A blind woman desperate to work was forced to leave the Jobcentre because her guide dog was not allowed in the building.

Elaine Maries walked into the CMK Jobcentre with retriever-cross Inca sporting her official yellow Guide Dogs harness.

They had only walked a few metres into the doorway when a member of staff asked them to leave, said Elaine, who is 48.

“He said no dogs were allowed in the building. I pointed out that Inca was a fully-trained assistance dog and even showed him documentation to prove I am registered blind.

“But it made no difference at all. He actually said: ‘That doesn’t mean anything to me’ and still insisted I left.”

Elaine, who is worked all her life and has a string of qualifications, was so shocked that she retreated quietly with Inca.

“Afterwards I was fuming. What this man did was against the law and I knew I had to complain,” she said.

A qualified counsellor who is training to be a psychotherapist through the city’s Convergence College, Elaine was fully sighted until she contracted the rare Meibonian gland disease three years ago.

She now has no vision in her right eye and severely limited sight in her left.

Until she was paired with Inca almost four months ago she was reliant upon a white stick – but says it made her a target for muggers.

“I was mugged three times in three years. Criminals see a white stick and think you’re easy prey. The last time, last August, I was stabbed in the hand by robbers who took my purse.

“With Inca I feel safe and she’s given me the confidence to look for a job. I am really keen to work.”

Senior staff at the Jobcentre have since apologised to Elaine about Friday’s incident and they have promised to help her find employment.

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said; “All people with assistance dogs are welcome in our Jobcentres.”

But the Guide Dogs charity is still outraged at the treatment. A spokesman said;

Meanwhile plucky Elaine, who lives on Brooklands estate, has appealed for help in solving another problem – finding a taxi driver willing to take Inca in their cab.

“I’ve lost count of the times I’ve booked a cab, then the driver has turned up, taken one look at Inca, and driven off saying dogs are not allowed in his vehicle,” she said.

You might not remember now, but just before Brexit kicked into gear and the Panama Papers landed, Iain Duncan Smith resigned as work and pensions secretary because the most vulnerable were being hit too hard by austerity. Let’s go back to that for a moment.

It’s not true to suggest we’re failing the disabled; we’ve not even tried in the first place. I’m choosing to write this piece from a position of anonymity. Among my peers, I’m considered the success story, with many a glittering accolade on my CV. I have walked and advised at the highest levels, associated with the most prestigious awards, have unique associates, am a regular in media circles, and have roles which come with the a lot of responsibility. I’m often reminded of the Michael J Fox film, The Secret of My Success – by night a high flyer, sitting at the top tables, by day, a mailroom worker who simply masquerades to earn his big break. This has become my tale, except that I can’t even work in the mailroom.

We’ve come to define disability with basic iconography. The disabled parking symbol denotes what it’s like to be adequately disabled. We have also created a near Victorian class system of deserving and underserving disabled. Disability hate rhetoric, as anyone with a disability will attest, has certainly risen over the last six years.

It’s also worth noting the language. No longer do we have disability payments, we have Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP). These, on the face of it, sound more conducive to an inclusive society, but far from it. Between the DWP, ATOS and Maximus assessment systems, and the fact all disabled people are now rolled into the Job Centre, we have in fact wiped out the notion of disability. We’ve stacked the criteria into numerical health conditions and how worthy each person is. And we’ve stripped people of dignity along the way, by forcing them to open up with their most personal symptoms to people with little-to-no medical background.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the proposed cuts to PIP which IDS resigned over would have seen 370,000 disabled people lose an average of £3,500 a year. We just can’t take this any longer. We really need help.

The cold numbers barely tell the full story of what it’s like having the stick wielded at you in trying to find work. Most disabled people don’t need an incentive to work – they need provisions and safety nets.

It’s disheartening to learn that some people view benefits as a life of luxury. I personally receive £6,000 a year. This has been the case my entire adult life and is not set to change for the better anytime soon. And with each cut that hits, we find that less and less is in place to help with disability employment and occupational health. Now that disabled people are treated as a normal job seeker, the by-product is a culture of sanctioning and a constant fear of reprisal.

I feel I’ve proved I am capable of achievement. My own job adviser even said to me that I was more qualified and of a higher education than they were, which is ironic given a lifetime of severe bad health prevented me from even attending school – I walked away with nothing in the way of qualifications. Due to the strict guidelines and number-shifting that the Job Centre employees have to undertake, I was informed that my CV, no matter how good it looked, didn’t actually count for anything. I needed to play the DWP’s game.

I was told my writing work counted for nothing either. With a pretty decent list of bylines to my name, I’d hoped I could potentially prop myself up in the world of journalism, which would suit my very specific health requirements. I was once again met with a wall. So I followed the path that I was forcibly guided towards. The current system is all or nothing. You can earn £20 a week without sanction. Anything over that and you’re looking at, essentially, reassessment. In the world of freelance journalism – and freelance with no health –
this is like trying to fit a square peg into no hole. It’s another roadblock on the path to independence.

I, like thousands of others, am expected to sign up to the Job Centre’s Universal Jobs Match system, where my unique customer number will be linked to my activity. If I don’t jump enough hoops in applying for work, then sanctions come into play. Living up to my fear and expectation, the Jobs Match site is in no way, shape or form tailored to even the slightest bit of disability. It is an able-bodied website for an able-bodied system. Disability simply doesn’t exist in the matrix.

At every single turn there’s an accusatory tone to being disabled. We have to be ‘striving’ for employment opportunities that suit extremely complex lives, but for many of us, a day’s achievement can be a simple task of keeping personal hygiene in check, or the basic and literal thrill of seeing your own foot tread upon new ground. Being disabled isn’t just about being set in a certain pattern, it is chaos theory personified. It’s like being a window shopper on the world.

I make a personal plea to the UK, to the private sector, to the public sector, to employers and managers, and to anyone who likes a puzzle. We have to rethink the workplace and start creating flexible conditions for those of us who are capable of achievement – even if we’re not remotely capable of normality. We need an intelligent welfare system which has safety nets and malleable placements of security and buffers. And we need new thinking on how we can utilise a great number of professionally-minded people who are not afforded the luxury of normality.

Our current approach is not only broken. Anyone who’s been subjected to experiences that I’ve outlined can certainly see the routes to an early grave. Make no mistake – and without grandstanding – it really is this bad. Building up a CV of achievement is voluntary – and often at great expense to the individual. One has to crawl, scratch and leave oneself in a pretty bad state of health and agony just to receive a few personal ticks in the productivity column.

