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Changes to the welfare system - how are you feeling?
independent_
Community Champion Posts: 9,238 Supreme Poster
As this is a space for young people and some of these changes affect young people (namely under 22s no longer being able to claim the disability part of universal credit and changes to the PIP criteria) I figured it might be good to have a space to talk about how we’re feeling about these changes?
For anyone curious, the full BBC article is here: Benefits crackdown unveiled with aim to save £5bn a year by 2030 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89y30nel59o
The changes primarily affect disabled people and those with mental health issues, so how are you feeling about it all? Are you feeling worried? Angry? Or do you think it is the right thing to do?
To avoid pushing my own opinion, I’ll post it in the comments. I’m interested to hear how people feel about these changes. Interested to hear all opinions and thoughts. Note that, as it’s such a sensitive topic, please be respectful of everyone when discussing this as we’re all from different walks of life here
For anyone curious, the full BBC article is here: Benefits crackdown unveiled with aim to save £5bn a year by 2030 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89y30nel59o
The changes primarily affect disabled people and those with mental health issues, so how are you feeling about it all? Are you feeling worried? Angry? Or do you think it is the right thing to do?
To avoid pushing my own opinion, I’ll post it in the comments. I’m interested to hear how people feel about these changes. Interested to hear all opinions and thoughts. Note that, as it’s such a sensitive topic, please be respectful of everyone when discussing this as we’re all from different walks of life here
“Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.”
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Comments
The government have stressed that anyone with a long term, incurable condition will be protected. This is likely to mean that I, personally, am not too heavily affected, but at the moment we don’t really know what those protections look like. Also, being in Scotland, we don’t know what it will look like for ADP, but the UC changes will apply to me.
To me it feels like disabled people and people with mental illnesses have become a target. We are seen as the problem, we are taking all the slack. When actually we are the ones that need that welfare support the most.
I broadly agree with welfare reform, in that I do think if people are able to work, they should be given support to do so. But we can’t forget that we live in a broken system, and unless that support is drastically improved, it will mean some disabled people are still trapped in the system with less financial security. Sure, there may well be less reassessments, but the freeze to UC in particular concerns me. People who are actively looking for work are going to be getting more money, whereas people who can’t work are getting less - punished as it were.
And heaven forbid you’re under 22 and disabled, the only support you’ll be able to get then is PIP, and they’re making PIP harder to get hold of (and trust me, it’s bloody hard to get hold of anyway).
@independent_ yh the attitudes towards disabled people does seem tough and the job market is also tough. There does need be changes and people's voices needs to be looked at.