The Government have recently published a green paper, entitled “Pathways to Work” which sets out changes to Universal credit, Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Employment and Support allowance (ESA.)
Council notes that:
PIP is a gateway benefit which allows the recipient access to other benefits.
The proposals seek to:
- Change the eligibility for the Daily Living component of PIP.
- Freeze the health element of Universal Credit for current claimants.
- Amend rules on the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) which ceases at 18; young people won’t be eligible for the LCWRA health element until they are 22.
- Scrap the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) in 2028, replacing it with a tougher PIP assessment.
- Merge contribution-based ESA and Jobseeker’s Allowance into a new benefit called Unemployment Insurance. Cuts to PIP and other disability and long-term sickness benefits are likely to have a detrimental impact on Birmingham City Council and its partners in ways such as:
- An increase in demand for council cost of living and social care support
- An increase in demand for the council’s Disabled Facilities Grant and Disability Access Fund
- An increase in the number of disabled residents who may be unable to afford care charges, impacting on their ability to continue to live independently.
The Government’s own impact assessment has found that 250,000 more people of which 50,000 are children, will be driven into relative poverty because of these welfare cuts.
Council calls for:
- The council’s scrutiny function to convene a Task & Finish Group when detailed Government proposals on disability and long-term sickness benefits are known in order to identify likely impacts on the demand for support from the council and its local partners.
- The [chief executive][leader] of the council to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer outlining the Council’s concerns on this issue.