You really don’t want to see what it takes to achieve a modicum of personal success and pride, so please get involved in this conversation and help stop the government’s approach in stripping the disabled of everything. We need nothing short of a revolution in the workplace.

Whitehall officials secretly plotted to charge disabled people for the right to appeal cruel benefit decisions, the Mirror can reveal today.

An internal Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) paper seen by the Mirror shows the Government also considered stopping people’s benefits altogether pending the outcome of an appeal.

Other plans drawn up by the DWP included slashing appeal times from 12 months to just three, and narrowing the scope of appeal tribunals so that fewer are successful.

The proposals are laid bare in a secret DWP document drawn up last year titled ‘Appeals Strategy – post-election planning 2015’.

The document appears to have been a response to the huge number of adverse benefit decisions which are overturned on appeal.

The DWP tried to stop the report being made public – but bungling officials failed to properly redact its contents.

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith said: “This secret document shows the inner workings of a department that seems determined to make life harder for disabled people and low-wage working families.

“No wonder they wanted to charge disabled people for appealing against decisions to cut their support, when more than 50 per cent of those appeal are successful.

The document sets out eight ‘policy options’ under consideration for a planned clampdown on benefits appeals after the May 2015 election.

Options listed include ‘charging for appeals’, ‘narrowing the scope of the tribunal’, ‘reducing appeal time length from 12 months to three’ and ‘remove payment of ESA (Employment Support Allowance) pending appeal’.

The officials note many of the options would be ‘controversial’ and ‘attract criticisms’ – while some could include wholesale rewriting of the law.

Last night disability charities erupted in fury at the revelations officials even considered such a clampdown.

Dan Scorer, head of policy at the learning disability charity Mencap, said: “It’s deeply concerning that anyone in the DWP thought these policies were acceptable.

“If introduced they would block disabled people’s ability to seek justice and challenge benefit decisions made against them, taking away the support they desperately rely on to find work and to maintain their independence and health.

“The assessments system for people with a learning disability is already broken, with over half of Fit for Work decisions being overturned by tribunal.”

Mark Atkinson, chief executive at disability charity Scope added: “The best way to reduce the number of appeals is to improve assessments – not make it more difficult to for disabled people to challenge incorrect decisions.”

And Child Poverty Action Group chief Alison Garnham said: “A benefit system that focuses on people has to be accountable and have fair and accessible mechanisms for appealing benefit decision.

“We hope that charges for appeals, cursory paper-based reviews, or any change that would restrict access to justice will not see the light of the day. “

A DWP spokeswoman insisted the proposals were not taken forward by the Government as actual policies.

“These ideas were drafted by staff before the last election. They do not represent Government policy and have never been sent to Ministers,” she said.

A terminally ill cancer patient who was refused a disability benefit by the Government has had her appeal turned down though her GP provided a lengthy description of her illness.

Jane Windle, from Parkwood Street, St James, was first diagnosed with a carcinoid form of cancer in 2001 and has tumours in her lungs and pelvis.

But last month it was revealed the 52-year-old would not be entitled to receive the Personal Independent Payment (PIP) even though she has been receiving the Disability Living Allowance, which PIP is phasing out, since she got ill.

Mrs Windle has a stent fitted and has difficulty, breathing, moving and even struggles to stand up unaided.

The couple appealed the decision at the start of April and supplied the Department for Work and Pensions with a DS1500 form from her GP explaining the extent her cancer affects her, listing a range of other debilitating conditions including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

But they have now learned their appeal has been refused.

Mrs Windle says the decision has left the couple desperate.

She said: “It is so stressful.

“Now that money has stopped it is just crazy.

“We just think, how are we going to manage?

“I will have to get rid of all sorts of things – my phone will have to go, there is no way I can afford that.”

Mrs Windle and husband William have met with Northampton South MP David Mackintosh, to see if he can get their assessment overturned.

They are also looking to take the DWP to a tribunal to contest the decision – a process that can take months.

Mrs Windle says there is no way she can go out and find work.

“I just can’t,” she said. “I can go to sleep for two to three days at a time.”

“What if I am at work for a couple of hours and need to sleep? What are they going to do, roll out a bed?

Mr and Mrs Windle can apply for Jobseekers’ Allowance, but that would mean both would actively need to seek employment, even though Mrs Windle has regular doctors’ appointments and needs her husband for assistance.

Mr Windle said he will not stop fighting the decision.

“Jane’s assessment simply isn’t true.

“If these assessors were working in a hospital we would be looking at a complete misdiagnosis.”

A terminally ill pensioner and lifelong supporter of the Conservatives has hit out at the Government for slashing her disability payment by £80 a week.

Cancer sufferer Susan Whitby’s financial support from the state has plummetted by more than half – from £135 to £55 a week – after she was reassessed for the controversial new Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

The ‘stressed, upset and extremely bitter’ Woolbrook Close resident, told by doctors she could have months or years left, feels she has ‘lived too long’ for the Department for Work and Pensions.

Mrs Whitby, 64, said she has paid more into her pension than she will ever live to take out and, with the cash instead going ‘overseas or to the wealthy’, she will never vote for the Tories again.

She has sent an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron and East Devon MP Hugo Swire speaking out for herself and the thousands of others she says must be affected.

“The money I was on was just about enough,” said Mrs Whitby. “I’m going to be in treatment indefinitely. Apparently I’ve lived too long for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

“I’m sure there are thousands and thousands of others who don’t know what their life expectancy is.

“The Government will benefit from my pension – I won’t be here in my 80s. After all I have paid in, I deserve a little support now.”

Mrs Whitby was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 40 and was successfully treated with radiotherapy. Three years ago she was ‘shattered’ when doctors said the cancer had returned and spread to her lungs and brain, just months before she was due to retire.

“My oncologist said I could live six months or several years,” said the former legal practice manager. “I just don’t know, but it’s a terminal diagnosis.”

Surgery on her brain meant Mrs Whitby’s driving licence was suspended. She was assessed for the Disability Living Allowance (DLA), put on the ‘enhanced’ rate and later allowed to join the Motability scheme to rent a car when her licence was returned. Mrs Whitby, who has been divorced for 25 years, moved to Sidmouth after her treatment in Rugby to be nearer to her two sons and three grandchildren.

She rented a home in Woolbrook Close assuming she would stay on the higher rate allowance – but in February she was reassessed by the DWP for the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP). She lost her car and saw her benefit slashed by £80 a week to £55.

The rate of PIP depends on how conditions affect individuals, rather than the conditions themselves. It is made up of two components – daily living and mobility – each set at a standard or enhanced rate. It requires a face-to-face interview rather than the self-assessment form for the DLA.

Only those who are not expected to live longer than six months qualify for the higher rate daily living component. It has not been explained to Susan why her allowance was cut.

“I’m loathe to leave this house, but I can’t keep losing the money I have,” said Mrs Whitby. “It would have been better not to be on the higher rate in the first place.

“I’m eating into my savings. They’ll probably last 12 months at the most.

“I can’t treat my grandchildren and I daren’t spend anything. I feel like a second class citizen.

“I rely on lifts because I can’t use public transport. My big outing a couple of times a week is to hospital appointments.”

Mrs Whitby said she got involved with the Conservatives in her 40s, raised thousands of pounds and supported Jeremy Wright’s campaign to become an MP.

“I had always voted Conservative, same as my parents did,” said Mrs Whitby. “I suppose it was the natural thing. I wouldn’t vote for them again unless they can see the big mistake they have made.

“I’m speaking out for everyone suffering the way I am.”

A DWP spokesman said: “Decisions on eligibility for PIP are made after consideration of all the evidence, including evidence from the claimant and their GP.

“If a claimant does not agree with a decision on their benefits, they can ask for us to look at it again.”

With many thanks to reader Maureen Anne Fitzsimmons.

A fitness for work assessor for Government contractor Capita boasted he “flew through” vital welfare disability tests – earning himself £20,000 a month.

And another derided a disabled claimant as needing “help to wipe her a*** because she’s too f****** fat to do it herself”.

The footage was filmed for Channel 4’s Dispatches programme by a reporter who went undercover to expose the hated tests, which have seen thousands of disabled people wrongly stripped of benefits.

In the documentary, to be broadcast at 8pm on Monday, one Capita employee named Alan crows about raking in vast sums.

He told the stunned reporter, who was taken on as an assessor: “It was ridiculous, I was getting around 20 grand a month, most months.

“We was flying through them because of that money.”

Alan, who was tasked to show the new recruit the ropes, told how he would sometimes complete assessments before meeting a claimant.

He said of one, who had lost a leg: “When it gets to the nuts and bolts, he does everything really don’t he?

“I’d literally finished his assessment before I’d walked through the door.”

The documentary is presented by ­Paralympian basketball player Ade Adepitan, 43, who won bronze for Team GB in Athens in 2004.

Capita said it has seen transcripts from the programme and apologised for the conduct of the assessor in question.

But a spokeswoman said the firm “does not recognise” claims of £20,000-a-month fees.

As seen here.

Background

 Currently there is a requirement for all claimants who are transferring from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to wait 28 days starting with the first pay after the decision to award PIP (‘the 28 day run on’).

 To ensure that the system delivers vital support as quickly as possible for claimants who are terminally ill, the 28 day rule is being modified.

 This requires a change in legislation.

 Regulations have been drafted and are due to come into effect on 4 April 2016.

 The change will only apply to PIP claimants transferring from DLA who meet the SRTI criteria and are awarded a greater weekly rate than their current DLA weekly rate.

 For the small number of people who receive less under PIP, the 28 day run on will remain to ensure there are no losers as a result of this change.

 Entitlement to PIP will start at the earliest opportunity, between 1 and 8 days following the decision to award PIP taking into account the different payment cycles of DLA.

Questions and Answers

1: What is being changed and why?

On 1 February 2016 the Minister announced that the 28 day rule for terminally ill claimants who are moving from DLA to PIP is being changed. This is to ensure that the system delivers vital support as quickly as possible.

2: When does this new rule come into effect?

New Regulations have been drafted and are due to come into effect on 4 April 2016.

3: Who will benefit from this change?

This change will apply to claimants who meet the Special Rules for the Terminally Ill (SRTI) criteria, are awarded a greater weekly rate than their DLA weekly rate and our decision on the PIP claim is made on or after 4 April 2016, the date the new Regulations came into effect

4: I am terminally ill and was awarded PIP which is more money than I was getting on DLA. I had to wait 28 days before PIP could be paid. Can I get backdated payments for the difference for this period?

There are no provisions to backdate payment. If the decision on the PIP claim was made before 4 April 2016, then the previous rules will apply.

PIP will start as usual after the end of the 28 day period.

5: I have been awarded PIP because I am terminally ill but I’m going to get less than I did on DLA because I don’t qualify for the mobility component. Will I lose out on the DLA payments for 28 days until PIP starts?

No. The 28 day rule will apply to everyone whose PIP decision took place before 4 April 2016. This will continue to apply from 4 April 2016 and beyond if a terminally ill claimant is awarded PIP at a weekly rate which is less than their current DLA weekly rate.

6: Why is PIP not paid immediately once a claimant notifies the Department they are terminally ill?

Entitlement to PIP will start at the earliest opportunity following the decision to award PIP under SRTI. We don’t expect this to be more than eight days for any claimant and in the vast majority of cases it will be less. It is determined according to the current payment cycle. This is significantly less than the current minimum of 28 days.

7: Why are you only removing the 28 day rule for terminally ill claimants?

The 28 day rule was introduced to help claimants manage their money where the amount of PIP awarded is less than they were getting for DLA.

We’ve removed this rule for terminally ill claimants to allow people who are terminally ill to get help quickly when they claim PIP. This is in line with the fast track process which was introduced for all people claiming under the special rules for terminally ill people.

From today’s Guardian:

My husband’s body is slowly failing him. He has a rare progressive form of Motor Neurone Disease called Kennedy’s disease and has gone from being physically active to depending on crutches and a wheelchair to get around. At night he breathes with the help of a machine that supports his weakened chest muscles.

Few people have heard of Mark’s disease, let alone understand what it is like to live with it. We wanted to change that, so Mark and I decided to volunteer for the charity Motor Neurone Disease Association as campaigners. We raise awareness of the disease and try to create change at a local and national level.

In November last year Mark and I were asked to speak to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Motor Neurone Disease, when the welfare reform and work bill was being debated. Like many others, we were worried about the impact of the bill on disabled people and their carers. We know how important it is to have sufficient financial support when living with an increasingly expensive condition, and what it would mean if this support was cut.

