Welfare reforms 'to hit half a million disabled people'
Around 500,000 disabled people are "expected to lose out" when the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is scrapped, a new report claimed today.
The Tipping Point, authored by a coalition of 90 disabled people's organisations and charities called The Hardest Hit, was highly critical of the Government's attitude to disabled people, claiming there has been a £500 million drop in disability support since George Osborne's 2010 Emergency Budget.
The report's research, largely based around surveys and interviews with both disabled claimants and welfare officers, showed that 65% of respondents believe they would have to give up work without the support of the DLA.
The figures suggested the loss of employees from the workforce could be as high as 50,400, resulting in a possible reduction of £293.3 million in tax receipts to the Treasury.
But the report did stress that variables make calculating exact figures impossible.
The Department for Work and Pensions had "failed to consider" knock on effects of scrapping the DLA, the report claimed, citing examples such as increased burdens on council funded care if 500,000 people were to lose benefits.
It argued the £2 billion in savings expected by the Government from ending DLA is "overestimated" by potentially £1.6 billion.
Increased costs such as implementation; lost tax revenue; and increased dependence on council services, were predicted by the report to largely cancel out hoped for savings.
The Government's disability assessment process was also criticised by the report;
65% of interviewees saying that disability assessors "did not understand their condition".
87% of welfare advisors argue "constant re-assessments for benefits are damaging people's health".
The report highlighted the fact that disabled people are "twice as likely to live in poverty" and only a small loss of income can "tip people with a disability into greater dependence on health and social care services or friends and family".
David Cameron has said that "no recipients will lose out, unless their circumstances change" and that "the money that is going into disability benefit will not go down under universal credit; it will go up".
Highlighting the Government's decision to focus "on the most disabled", the Prime Minister said they had chosen to "increase the amount that we give to the most severely disabled children, and there will be a new lower amount for less disabled people".
Mr Cameron's statement appears at odds with the findings of the report, which argued that 450,000 disabled people "could stand to lose out under Universal Credit".
The report claimed that "thousands of very sick and disabled people are being wrongly labelled fit to work" under the Government's new scheme, and it is unclear whether this counts as the "changing circumstances" to which Mr Cameron referred.
What is the Disability Living Allowance?
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is paid weekly at different rates made up from two components;
Care component
Help for some of the day or with preparing cooked meals.
Frequent help and constant supervision during the day, supervision at night or someone to help you while on dialysis.
Help or supervision throughout both day and night, or you’re terminally ill.
Mobility component
Guidance or supervision outdoors.
You have any other, more severe, walking difficulty.