Welfare and benefits

The Government's plans for welfare reform have been gathering speed, but as you may have noticed, not without opposition. There's still time to help make the reforms work as fairly as possible, so please campaign with us.

Take action for fair assessments!

Since Employment and Support Allowance started to replace Incapacity Benefit three years ago, many of our members living with HIV have told us some shocking stories about face-to-face assessments carried out by people who clearly didn’t understand HIV, leading to some grossly unfair refusals for the benefit.

Please take two minutes to support our campaign for fairer benefits assessments by emailing your MP now. We want MPs to call on the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that assessors get adequate HIV awareness training and guidance. If you want to go the extra mile, why not pay your MP a visit.

Welfare Reform Bill: Update

The Welfare Reform Bill reached its final stages in the House of Lords. THT worked with other disability charities and members of both Houses of Parliament to try to make the changes as fair as possible for people living with HIV, as well as people with a range of disabilities and medical conditions.

There was initially good news as the Government was defeated on their plans for restricting Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). They want to means test ESA for some of those claiming the benefit for more than one year, but Peers rejected that part of the Bill, voting through an amendment to allow at least two years of ESA without means testing it. The Government's proposal would mean, for example, that someone living with HIV and unable to work might not be entitled to ESA if they had savings or a partner who was employed. However the Bill went back to the House of Commons where the Government was able to overturn this decision.

The Government's plans for the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA), were also voted through unchanged. The Government is planning to introduce a new face-to-face assessment, along similar lines to the one used for ESA applications. We have serious concerns because we know people have been unhappy about the unfair ESA assessments, and furthermore the Government have already said that they plan to reduce the DLA bill by 20% as part of the transition.

Personal Independence Payment consultation

The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a new consultation on their proposed eligibility criteria for the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP). They are asking for people's views on the way they propose measuring how much support people should get through the benefit. You can let them know your thoughts by sending in comments by 30th April. Feel free to get in touch with us via campaigns@tht.org.uk if you want further details.

E-Petition gathering momentum

Meanwhile, there is a Government e-petition gaining momentum, calling on the Government to 'stop the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families.'

The petition has been organised by a group of disabled people and has gained nearly 25,000 signatories - if it reaches 100,000, it will be eligible for a debate in the House of Commons. Click here if you would like to add your signature.

Find out more about the benefits changes - we'll be keeping you up-to-date with the changes.