We're campaigning against cuts to disability benefits and for a better welfare system to support people with Parkinson's and their carers.

The welfare system in the UK is undergoing a process of huge reform and cuts to the budget of £18billion over the next few years.

Many of these reforms are in the Welfare Reform Act, which became an Act in March 2012. A number of reforms are targeted at disability benefits.

The Hardest Hit: stop the cuts

We're supporting The Hardest Hit, a campaign which aims to fight the cuts to disability benefit support.

The cuts are set to disproportionately affect people with disabilities and long-term conditions, such as Parkinson's, as well as carers.

In May 2011 people affected by Parkinson's joined thousands of other people affected by these cuts to march in Westminster and lobby their MPs. And in October people took to their local cities to protest at rallies and march:

• Photos from the Hardest Hit march in May
• Photos from the Hardest Hit marches and lobbies across the UK in October

In December 2011, over 700 people with Parkinson's added their names to 23,000 others in a Christmas message to the Government. These messages were delivered to Number 10 in a giant Christmas card, designed by Gerald Scarfe, husband of Parkinson's UK president Jane Asher.

Take action

The Hardest Hit campaign continues. You can still:

• Write to your MP  

As well as the Hardest Hit campaign, there are many other ways individuals can take action. This includes helping reach 100,000 signatures in the following petition:

• Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families (Pat's Petition)

Why campaign?

Even though the Welfare Reform Act is now law, there are still opportunities to make sure people with Parkinson's and carers can access the benefits they need.

Disability Living Allowance

The Welfare Reform Act gives the green light to reform Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to become the Personal Independence Payment, or PIP.

This means everyone of working age on DLA will be reassessed for eligibility for PIP from April 2013 through to spring 2016. The Government estimates that 500,000 disabled people will lose their DLA and not be entitled to PIP.

However, how people will be reassessed has yet to be decided. We are determined that working age people with Parkinson's do not lose out in these reforms. To read more about our consultation responses to the proposals see our welfare reform policy page.

Employment and Support Allowance

We believe the tests of eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) are too crude and simplistic to take account of the full symptoms and fluctuating nature of Parkinson's. And we're campaigning for changes.

Although changes are being made around the process for getting ESA and how people are treated by assessors, no changes to the tests have taken place. We are alarmed that people with severe and progressive Parkinson's are still being put in the ESA group where a 'return to work' is expected.

The Welfare Reform Act also affects ESA claimants as some will have their ESA withdrawn after only one year. This is deeply unfair.

More information

You'll find more background information, including reports and consultations including our suggestions for how ESA should change, on our policy page on welfare reform.

This also includes more about our joint work with a number of charities, as part of the Disability Benefits Consortium.

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