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Labour spins out PIP voucher anxiety as it looks at consultation responses

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Labour is leaving millions of claimants in a state of anxiety as it reveals that it is looking at the responses to the Conservative’s green paper on PIP which suggested, amongst other things, the possibility of paying the benefit as vouchers rather than cash.

The Conservatives published a Green Paper on the future of PIP in April 2024.  Amongst the proposals were suggestions that instead of regular cash payments, PIP could be replaced with:

  • A catalogue/shop scheme
  • A voucher scheme
  • A receipt based system
  • One-off grants

The consultation period for the Green Paper ended on 22 July and we know that many of our readers took part and are desperate to know the outcome.

Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Thomas of Winchester tabled a question for the DWP in the House of Lords:

“To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to change the personal independence payment assessment.”

Yesterday, the answer came from Baroness Sherlock, the DWP minister in the House of Lords:

“We will be engaging with the responses people have made to the previous government's consultation on Personal Independence Payment, which closed on Monday 22 July.

“We want to thank the many people who invested their time in responding.

“We will be considering our own approach to social security in due course.”

The response by Baroness Sherlock makes it seem unlikely that there will be any official statement on PIP changes before the parliamentary summer recess, which lasts from 30 July until 2 September.

However, the House of Commons goes into recess again for the party conference season from 13 September until 6 October.

So, there is a real possibility that PIP claimants will be left without any news for several months.

Written questions by MPs to the secretary of state about the PIP consultation and about WCA changes have yet to receive answers.  We suspect that any responses will simply be stalling ones, but we’ll keep readers posted if we learn anything more.

 

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  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Elsa
    · 3 months ago
    There are a multitude of unforseen costs due to disability that couldn't be covered by some standard set of vouchers for a select collection of retailers. For instance I've had to buy 3 lots of hideously expensive Kerraped shoes in a year because the NHS took 3 months a time rather than 6 weeks to cut my toenails & they literally grew through the shoes! I can't reach them as I have full body lymphedema. I can just imagine some beaurocrat frowning & saying 'You're only allowed one pair a year of these'. I'd probably be accused of selling them! Why are the disabled being treated this way? Thanks to the insidious contempt fostered by the last government the attitudes encountered by many disabled people are truly shocking. I get death threats for parking in a disabled bay outside my own house! This would never have happened 20 years ago. If the measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable then God help us all in the UK.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Bea
    · 3 months ago
    My dad dropped from full time to part time work to care for me. That halved his salary. A large portion of my PIP goes to him for driving, cleaning, shopping, managing my bills, my many medical appointments etc. 

    I already feel like such a burden and failure. If they take away my PIP cash payments he will have to return to full time work, and my quality of life will plummet so far I don't want to stick around to experience it. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      S Edward
      · 3 months ago
      @Bea My husband gave up work after 39 years to care 4 me 2 weeks before sunak came out and said what he said about pip,the result, a nervous breakdown, my fourth one,thanks very much,mh services now involved once again and back on waiting list for stage 3 intervention, we'll done,they set my mh back massively, my agoraphobia is now full on once again,work? No chance, I'm struggling to walk down the road to the corner
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Brian Marriott
    · 3 months ago
    I use my pip to pay for food taxi from hospital and to help mum when car needs to be fixed 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Scrounger
    · 3 months ago
    Worst case scenario we are *forced* into work, we might only be in work a year or two before AI takes our job! 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      S Edward
      · 3 months ago
      @Scrounger I'm agoraphobic again thanks to this,no chance of working or even getting to job centre 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    A
    · 3 months ago
    Liz Kendall and co. have said that they're going to produce a white paper, which is a proposed law, setting out their welfare reforms. They've added that this will be introduced as a bill into parliament in autumn, and if it's voted for, it would obviously become a law. 

    My intuition is that they're cooking up nasty radical reforms to bring up. Otherwise, they would have needed any legislative changes, had they only some tweaks to be made on the welfare system.