So, we told the MPs our story. We told them about how we were once two professionals and how our lives had been devastated by Mark’s condition. I explained that as a teacher I had earned £150 a day and now I receive £62.10 a week in carer’s allowance for providing never ending care and support for my husband.

Mark explained how he was forced to retire at 46, that our income had fallen off a cliff, but our bills continued to increase. He told the group about how we travel miles and miles to receive care and how we had to make adaptions to our home which were paid for with savings that we will never be able to replace.

As we continued to speak, I realised that the number of MPs in room was growing. We had been warned that they would come and go due to their busy diaries, but it became clear that they were staying to hear all of our testimony. You could see it in their faces that they were thinking about how they might cope in similar circumstances and as they sat there some were emailing and texting their ministers to meet and discuss what we had said. Some were even tweeting.

A few weeks later Madeleine Moon, chair of the group, spoke about our visit during a Westminster Hall debate on neurological conditions. She mentioned us by name and our experiences with Kennedy’s Disease. We realised that this was the first time Kennedy’s Disease had ever been mentioned in a parliamentary debate and the first time it has been recorded in Hansard. This is some legacy. It proved to us the power of a personal story and how you can make a difference using your own words.

We still have work to do. The Welfare Reform and Work Act is now law, which means that people with Motor Neurone Disease who claim Employment Support Allowance will lose out as a result of the four-year benefit freeze. But people who get carer’s allowance will no longer have their benefits capped. There are wins and losses. Our campaigning work continues.

Huge numbers of disabled people are being wrongly denied Personal Independence Payments (PIP), tribunals are ruling.

A staggering 61% of rejected claims for the benefit are overturned on appeal – inflicting unnecessary stress and extra expense on people, say campaigners.

The number of successful appeals has mushroomed to around 82 every day, figures slipped out by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) show.

One case raised by a Labour MP involved a man with such severe heart pounding during an assessment that paramedics had to be called.

But his claim was rejected – a decision which was reversed later.

Read more: Law students overturn 95% of ESA ‘fit for work’ judgements

A multiple sclerosis sufferer had her PIP payment slashed despite being unable to drive and able to walk only short distances, with the aid of a stick.

Disabled people have also protested at having to wait many months before they are allowed to appeal, suggesting the figures are the tip of the iceberg.

The figures come after George Osborne was forced to abandon cuts to PIP after a backbench revolt, leaving a £4.4bn black hole in last month’s Budget.

The row sparked the resignation of Work and pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who branded the Government’s approach to welfare cuts as “deeply unfair”.

Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, a campaigner for disabled people, said the rate of successful appeals exposed a system that “isn’t working”.

Lady Grey-Thompson said: “There must be so much money wasted – I want the Government to look at this urgently.

“It is very stressful to go to an appeal. It can take a lot of time and you may not have very much money while it is going on.”

And Liz Sayce, chief executive of the charity Disability Rights UK, said: “Appeals can take a year to be heard – that’s a year that people might have to make do with a significant drop of income when they have the additional costs of disability.

‘Many disabled people simply give up. They can’t face the stress and grief of going through a further process to try and get benefit, even when they’re entitled to it.”

The tests are carried out by controversial French firm Atos – the company which lost its contract to carry out separate assessments for sickness benefits – and rival outsourcing company Capita.

The figures show that 24% of rejections were being overturned by tribunals in early 2013, soon after PIP was introduced to replace Disability Living Allowance.

That proportion had risen to 51% by the end of 2014 and to 57 per cent by last Spring – reaching 61% by the last three months of 2015, the most recent figures.

In that October to December period, no fewer than 7,510 appeals were successful – or 578 every week.

It means that even more wrong decisions are being made for PIP than for sickness benefits, known as Employment and Support Allowance (58%).

A DWP spokesperson said: “The truth is the vast majority of PIP decisions do not go to appeal and just 2% of initial decisions are overturned.

“Overturned decisions are often the result of additional evidence being provided. This does not mean the original decision was wrong.”

Carly Tait, a sprint wheelchair racer, is four months away from trials to represent Great Britain at this summer’s Paralympics in Rio – but she now finds herself at the sharp end of the government’s controversial cuts to disability benefits. The 30-year-old from Wythenshawe, south Manchester, who has cerebral palsy, received a lifetime award of disability living allowance (DLA) when she was 18 and for the last 12 years has used part of the benefit to lease an accessible car.

Tait describes the car as her “lifeline”. She says it has allowed her to attend university, have a job, get to two training sessions a day in Stockport, about 10 miles from home, and compete in track events around the country. But after being assessed in February for personal independence payments (PIP) – the government’s “points-based” benefit introduced to replace DLA – Tait has been told she will lose her car, which is provided by the Motability charity scheme.

Under the new rules, to be eligible for the Motability scheme, a disabled person needs to score 12 assessment points. Tait scored 10. “I had training half an hour after I opened the letter [from the Department for Work and Pensions],” she recalls. “I spent the entire time crying as I went round the track. My coach rushed over asking what’s wrong. There I was sobbing, ‘I’ve lost my car. They’re taking my car.’”

What is happening to Tait is only the tip of the iceberg. Despite the government’s much-publicised climbdown over one PIP cut to disability aids in the home, there is still wide-scale reassessment going on, which is seeing disabled people losing their cars. Since 2013, more than 17,000 disabled people have had their mobility cars, powered wheelchairs, or scooters taken away after being reassessed, according to Motability. By 2018, the DWP will have retested some two million disabled people and it is predicted that 90,000 motability vehicles will be repossessed.

Tait says when she was called for her PIP interview she was sure she would still qualify for her car. “[I thought,] I’m going to my assessment in a wheelchair. What more evidence do they need?” But within a few minutes of the test, Tait says she began to feel the examiner wasn’t there to support her but rather “to catch me out”. This only increased, she says, when she told him she was training for the Paralympics. “He alluded to the fact someone like me – who can go wheelchair racing – shouldn’t get the same support as someone who can’t … It was like ‘you can do sport, you don’t need help,’” she recalls.

As well as limited sight and hearing, Tait’s disability affects both her legs severely – she uses a wheelchair and crutches – and leaves her with coordination problems. Despite this, she was judged as being able to walk more than 20m – a highly controversial but key factor used to judge whether a disabled person is awarded the enhanced mobility rate of PIP to qualify for a vehicle.

