“Dear Keir, Don’t clip PIP!”

The Liberal Democrats in Mid Cheshire have urged the Labour Government to dismiss rumored plans to cut disability benefits ahead of an announcement by the Work & Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall MP, on Tuesday.

Media speculation suggests that Personal Independence Payments (PIP), a non-means tested benefit designed to assist disabled people with the cost of living, could be cut to help balance the books ahead of the Chancellor’s Spring Statement. These cuts could include freezing the benefit, rather than increasing it in line with inflation, a real terms cut, and/or toughening up eligibility criteria for certain disabilities.

Jack Price-Harbach, the Lib Dems Parliamentary Spokesperson for Mid Cheshire, argues that “reducing benefits for disabled people will not incentivise more people to get back into the workplace. Applying for PIP is a notoriously difficult process, designed to put applicants off from doing it in the first place. In this digital age, paper application forms as thick as a school textbook have to be requested by phone call, filled out, then posted back to the DWP. Disabled people are made to feel like scroungers wanting to cheat the system from the start, for a paltry amount of money compared to similar European countries.”

“Forcing more people who can’t work into the workplace, or forcing those with limited capabilities to work beyond what they can reasonably manage will worsen their health outcomes. Employers will be less willing to employ or retain disabled people, leaving them more impoverished.”

The success rate for PIP applications in Mid Cheshire is 52.6%. Of the 14,100 total applications made within the constituency, 6,700 were unsuccessful. Two-thirds of those failed applications were due to applicants failing either the in-person or over-the-phone assessment.

Price-Harbach added: “For those people in Mid Cheshire who do receive PIP, 16% are pretty much left alone due to their needs being so severe. However, three-quarters of successful applicants are subjected to eligibility reviews between every year or every 5 years. If someone has a permanent disability, it can be managed but not cured. If applicants demonstrate that they are managing well thanks to this extra income, they are at risk of losing that benefit, along with the independence that it brings. I am calling on this Labour Government to ensure that any reductions to PIP are confined to the dustbin before they see the light of day. Disabled people must be treated with compassion, not suspicion.”

In their General Election Manifesto, “For A Fair Deal,” the Liberal Democrats pledged to Make the benefits system work better for disabled people by:

• Giving disabled people and organisations representing them a stronger voice in the design of benefits policies and processes.
• Bringing Work Capability Assessments in-house.
• Reforming Personal Independence Payment assessments to make the process more transparent and stop unnecessary reassessments, and end the use of informal assessments.

If you are unhappy with Labour's possible plans to cut disability benefits, and want to follow your local Lib Dems opposition to any such changes, then fill out the form below: