Richard Burgon, MP for Leeds East, has asked questions about Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) plans for people on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and received an outrageous answer. As the Canary’s most recent coverage has demonstrated, Labour have shown nothing but contempt for disabled people when it comes to policy on disability benefits. The announcement of these policies has caused untold distress for disabled people. And, to add insult onto injury, Labour’s insistence on overhauling DWP PIP is pushing up against a 0% fraud rate with almost a 50% rejection rate for applicants.
Now, the response of Stephen Timms, Minister of State for Social Security and Disability, on DWP PIP restrictions has shown just how terrifying these proposed reforms are for disabled people.
DWP PIP restrictions
In a written question Burgon asked why people with the following needs are to no longer be eligible for DWP PIP:
(a) assistance to be able to cut up food
(b) supervision or prompting to be able to wash or bathe
(c) assistance to be able to wash either their hair or body below the waist
(d) assistance to be able to get in or out of a bath or shower
(e) supervision or prompting to be able to manage toilet needs
(f) assistance to be able to dress or undress their lower body
(g) supervision, prompting or assistance to be able to manage medication and, or, to be able to monitor a health condition.
Before we get to Timms’ response – let’s establish something. The needs Burgon is describing form the basic requirements for dignity in any person’s life. They’re not extra requirements – they’re the absolute basic fundamentals of existing as a person. They are a right.
The reason we’re at pains to point this out is because the media reporting of disability has been so abhorrent that it is simply not a given that disabled people who require support with eating and cleaning themselves are full human beings with the same right to dignity and respect as anybody else.
What was the response?
When Timms’ response to Burgon’s question did come, it showed just how callous and cruel Labour’s approach to disabled people is. Timms said:
A high number of people get PIP by having multiple but low-level functional needs across several activities. These could individually be managed with small interventions or the addition of aids or appliances. This change will focus PIP more on those with the greatest needs, ensuring those who are unable to complete activities at all, or who require more help from others to complete them, still get support.
Here, Timms is saying that of the various needs Burgon listed in his question, it is the Labour party’s belief that they could be considered “low-level functional needs.” That includes cutting up food, washing your hair and body, and using the toilet.
Timms is instead saying that these kinds of needs won’t qualify people for DWP PIP anymore. Instead, these needs will be “be managed with small interventions or the addition of aids or appliances.”
Timms didn’t clarify precisely which magical aids and appliances can be used for the above needs without money being spent. His assertion that “this change will focus DWP PIP more on those with the greatest needs” is an incalculably cruel and ignorant assessment of what disabled people’s lives are actually like.
And, on social media Burgon was similarly blunt:
I asked the Government why people will no longer get PIP who need help to go to the toilet, cut up food or wash themselves.
The response is appalling. It claims these disabled people just need “small interventions or the addition of aids or appliances.”
No, they need PIP!
What’s the point of DWP PIP?
In parliament, Burgon made another important point:
The purpose of the daily living component is to cover the cost of extra help needed with everyday tasks such as washing, eating, using the toilet and getting dressed, but the Secretary of State’s proposal to tighten the eligibility criteria could mean that even those who are assessed as needing help on every criterion may not be entitled to PIP.
Given DWP PIP has a 0% fraud rate, and almost half of claimants have their applications rejected nothing in the data points to any kind of fraud or misuse of PIP on the part of applicants. PIP isn’t means tested, and isn’t a benefit designed to get people into work. It is designed to assist people with the additional cost of living whilst disabled.
Timms characterisation of the needs Burgon listed as “low level” is an absolute disgrace. Nobody, never mind a minister for disabilities, should be making such embarrassing and ignorant assertions. People who struggle to wash and feed themselves need the funds to be able to survive. Disabled people aren’t off on a jolly – though fuck knows we could do with one – using DWP PIP.
There is an answer
Burgon wasn’t done there, though. In another response in parliament he said:
Making cuts instead of taxing wealth is a political choice, and taking away the personal independence payments from so many disabled people is an especially cruel choice.
A disabled person who cannot cut up their own food without assistance, cannot go to the toilet without assistance and cannot wash themselves without assistance will lose their personal independence payment.
Have not the Government taken the easy option of cutting support for disabled people rather than the braver option, which would be to tax the wealthiest through a wealth tax?
As ever, disabled people are at the sharp end of government reforms. Labour are trying to look like they’re tough on fraud, and somehow a conservative option in a red tie. The reality is that their plans for DWP PIP will make life immeasurably difficult for disabled people. These plans mean disabled people will die without the basic support they need for “low-level functions.”
Labour could have chosen to tax the unfathomably wealthy. Instead, they’re using disabled people as an easy target.
Featured image via the Canary