“Even things like rain and wind upset me. I fell over last summer and broke my foot because I tripped on the pavement. I had to crawl to the bathroom,” says Tait. “It’s almost as if they think if you can walk in your own house, you don’t need a car.”

Tait’s case highlights whether there is any sense in reassessing people with unchangeable or incurable conditions, such as hers. The justification by former work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, was that around 70% of people who got a lifetime award were “just allowed to fester”. People on lifetime awards began to be assessed for PIP from July. Over the next two years, waves of severely disabled people who had previously been told their DLA was for life could see their awards reduced or removed entirely.

“When I asked the assessor why I had to be tested again, he said ‘there might be medical advances’,” says Tait. “There’s no cure for cerebral palsy. I’m never going to get any better. I’ve been on a lifetime award since I was a teenager. And now someone who’s never met me before can take that away.”

Tait says the London Paralympics inspired her to take up wheelchair racing. “Until I watched the 2012 Paralympics I didn’t even know people with cerebral palsy could do sport, let alone be successful at it. Since then I’ve dedicated my life to being on the start line in Rio.”

In 2014, Tait represented Great Britain in the T34 wheelchair sprint at the Diamond League in Hampden Park, Glasgow and at the IPC Grand Prix Final in Birmingham, alongside Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft. She took part in last year’s Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games at the Olympic Park in Stratford and this year, she has taken a 12-month sabbatical from work – as a digital marketer for the Co-op – to train for Paralympic qualification.

In December, Tait ordered a new car from Motability, specifically for her training needs. In addition to being suitable for her poor coordination, her racing wheelchair is 6ft long – it won’t fit in a manual car with the gearstick in the way – the car also had to have room for her everyday wheelchair. As she waited for her new car to be made, Tait had been using a hire car from Motability (her previous car was damaged in an accident). A few hours before she opened the DWP letter informing her she had lost her eligibility, the garage called to say her new car was ready. “It’s sat in the garage now, waiting for me,” she says.

Tait’s eligibility officially ends next week, but Motability have given her a three-week extension for her hire car to 3 May “as an act of goodwill”. Tait is appealing against the DWP decision. If successful, Motability has told her that she would have to reorder her new car, which could be another three or four months. To buy, her car would cost £29,500. “I can’t afford it without my benefits, not even to lease,” she says.
Take another look at the disability debate. Who’s missing?
Frances Ryan
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On 24 April, competition season begins and, in addition to regular training, Tait needs to get to Stoke Mandeville and Coventry to compete. She says she has no idea how she will.

“This is Rio year,” she says. “This whole year has been about getting myself into a medal position. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. They made all this effort in London 2012 to showcase disability. But now the government is making us housebound.”
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A DWP spokeswoman says: “Decisions on eligibility for PIP are made after consideration of all the evidence, including an assessment and information provided by the claimant and their GP. The majority of people leaving the Motability scheme will be eligible for a one-off payment of £2,000 [from Motability], which will help ensure their mobility needs continue to be met.”

Motability says it has already paid out £20m in transitional support and research shows it has helped customers to remain mobile without their Motability car, in many cases by purchasing a used car. This isn’t an option for Tait. She says: “I’m representing a country called ‘Great’. It’s not that great [for disabled people], is it? People need to know this is happening.”

Remember when they told us disability benefits wouldn’t be frozen for three years, like other working age benefits?

Well, it seems they weren’t telling us the truth.

The Huffington Post reports:

.

Worrying reports this evening from respected blog Vox Political:

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

Personal independence payment (PIP) has turned out to be yet another failure for the DWP, as promised cuts of 20% have been reduced to a forecast 5%. The failure to cut costs mirrors the transfer from incapacity benefit (IB) to employment and support allowance (ESA), which also did not produce the promised savings.

Conflicting claims
Ministers and shadow ministers have been making conflicting claims about whether the government is set to pay out more or less in benefits to sick and disabled claimants over the rest of this parliament.

As Full Facts reports, neither side have been accurate in their use of statistics.

The Conservatives have claimed that spending on the main disability benefits will increase over the course of this parliament.

This is true to the extent that spending on DLA, AA and PIP will increase very slightly from £21.7 billion to £21.8 billion a year between 2015 and 2020. But these are far from the only benefits that most disabled people rely on.

Labour have claimed that benefits spending on people with disabilities will fall by £1.2 billion a year across this parliament. However, according to Full Fact:

“Spending on all disability, incapacity, industrial injuries and carer’s benefits, including related housing benefit, is expected to fall by £1.2 billion by the end of this parliament. Spending won’t fall by this amount every year—it will fall by £295 million each year on average.”

PIP spending
When it comes to spending on PIP, however, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) are forecasting that, without the now abandoned changes to PIP eligibility rules announced in the budget, spending on PIP will only reduce by 5% compared to what would have been spent on DLA.

According to the OBR, they have had to revise the expected success rate for DLA to PIP reassessments up from the DWP’s original estimate of 80%. The OBR now expect 83% of reassessments to result in an award of PIP after mandatory reconsiderations and appeals are taken into account.

In addition, the DWP had originally claimed that the average PIP award would work out at £86 a week. However, significantly more people are being awarded the enhanced rate of the daily living component and the mobility component of PIP than the DWP expected. The result is that the average award is now expected to be worth £100 a week.

Tiny savings
So, like the IB to ESA transfer before it, the change from DLA to PIP looks like it will heap an enormous amounts of misery on disabled claimants without any significant savings for the taxpayer.

In fact, given that the saving is only expected to be 5% rather than 20%, when you add in the massive additional costs of the PIP assessment regime and the huge increase in appeals, the savings may be very tiny indeed.

You can read more on this at Full Fact

Same Difference hopes this was an April Fool, but considering it was Tweeted on March 31st we have our doubts. Have you seen a similar poster at another JobCentre?

A Tory minister last night ordered a Jobcentre to take down a ‘dehumanising’ Space Invaders poster which appeared to target disability benefit claimants.

The huge poster, hung on the wall of a staff office depicts the classic arcade game, with alien enemies being picked off one-by-one by a spaceship, under the heading “Yardley ESA Challenge”.

Disability minister Justin Tomlinson said the poster would be taken down as it’s not “presented in the best way.”

The Department for Work and Pensions today insisted the department do not set targets for getting people off Employment Support Allowance (ESA).

But they were unable to explain what the poster was supposed to represent, or what the ‘Yardley ESA Challenge’ was.

https://twitter.com/jessphillips/status/715566991441076225?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

A picture of the poster was tweeted by Labour MP Jess Phillips after it was sent to her by a constituent who took it in her local Job Centre in Yardley, Birmingham.

Mrs Phillips is set to meet the manager of the Job Centre today, and said she assumed it was “to get people off ESA.”

Mr Tomlinson replied later, saying: “This will be taken down. Definitely right to help sick and disabled into work, but this not presented in best way.”

Mrs Phillips said: “There is a feeling amongst the disabled that they are being dehumanised. Unfortunately this picture proves their point.

“People on ESA include people with cancer, Parkinson’s or people with crippling mental health problems. It’s not OK to depict them as aliens to be eliminated, however innocent it may have seemed to staff in the centre.”

A DWP spokesperson insisted the poster was an “isolated incident”, but declined to add further comment in addition to the Minister’s tweet.

The Mirror asked the DWP spokesperson if the department was speaking to Jobcentre staff to find out what the poster was supposed to represent, but they again declined to comment.

STEPHEN CRABB, the new work and pensions secretary, is seeking to tear up government contracts with private “welfare to work” contractors as part of a radical overhaul of Iain Duncan Smith’s benefits revolution.

In the first sign that Crabb will make changes to the government’s flagship reforms, he held a crisis meeting about the troubled universal credit on Thursday and ordered officials to come clean with him and the public about the problems.

Whitehall sources say one of Crabb’s first moves will be to “get out of” problematic government contracts.

One firm under scrutiny is Maximus, which replaced Atos in providing health assessments for claimants of the employment and support allowance, the new benefit for the disabled.

The National Audit Office (NAO) reported in January that since Maximus took on the contract for fitness-for- work tests in March last year the cost to the taxpayer had doubled to £579m. It also said that one in 10 reports is rejected by the government as below standard, compared with one in 25 under Atos.

Maximus did not respond to a request for comment but at the time of the NAO report a spokesman said the company had brought in new staff “to meet the requirements of the contract going forward. We are confident about the future and remain fully committed to delivering a high quality service.”

A senior Whitehall source said: “Stephen [Crabb] is a sceptic of throwing ever-more millions [at private companies]. One contract in particular — Fit for Work — he will be looking to get out of that contract pretty quick. Fit for Work is an early candidate for some serious reworking.”

During Thursday’s meeting, which lasted for six hours, Crabb “lifted the bonnet” on universal credit.

Only 200,000 people have claimed the benefit despite forecasts that 1m would have enrolled by 2014.

Crabb ordered weekly updates on the programme, which merges six benefits into one, and told officials to stop blocking freedom of information requests.

From next month five jobcentres a month will begin operating the full universal credit system for whole families, not just servicing single claimants.

The source said: “We need much greater transparency. This is such a public-facing project, we have nothing to fear from public scrutiny.”

Crabb will lay out his approach to welfare in a speech on April 12, saying he wants “work coaches” who are delivering universal credit to be held in the same esteem as nurses are in the NHS.

This is unbelievable. Please share it as widely as you can, readers. We think it needs to go viral.

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

MPs on the public accounts committee (PAC) have issued a report which concludes that companies carrying out personal independence payment (PIP) and employment and support allowance (ESA) assessments are still failing to meet acceptable performance standards.

Quality
The committee found that too many PIP and ESA assessments do not meet the required standards, especially for claimants with fluctuating conditions or mental health conditions.

The quality of assessments is also very variable. Between 7% and 20% of assessments sampled by contractors do not meet the required standards. Yet the DWP return only 1% to the privatised companies as unusable, claiming that telephone calls resolve the issues with the rest.

Waiting times
The committee found that there are “unacceptable local and regional variations” in the performance of assessments. The DWP has admitted that, while waiting times for assessments have fallen, there are strong regional variations. The DWP collect figures on these and the PAC have said that they should start publishing quarterly results by the autumn.

There is also a huge difference between the average time it takes to return an assessment. For PIP, Atos and Capita take an average of four weeks, whilst Maximus take 23 weeks to return an ESA assessment.

Costs
Strong doubts were also raised about the value for money of an increase in the cost of assessments, with the PAC saying that “there has been no noticeable benefit for claimants or taxpayers”. Costs are expected to double, with a staggering £579 million going into the pockets of private contractors in 2016-17.

The cost of ESA assessments, in particular, have risen from £115 per assessment to £190 under the new contract with Maximus. Yet witnesses told the PAC that there has been no noticeable improvement under Maximus.

You can download a pdf copy of the PAC committee report ‘Contracted out health and disability assessments’ from this link.

Jess Phillips MP, the PIP tribunal may dislike you, but Same Difference sends you sincere thanks for writing this to Michael Gove:

Jess Phillips MP, Same Difference asks you to please keep treating your constituents like the human beings they are. Sadly, in your profession, people are disliked for doing what you did in this case.  But please remember that what you did in this case is exactly what we all need our MPs to do for us, in every case, always.

This is slightly old, readers, but sometimes, old is gold.

Zac Goldsmith has defended his decision to vote for cuts to disability benefit, after being forced to step down as patron of a Richmond charity.

The Richmond Park MP was asked to resign from his role of patron to Richmond Advice and Information on Disability (Richmond AID) after voting for cuts which could mean £1,500 less a year for those claiming the benefits.

…

Mr Goldsmith said the philosophy behind the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was that people are best helped by being enabled to get back into work.

The Conservative mayoral candidate said: “It is not just simply a cut, there is a new government fund which will be up to £100m which is specifically to help people get back to work.

Readers, Same Difference has to wonder: If such a fund has been set up, how hard will it be to successfully apply for support from it? As hard as the current system of hardship payments, which JobCentre advisers are told in training not to mention?

Even more worryingly, Zac Goldsmith seems to be among the group of MPs who were told that people in the WRAG can work.

People with these conditions.

According to this FOI.
Dear Mr Dutton, 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of 23 October 2015. You asked: 
 
I wish to ask what approach the DWP will take as and when a claimant on Universal Credit
requests to take any kind of holiday.

If someone is working but still subject to work conditionality, will the leave provision in their
contract of employment be taken as a basis for allowing time off?
 
Under JSA rules, a claimant can go away within the UK for up to two weeks but cannot usually 
leave the UK or their claim will be closed. The claimant still needs to comply with the rules of 
JSA and can be asked to look for work whilst they are away.  
 
