cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/25896587

Up to 1.2 million people with disabilities will lose thousands of pounds under the government’s welfare overhaul, experts have said, as campaigners warn the plan will exacerbate the country’s mental health crisis and push more children into poverty.

Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, laid out her long-awaited changes to the benefits system on Tuesday, announcing a set of measures aimed at getting more people into work and saving £5bn by reducing disability payments.

But with experts warning the plans will reduce the incomes of more than 1 million people, ministers are braced for the biggest rebellion yet of the Labour government, with as many as 30 MPs expected to vote against the plans within weeks.

In a sign of the growing pushback which ministers now face, Debbie Abrahams, the Labour chair of the Commons work and pensions committee, warned against “balancing the books on the backs of sick and disabled people”.

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But the most financially significant decision is Kendall’s plan to introduce drastically tighter limits for who can claim personal independence payments (Pips), which are intended to help people with their quality of life and are not connected to employment. The Pip savings will help the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, stick to her fiscal rules when she announces her spring statement next week.

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Ministers will not lay out where exactly the £5bn savings are coming from until next week, though officials indicated most would come from reduced Pip spending. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said the plan would see between 800,000 and 1.2 million people losing support of between £4,200 and £6,300 a year by 2029-30.

Louise Murphy, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Around 1 million people are potentially at risk of losing support from tighter restrictions on Pip, while young people and those who fall ill in the future will lose support from a huge scaling back of incapacity benefits.

“While it includes some sensible reforms, too many of the proposals have been driven by the need for short-term savings to meet fiscal rules, rather than long-term reform. The result risks being a major income shock for millions of low-income households.”

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19696007

OP contains the link to Parliament's official page for how to contact your MP. I'm a Labour supporter but I know these rerorms are a massive step in the wrong direction. I've already emailed my MP about this and I want as many people as possible to do the same.

The good news is the government has already watered down the worst aspects of the original suggestions. They've also introduced some positive reforms in the green paper which you can read and respond to here. We also know that MPs across the party and even up to the Cabinet are unhappy. This all suggests that further lobbying might be successful.

Some tips for lobbying:

• Tell personal stories. MPs are people, too: play on their emotions! They also get a lot of near-identical emails on lots of issues, especially big stories like this one. Personal accounts stand out from the crowd.

• Be clear what you're asking for. Stick to the point, don't ramble.

• Be polite. You might think your MP is totally evil and want to vent at them, but a sweary, shouty email is just not going to get read. One with actual threats might land you in trouble. Keep yourself safe!

• Don't write off your MP. Even Tories have friends and family who are disabled. It's worth lobbying them, too.

Thanks for reading. We can fight this! Every penny we claw back for people who need it is a win!

Disabled experts who advised the Labour government on its ground-breaking Life Chances report – which was published 20 years ago on Sunday – say successive governments over the last 20 years have abandoned its ambitious goals.

The 20th anniversary of the report – which placed independent living at its heart – comes just days after the new Labour government announced further delays to long-term reform of the adult social care system in England.

Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People was widely viewed as a radical and ambitious report that had the language of rights embedded in its pages.

Influential disabled people played a key role in drafting the report, which used social model language and principles, and called for every local area to have its own user-led organisation modelled on centres for independent living (CILs).

Doug Paulley’s efforts have led to the ombudsman issuing what appears to be its highest-ever compensation award for a failure to provide assistance, opening the door to more generous payments for countless future disabled passengers.

He began his campaign because he was frustrated at the ombudsman’s failure to award a fair level of compensation to disabled passengers who had faced discrimination when trying to obtain passenger assistance on a rail journey.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/20611328

Stigmatising views, inaccessible public transport, a lack of job and volunteering opportunities, and the failure of schools to make reasonable adjustments, all contribute to the loneliness experienced by young disabled people, according to new government research.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17415297

This article highlights why it is important to include people within the disability community to help guide the development of new AI technologies.