I’ve had my fair share of problems with the welfare system over the years. When I applied for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) straight after leaving university I found out I couldn’t actually get any of it because they thought I could live off my girlfriend’s part-time income (which is almost an insult, to be frank) and then when we tried to get some housing benefit last winter we came unstuck because we had to keep sending document after document after document to prove our case. In the end, we gave up since it was causing so much stress.
Something needs to be fixed on those specific areas and that is what makes the coalition government’s decision to ‘re-haul’ it by cutting money out from disability benefits particular perplexing.
They’re hoping to pass the welfare reform bill before Christmas and instead of clamping down on benefit cheats they are removing certain forms of disability benefit like the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and announcing the introduction of the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), which claimants may only be get for a year if they have a partner that earns £7,500 or more or there are limited savings.
Basically, instead of showing compassion, they’re trying to throw in as many loopholes to stop disabled people get the money that they actually need.
The other truly ridiculous thing about these proposed changes is that it’s basically saying to couples: “If you want to get benefits, split up!” Who knows what kind of damage that would do. For the disabled, it’s important that they have people around them to support them and make them stronger. It’s also crying out for benefit cheats to claim more money from the government that they don’t really need. Heck, if it’s easy enough already when it comes to the JSA and housing benefits then they’ll crack this one too eventually.
What angers me the most though is that this sends out the message that because we are broke it’s going to be the disadvantaged that have to pay. Has it really now come to this?