Under Universal Credit a claimant can go abroad for a period of a month for any reason, a 
longer period of up to six months temporary absence abroad is also allowable for reasons of 
medical treatment. However, if a claimant chooses to go on holiday in Great Britain or abroad 
they must continue to carry out the work-related requirements as set out on their Claimant 
Commitment. 
 
No allowances are made within the conditionality regime for claimants going on holiday.  For 
example claimants within the All Work-Related Requirements Group with no restrictions on 
their availability will still be expected to be immediately available to attend a job interview or 
take up an offer of employment, even if this means cutting short a holiday. They are also 
required to attend their normal appointments and failure to do so will incur a sanction.   
 
Being on holiday would not be considered by a DWP Decision Maker as good reason for not 
carrying out any work search or availability requirements. 
 
Regulation 11 of the Universal Credit regulations 2013 sets out that a person on Universal 
Credit is able to leave the UK for a period not exceeding a month (or not expected to exceed a 

month). This can be extended in certain exceptional circumstances. However, this provision 
does not exempt a claimant from work related requirements as set out on the Claimant 
Commitment  Here is a link to the regulation: 
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/376/regulation/11  
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number 
above.   
Yours sincerely,  
 
 
DWP Strategy FoI Team 

Ekklesia have written a brilliant open letter to Stephen Crabb MP, at the approach of Easter, about what they would like to see him do for welfare reforms and disabled people.

Same Difference links to its PDF, in an effort to send it viral, because we believe it should be seen by as many people as possible.

We sincerely thank Ekklesia for their support, through this letter, of disabled people and our fight against the cuts.

A press release:

The House of Lords Committee on the Equality Act 2010 and Disability will publish its report on Thursday 24 March.

The Equality Act 2010 was intended to harmonise all discrimination law and to strengthen the law to support progress on equality.

Over the past nine months the Committee has been examining the Equality Act 2010 and in particular its impact on disabled people, looking at areas such as:

·    Implementation
·    Enforcement
·    Reasonable adjustment
·    Transport
·    Communication
·    The Equality and Human Rights Commission
·    Discrimination and the judicial process

During the course of the inquiry the Committee received nearly 180 pieces of written evidence and heard from more than 50 witnesses, among them the Government Equalities Office, the Office for Disability Issues, Disability Rights UK, RNIB, Scope, MIND, British Deaf Association, the Bar Council, Law Society, Discrimination Law Association, Law Centres Network, People First Advocacy, Business Disability Forum, Association of Convenience Stores, Trade Unions Congress, Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, campaign group Transport for All, NHS England, Care Quality Commission, Ofsted, the Independent Parental Special Educational Advice, Association of Train Operating Companies, Confederation of Passenger Transport, Housing Law Practitioners Association, Lewisham Shopmobility Scheme, National Association of Licensing and Enforcement Officers, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Carers UK, and officials from the Department for Transport, Department for Education, Department of Health, Department for Communities and Local Government, and Department for Work and Pensions.

The Committee took evidence from Government ministers Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP, Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities, Department for Education; Justin Tomlinson MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People, Department for Work and Pensions; and Andrew Jones MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Transport. 

The Committee also heard first-hand testimonies from disabled people as well as visiting a user-led support organisation for disabled people, Real.

Respected blogger Mike Sivier asks readers of his respected blog, Vox Political:

Remember when the new Work and Pensions secretary, Stephen Crabb, wrote on his Facebook page, “A decision was taken by MPs to change the benefit awarded to a specific group of people who receive Employment Support Allowance. These people are in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) and they do have a disability or illness but are able to work”?

Same Difference remembers it well as we covered it two days ago.

Vox Political’s article goes on to say that after Stephen Crabb wrote the relevant post on Facebook, Sir Alan Haselhurst justified his decision to support the ESA  WRAG cut with this: “It’s motivated by the desire to get more people back into work who are capable of doing some form of work. We should be making a more active effort to make sure that there’s something they are able to do.”

Since then, adds Vox Political, two other Conservative MPs have revealed similar opinions about reasons for the ESA WRAG cuts.

Mike Sivier shares his opinion that it seems as if Conservative MPs were given a briefing in which they were told people in the WRAG were able to work. If this is true, he rightly adds, it is an outrage.

It would be contempt of Parliament, deliberately misleading MPs, not just on a point of information, but with an intention that they would support a cut of nearly one-third to the income of some of the UK’s most vulnerable citizens.

Vox Political continues:

People on ESA are, by definition, not capable of work.

They aren’t on the benefit because their illness or disability is making it hard for them to find a job; they’re on it because they are too unwell to work. Many of them never return to work – because the mortality rate is three times the national average.

The rules are perfectly clear. Being in the WRAG means the claimant is expected to be well enough to work within a year of their claim starting – but it doesn’t mean they can work now.

If that was possible, they would be on Jobseeker’s Allowance, not ESA.

These facts are well known to everybody who works at the DWP – including the Tory Secretary of State who runs it (Iain Duncan Smith, at the time).

So, asks Vox Political, where did all these MPs get their information that people in the WRAG can work?

Were they briefed to this effect, by DWP ministers committing contempt of Parliament?

Or, worse still, did they simply not care and assumed it, because the group’s title includes the word ‘work’? This can only mean they never bothered to look into the facts of the matter and simply saw this as a chance to inflict grave suffering on the sick and disabled.

Those are the choices.

Vox Political asks Tory MPs a question:

Did you cut ESA by a third because you were misinformed, or did you do it because you hate the sick and disabled?

And, if you were misinformed, will the culprits be prosecuted for contempt of Parliament and another vote taken – with the correct information made available to MPs?

Same Difference, like Vox Political, would be very interested to know the answer.

Same Difference has just received the following email:

Following on from this post yesterday, respected blogger Joe Halewood says at SPEye Joe:

The new Secretary of State for Work & Pensions Stephen Crabb says people with Quadriplegia, Brain Haemorrhage, Brain Tumours, Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinsons Disease and scores of other conditions are ‘able to work!’

He said so on his own Facebook page (see here) as he believes those placed in the Employment and Support Allowance Work Related Activities Group, or ESA WRAG are all fit and able for work!

He goes on to say:

Stephen Crabb believes that a quadriplegic does not have any additional costs each week than the able bodied person seeking work even though (a) the benefit they receive is called Employment AND SUPPORT Allowance, and (b) if they are fit for work they are unable to claim ESA and would receive Job Seekers Allowance.