    “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst”.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Brian Marriott
    · 3 months ago
    My pip gives me good stuff as I have to go to hospital every week I can’t go on my own so i need to get taxi pip is better of staying money as taxi u can’t pay threw a voucher and also my friend as a mobility. Car and u can’t  pay for a mobility  car  threw a voucher he needs a car as he is disabled like me I can’t do nothing on my own   
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Anon
      · 3 months ago
      @Brian Marriott I wouldn't say " good stuff" it's going to be taken wrongly out of context by the people who want us to lose everything,wording is everything,we must be careful how we put our views falward
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Neal
    · 3 months ago
    Voucherising the society: I wonder if this government and the one before, started paying PIP vouchers instead of cash, and if they succeeded in implementing it, because no one showed strong opposition to this arbitrariness and immorality against the vulnerable people, and then they will implement the same thing on retirees and so on, why don’t the next governments implement it on 75% or more of society after 20 years( it is not a science fiction it is currently and unfortunately real), if the crises continue and the governments’ arguments continue as well to convince people of their inhumane and scandalous projects?
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    diceman24
    · 3 months ago
    i honestly think that the goverment cant change pip into vouchers after green paper then charties and disablilty groups and us have our say if this goverment trys it will  our independence and their freedom.which the the human rights and courts will than get involved and whilst the cost of living crisis is still with us it dont make any sense for the goverment to even consider it but has a green paper labour will have to look at it but cant see them going any further with it. there will such a backlash against this policy which will take years to come.let the process do its thing and hopefully there will be a silver lining after all. i think they will twick pip a little thats all so if your geniune disabled and cant work than dont worry life is to short for all this ifs and buts take care everyone 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Rachel
    · 3 months ago
    I am disabled and have motorbility car....I get both high rates of pip due to rheumatoid arthritis, breast cancer with mastectomy and now I have a ICD pacemaker fitted due to the chemotherapy treatment damaging my heart....after rent and other bills are paid out what is left is for food etc I prefer cash payments as I can keep an eye on what spent plus do they give you change from your vouchers ?? Not many places do so what's the point of giving them vouchers when you have to give extra in cash if you ain't gonna have cash available because you have a pocket full of vouchers.
    Seems to me like a very bad idea...and I don't think motorbility accept vouchers unless they are changing those rules too..
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    DC
    · 3 months ago
    My daughter is totally blind and autistic. 
    I'm so proud of her as she manages to live independently. 
    She uses her PIP to employ a gardener ,window cleaner and to have someone help her clean.
    She HAS to pick these people herself due to her additional needs as not being in control causes her anxiety. 
    Her PIP gives her the independence we are all entitled too.

  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    B
    · 3 months ago
    Let's make life harder for people on pip. Places can accept vouchers but they sony have to which make people on worse off as they don't have to pay for things and have vouchers no one wants to take. It not just affects people on pip but also people who may have to accept them ie small businesses won't stay open for long, taxi drivers won't be able to pay upkeep for their car.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Yas
    · 3 months ago
    How many have use large proportion of their pip to pay basic utility bills & food cos ESA does not cost the basic monthly housing costs, I am one of many who rely on pip to help pay my bills and what left over from pip is used for things to my disability issues 2nd after biasic housing, utility and food bills are paid.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Jon
    · 3 months ago
    This new labour government has no compassion for disabled people and they may as well be called Tories in my book. Thinking on it. How would they like it if they had to go through all these benefit changes. I didn't vote for them or other party's because they are all the same and only think of themselves. Rob from the poor give to the rich, I think universal credit should be scrapped and this voucher idea be thrown in a large Bin.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Anon
      · 2 months ago
      @Jon UC needs fixing, i agree with the voucher idea needs to go in the bin. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Bon
      · 3 months ago
      @Jon Someone finally talking sense.  I totally agree with everything you have said
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Lynne
    · 3 months ago
    If they take pip for vouchers I won't manage, I only have one choice left.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Brian Marriott
    · 3 months ago
    Pip should be left as it is how can u pay for a mobility car with voucher that will never work out 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Jon
      · 2 months ago
      @Terence I used to love those blue disability cars from the 70s and 80s would love to drive and own one who cares if people laugh at you
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Terence
      · 3 months ago
      @Brian Marriott They will start producing those light blue disabiliy cars like they did in the 70s an d we will be issued one with our blue badges
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    nordman
    · 3 months ago
    Please write to your MP and ask he/she to oppose reform of PIP.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    From Yorkshire
    · 3 months ago
    What good is vouchers when I have to pay my carers cash. The government need to shake their heads n live in the real world. Giving vouchers costs more more as thay have to be printed send out. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Tony
    · 3 months ago
    This is all to do to save money 💰 but it's always the poor that suffer 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Tan
    · 3 months ago
    If pip changes payments to vouchers, it's giving people on pip a label letting everyone know that there on pip.
    And it will course a lot of suicides. 
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Read this dwp
    · 3 months ago
    Hi if they change pip they should cut mp money to vouchers like use that is fair in my eyes but really they let that happen because everyone in the common with kick off over paid not fair 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Liam
      · 2 months ago
      @Anon Only the big businesses will probably take them. No local small shops, butchers, corner shops etc. An would you be able buy thing's off the internet with a voucher. Only place's like Tesco, Argos etc so they benefit. Would you be able do anything. I have severe epilepsy, anxiety, depression, paranoia. Have tried go back work an thing's went worse with my condition.
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      Anon
      · 2 months ago
      @Read this dwp If there making people on pip have voucher, every single benefit outside pip should be given vouchers. 

      Personally have bad anxiety about this but as other side this is not going to happen over night. 

      Think there likely going to make small changes to pip. 

      Labour already pissed off every disabled person, likely everyone else if they put tax up. 

      They likely going to make small changes and no major ones this year. 

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