
In Politics UK today:
During questions to the Department for Work and Pensions, the topic of welfare support for those with disabilities was raised. Conservative (!) MP Theresa Villiers said her constituent had described the claiming process as a ‘battle’ with consistent hurdles.
https://www.politics.co.uk/parliament/disabled-people-are-describing-the-welfare-system-as-a-battle-with-constant-hurdles/
Pretty mild stuff, I suppose, compared to this only last June:
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) ignored leading academics after they published “hugely alarming” research that linked the work capability assessment with 600 suicides in just three years, the Disability News Service reports. The failure is just the latest evidence to show how the DWP ignored and covered-up warnings about the safety of its disability benefit assessment system over the last decade.
https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2022/june/dwp-ignored-%E2%80%98hugely-alarming%E2%80%99-research-linked-wca-600-suicides-mps-are-told#:~:text=The%20Department%20for%20Work%20and,the%20Disability%20News%20Service%20reports.
Disability benefits were devolved to Scotland in 2018 and the recent client survey of all groups has this:
Over 90% have good experience of Social Security Scotland, a new report has said The ten Scottish social security benefits paid £108.9 million to people across the country in 2020/21, a new report has shown. The payments, outlined in the Social Security Scotland 2020/21 Annual Report, include support for eligible families with young children, carers, people who need help paying for a funeral, young people entering the workplace and families with disabled children to provide help to heat their homes.
https://tfn.scot/news/positive-feedback-as-scottish-benefits-system-rolled-out
‘Battles’ or ‘hurdles’ get no mention from the respondents and ‘obstacles’ appears only once in relation to a non-English speaker. Suicide? Not a word.
Hmmm?
Do you think that this power devolved to the Scottish Government might suggest that even MORE powers given to this Parliament might work ?
Maybe even , whisper it, Independence ?
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Don’t whisper it James. Shout it out loud. But even this isn’t enough. Repeatedly begging for a Section 30 Order isn’t going to cut it. The English Government will just keep refusing. What then? I wish I knew.
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