And adds that since his article yesterday morning, he has been sent a Freedom of Information Act response from the DWP that lists all of the conditions which require a doctor or physiotherapist to assess as part of the Work Capability Assessment for ESA.

The FOI Response:

Halewood concludes:

While the question asked what incapacitating issues require a Doctor or Physiotherapist to assess (rather than say a paramedic or nurse) for ESA purposes, the same list of conditions mean that all of the above ARE conditions of people in the ESA WRAG and whom Stephen Crabb says are able to work!!

The DWP has been given £22 million to recruit presenting officers in an effort to reduce the number of claimants winning their personal independence payment (PIP) and employment and support allowance (ESA) appeals.

The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) “Economic and Fiscal Outlook” document lists the following amount:

“£22 million to DWP to recruit presenting officers across 2016-17 to 2017-18 to support the department in personal independent payments and employment and support allowance tribunals.”

Buzzfeed is reporting that the money will pay for 180 new presenting officers.

The number of PIP appeals is expected to skyrocket over the coming two years as the forced move from DLA to PIP takes place.

In addition, the proportion of successful PIP appeals has increased with every quarter since the benefit was introduced. PIP claimants won in 60% of cases from July to September 2015, up from 56% in the previous quarter.

58% of ESA cases are also won by the claimant.

The DWP is also concerned by the way that tribunal judges have been interpreting the very badly drafted PIP legislation in favour of claimants. In particular, the widening of what counts as aids and appliances for PIP activities by judges is what led to the disastrous attempt to change the point scores for PIP.

In theory, presenting officers should act a s a ‘friend of the court’, helping judges to reach a fair decision. In reality, they will be sent by the DWP to try to discredit claimants and argue as forcibly as possible for the DWP’s interpretation of the law to be accepted.

Attending an appeal tribunal is likely to be an even more gruelling process for claimants over the next few years.

A dying dad has told how his disability benefit was axed – after he lovingly reached out to hug his four-year-old daughter.

Father-of-five Mark Roberts, 45, has just two years to live after surviving a massive heart attack.

But he says he scored zero on a test of his mobility and daily living after an assessor watched him embrace his little girl Saffron, who was suffering from chicken pox.

“It’s so shocking,” said Mr Roberts.

“I would rather risk my own health by leaning forward to hug my daughter than see her struggle. I don’t know what that’s got to do with anything.”

His furious wife Anne, 49, added: “I think there should be a warning to all the other people out there who are dying.

“Don’t cuddle your kids or your benefits will be stopped.”

Mr Roberts from Wrexham, north Wales, was assessed for his benefits earlier this month when a woman came to the house to ask a list of questions – including whether he could make a basic sandwich and how many ‘bus lengths’ he could walk.

He has now been told that as of April 12 he will no longer qualify for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) – which replace the Disability Living Allowance – worth £559 a month.

The devastating letter informing him his money had been cut claims he can wash and bathe himself without help.

But it also includes the line: “You were able to sit forward on the sofa on one occasion in order to cuddle your daughter.”

Mr Roberts, who has just 50 per cent heart function, also suffers from fatigue, shortness of breath, coughing and chest pains and says he is unable to work.

He uses his benefits for essentials but also to buy Christmas vouchers for the family, including Liam, 16, Jasmin, 14, Rhys, 11, and Rhiannon, seven.

“I want to give them good memories of me,” he said.

He told how doctors at Wrexham Maelor Hospital gave him about five years to live three years ago after suffering the biggest heart attack they had ever seen anyone survive.

Mrs Roberts said his condition would gradually worsen and the money would be needed for care costs, such as adaptions to their home.

But she said that the woman who carried out the assessment did not even know her husband was terminally ill and branded the decision not to grant him PIP “disgusting”.

“He can’t work because he’s only got 50 per cent of his heart going. He’s suffered heart attacks in the past,” she said “I’m just disgusted. What has he got to do to get benefits?

“We’re not scroungers. We’re not making this up.

“The whole thing has been very upsetting. The questions the woman asked had nothing to do with what’s wrong with him. They were just awful.

“She was heartless and she showed no compassion. It was appalling. When Mark hugged Saffron she was watching him like a hawk and typing away like mad.”

Read more: How did my MP vote on cuts to ESA disability benefit?

Mr Roberts added: “I’m not crippled. I never said I was incapable of hugging my child, but I do find things difficult.

“When you have got a heart that pumps at 50 per cent, it’s hard to explain how it makes you feel. Just walking upstairs to the toilet puts you out of breath.”

He said his condition worsened after the visit and his assessor was told but this had not been reflected in the final decision.

“It’s like they just don’t believe you,” he said. “They haven’t even seen my medical records.”

The former forklift truck driver and warehouse worker is now waiting to hear how the decision will affect his £280 fortnight income support benefits- and if he is entitled to any other form of benefit.

The couple are also forwarding a letter from the heart failure team at Wrexham Maelor Hospital hoping to challenge the ruling.

Mr Roberts added that he welcomed Iain Duncan-Smith ’s resignation as Work and Pensions’ Secretary over disability payments.

“I think it’s a great thing when someone is willing to stand up for what they believe in and I admire him for it,” he said.

A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said: “Decisions on eligibility for Personal Independence Payment are made after consideration of all the evidence, including an assessment and information provided by the claimant and their GP.

“Claimants can appeal their decisions during which they can submit more evidence.”

As I type, Stephen Crabb MP is making a statement in the House of Commons.

On the proposed PIP cuts, he said:

“Personal Independence Payments were introduced to be a more modern and dynamic benefit to help cover the extra costs faced by disabled people, something its predecessor benefit DLA didn’t do. PIP is designed to focus support on those with the greatest need.”

And he said this works-  22% PIP claimants getting highest level of support compared to 16% DLA claimants.

“Before Christmas the Government held a consultation on how part of the PIP assessment works in relation to aids and appliances. As the Prime Minister indicated on Friday, I can tell the House that we will not be going ahead with the changes to PIP that had been put forward.”

“Behind every statistic there is a human being.”

“We have no further plans to make welfare savings” beyond those approved by Parliament two weeks ago.

Respected blogger Joe Halewood of SPeye Joe shares this Facebook post from Stephen Crabb after the new Minister’s office was spray painted last week (before he became a Minister):

Halewood goes on to say:

This is what Stephen Crabb’s constituents spray painted on his office last week: