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Dear Damian Collins

I am writing as a disabled person who is one of your constituents. 

I am concerned to hear that means testing PIP, DLA, Attendance Allowance and Carers Allowance has not categorically been ruled out.  Means testing these benefits would be catastrophic for disabled people.  PIP, DLA and Attendance Allowance is paid to disabled people to pay for the extra costs of being a disabled person, of which there are many.  To means test these benefits would add an additional layer of assessment (the assessments are already awful, stressful, humiliating, the list goes on) and will potential cause people to miss out on these life enhancing benefits.

I personally receive PIP and would not be able to live my life as an independent disabled person without it.  It enables me to pay for those extra costs I incur as a disabled person along with accessing the Motability Scheme.  Without my highly adapted vehicle I would not be able to work, have a social life and leave my home beyond the town where I live.

Please can you give me assurance, along with the millions of disabled people living in England, that the current Conservative Government will not be means testing these benefits?  Thank you.

I look forward to hearing from you very soon with this assurance. 

Mr Stride MP

I am writing regarding of Means Testing of PIP and Disability payments.

I am in receipt of PIP requesting and that as a Conservative you ensure that the government is committed to its pledge of compassion.

I hope you will strongly reconsider any undertaking to “means test” PIP or any other disability payments. I am advocating not just for myself but the many disabled people whom represent a disadvantaged cohort of the population, and should be helped to retain their independence shown compassion and not seen as an easy target!

I lost my husband unexpectedly in 2020 he was 63, I was medically retired from my career at 50 following two strokes (clot on the brain) . Six months after my husband’s (unnecessary) death I fell and broke my hip - I am still having ongoing neuro physiotherapy.

I have Psoriatic arthritis and have undergone many operations on my feet, and on my hand. I inject Chemotherapy drugs to keep this under control. I also have Fibromyalgia, early onset osteoporosis and am now having shoulder problems and it had been identified that I now also have osteoarthritis.

My PIP payment enables me to pay for a “carer” privately, who also takes me to my hospital appointments.
I am also reliant on oil for my heating fuel. I am still awaiting further updates on the £100 government support for rural home owners!
Staying warm is a necessity for sufferers with my Co-morbidities- not an option!

Everyday day life is a struggle, I live off my Occupational pension, 50% of my husbands and my PIP. This payment is essential to enable me to keep my independence. As a WASPI woman and now as a widow at 63 I will not be in receipt of a (reduced) State Pension for a further three years, and making ends meet with the rise of inflation, fuel price increases and no means to “back fill” any unexpected expenditure is stressful and exacerbates my health problems.

I can not impress upon you the life line that this provides in avoiding total social isolation and depression - sadly things that disabled people experience frequently. This (as in my case) is a direct result of limited mobility and symptomatic of psoriatic arthritis sufferers who experience excessive fatigue and depression. Often it is the financial ability to do something “ordinary/normal” that validates one and installs a tincture of self esteem.

My life is tough enough!.. To quote Hubert Humphrey (US Vice President 1965 ~ 1969)

“The moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the disabled “


Yours sincerely,

I have written to Marion Fellows my MP to explain how I feel about this 

I’ve told her I’m disgusted at the thought this might happen 

Please everyone write to your MP and register your feelings 

I will let you know the outcome.

Dear Nigel Adams

It has been reported in the press that this government, your party, may be about to start to means test disability
benefits in the coming Autumn Statement to be announced on the17th November 2022.

I cannot understand how any Government, MP, or party member could possibly condone such actions being taken against some of the most vulnerable members of our society. These benefits are hard enough to obtain, highly scrutinised and cause untold distress during the initial claiming process and reviews. If anything the whole process is in major need of overhauling not making more unjust and complicated. I am sure that this news alone will have caused dread and anxiety to those who have enough to cope with at a time when the daily struggle to make ends meet is at an all time high. PIP claimants have already been excluded from receiving the Warm Home Discount without much notice or explanation.

It would appear that this government are quite happy to consider reducing disability benefits but strangely enough seem incapable or reluctant to target more difficult areas such as the migrant crisis, bankers bonuses and windfall taxes with such enthusiasm.

As a Conservative voter I wish to register a protest in the strongest possible terms against implementing this.

Sincerely concerned Conservative Voter (for now)