More disabled people should be exempted from the Social Sector Size Criteria

The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee has published a report looking into Support for Housing Costs in the Reformed Welfare System.

We draw particular attention to the section on what the report describes as the Social Sector Size Criteria (SSAC). More commonly, this is known as the Bedroom Tax and in Government publications, the Department for Work and Pensions and Coalition MPs refer to it as the spare room subsidy.

Regardless of what it is called, we were shocked at some of the regional differences in the impact of the policy shown in the report. The evidence gathered in the report estimated that 60 to 70% of households affected in England have a disabled tenant and 80% of affected households in Scotland have a disabled tenant. It is particularly distressing to hear that 4 out of 5 households affected in Scotland are tenanted by a disabled person.

The report says ‘We are deeply concerned that the policy is causing severe financial hardship and distress to people with disabilities, many of whom will not be easily able to move.’

Particular attention was drawn to the estimated 100,000 households around the country affected where the property was adapted specifically to accommodate the needs of a disabled person.

The report recommends that the government should exempt households where a disabled person receives the higher rate of mobility or care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), and its Personal Independence Payment (PIP) equivalent. Aspire has consistently called for people who receive DLA or PIP to be exempt from SSSC.

At the very least, Aspire believes the government should follow the recommendations made in this House of Commons Committee report.  

Aspire welcomes interdepartmental approach to looking at issues affecting disabled people

Disability Rights UK has reported that the Minister for Disabled People, Rt Hon Mike Penning MP, will chair an interdepartmental group to address issues affecting disabled people across different government departments. Aspire welcomes this development.

In the past, Aspire has written to Ministers expressing our disappointment on decisions made by other Departments that have had a negative impact on disabled people. A specific example included when a wheelchair service changed their eligibility criteria to restrict supply of powered wheelchairs to people who were receiving higher rate Disability Living Allowance mobility payments. The response we received from the Minister at the time said that it was a matter for the Department of Health as they were responsible overall for wheelchair provision.

Our Policy and Research Officer recently asked the Minister Mike Penning how he saw his role as a Minister and whether he would reach out to other departments to tackle issues that affected disabled people where responsibility was in other government departments. The response was positive and at the time, the Minister did say that such a group would emerge in the pipeline.

We hope that this way of working will mean that the Minister for Disabled People has more strategic oversight on how policies affect disabled people across the board.

There is still room for improvement. Greater involvement from the Prime Minister and secretary of states would signal that this is of greater importance and show that it is high on the agenda of government. However, on the whole, it is a very positive start and Aspire hopes the group will address cross departmental issues and that this has a positive impact on policy development. 

Personal Independence Payment delays causing unnecessary hardship

Aspire is concerned with the roll out of the new Personal Independence Payment benefit and the hardship that delays in the system are causing to people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). This is of particular concern to those who have been newly injured and are having to wait for months before they received their Personal Independence Payment entitlements. The catalogue of errors and delays experienced by Steve who sustained a Spinal Cord Injury in 2013 is something we believe no one should experience.

On 29^th June 2013, while Steve was still a patient at the NHS Spinal Cord Injury Centre in Sheffield, he completed part I of his Personal Independence Payment claim. He received his first PIP payment on 5^th December 2013. What Steve experienced during this time period is unacceptable.

First of all, Steve felt that the form was incredibly difficult to complete.

“With the amount of information that they ask for, in a lot of places, it feels like an attempt to try and catch you out.”

Secondly, Steve was given dates for potential assessments that Capita were unable to commit to themselves. On one occasion, the assessor did not turn up at the arranged time. When Steve phoned the Capita advice line, he was told that his assessment had been cancelled. Unfortunately, they had failed to tell Steve this.

When the Assessor did turn up, there was a computer error and they were unable to access any files that Steve had sent as part of his claim.

“The whole process was unnecessarily bureaucratic. It was a concerning time for me… absolutely unbearable. Missing appointments, not letting me know. It is a totally inadequate service.”

Steve received help from his Member of Parliament and Aspire was there to help every step of the way. He was able to fight his corner and raise the issue on Capita’s agenda to the extent that senior staff at the organisation’s PIP operation took action. We know that Steve is not alone. We are even more concerned about people who are going through the system without adequate support who do not raise their voices loud enough.  

We accept that where people do successfully receive entitlements, payments are backdated. However, the financial impact that this has on people, especially at a time when they most need additional income to meet costs after having a life changing injury, is devastating. It hinders people’s ability to get on with their lives and be more independent. In one case, Aspire found someone wearing jumpers and gloves in their own home because of the financial difficulty they were facing following their injury. 

Furthermore, we are concerned with the contractors’ ability to cope when reassessments are rolled out on a national scale. The government expects all DLA claimants to have been invited on to Personal Independence Payments by September 2017. With 3.3 million people receiving DLA, this requires on average 825,000 assessments a year, or 16,000 assessments a week, or 3,200 assessments a day. This does not even include new people entering the system.

With so many people affected, it is no surprise that the government had to rethink their approach last year and introduce a more phased reassessment timetable.

As people are going through the process for the new benefit, we are already receiving feedback from people and having to make representations on their behalf to the Department for Work and Pensions and the assessment providers. Indeed our introduction of a new Welfare Benefits Advice Service is testament to the additional support we anticipate we will have to provide to people with SCI as a result of multiple benefit changes.

If you have Spinal Cord Injury and are experiencing any problems with any welfare benefits issues, contact Aspire’s new Welfare Benefits Advice Service on 020 8420 6711 or email welfarebenefits@aspire.org.uk

(*Steve is not the individual's real name) 

Aspire meets Shadow Minister

Last week, Aspire met Kate Green MP, the Shadow Minister for Disabled People, to talk about the work of the Charity and also raise our concerns about the rollout of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Benefit. PIP is the new benefit that is due to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

Kate only recently became the Shadow Minister towards the end of 2013 and this was the first time that we had an opportunity to directly speak to the Shadow Minister. Kate has an impressive background in the charity sector. Before she became a Member of Parliament, she was the Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group.

She showed particular interest in Aspire’s Housing Programme and how we worked with NHS Spinal Cord Injury Centres to offer temporary housing to newly injured patients who had no access to accessible housing after being paralysed. The fact that 20% of people with SCI are discharged to nursinghomes is a shocking statistic and Kate thought so too.

Kate was happy to work with Aspire to raise the issues that were affecting people with Spinal Cord Injuries. We raised our concerns about the new Personal Independence Payment benefit as people have already started coming to Aspire because of delays throughout the whole system. Kate will be raising these issues in Parliament when the opportunity arises.

Aspire will continue working to influence all political parties on behalf of the 40,000 people with SCI in the UK and ensure that that their experiences and views are represented in the process. This is a crucial time to be speaking to Parties who are beginning to shape their offering to the electorate in the lead up to the 2015 General Elections.  

Boro Taxi saga shows there is still a long way to go to change attitudes towards disabled people

Quite often a story comes to our attention which leaves us gobsmacked. Guilty this time around is Boro Taxis. Teeside’s biggest taxi firm has said that they will no longer take disabled passengers.

It all snowballed after Middlesbrough Council received complaints from wheelchair users that they were being charged more by private hire taxi firms.

The official Council Licensing Committee paper which reported on the issue said,

Wheelchair users are being charged up to twice the price of their able-bodied counterparts as a direct consequence of their disability.

The Council decided to take a collaborative approach. Under the ‘Actions to take’ section of their report, they said,

Given the Authority’s consistent wish to work with the trade wherever possible and appropriate, the comparative complexity of the legislation and the apparently widespread level non-compliance, it was determined to address this issue on an advisory basis. As a result, a letter outlining Operators’ obligations and how to comply with them has been sent to the relevant businesses engaged in the sector.

The letter addressed to Members of the Trade in the Borough read,

We are aware that confusion may have been caused by the fact that the specific provisions of the Equality Act 2010 pertaining to hackney carriages and private hire vehicles have not been implemented so I am writing to all Operators to raise awareness of this issue and reiterate that the general provisions under Section 29 of the Equality Act still apply.  As a result I request that you do not impose additional charges in these circumstances. 

Please note that if we receive any evidence in future that additional charges are being levied for the use of wheelchair accessible vehicles by disabled passengers, more formal action will follow, including possible referral to the Council’s Licensing Committee for a review of your Private Hire Operator Licence.

Unfortunately, the boss of Boro Taxis has continued to defend this practice, justifying it on economic grounds. He has even gone a step further by now refusing to take any passengers who use wheelchairs. He is quoted in the press saying,

"The simple fact is if you order a car and four people jump in you are charged for a taxi. If you order an eight-seater minibus and eight people jump in you are charged for a minibus. If you order a minibus and there's only one person you will still be charged for a minibus because that's what you ordered.”

What this does show us is that for some people in society, the concept of disability discrimination is difficult to comprehend. What it also shows that complaining to authorities about injustice can catapult an issue into the spotlight. We hope that it now also instigates change for the better.

After taking the collaborative approach, the Council should now seek to review its stance and refer firms that continue to carry out discriminatory practices to the Licensing Committee for a review of their Private Hire Operator’s Licence. 

Aspire and World Human Rights Day - disabled people and employment

The last of our posts for World Human Rights Day looks at the right to work.

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

“Disabled people are significantly less likely to be in employment than non disabled people”

UK public policy has seen a shift in focus to getting people from benefits and into work. The Department of Work and Pensions’ flagship Work Programme, aimed at getting people off benefits and into employment has risen in prominence, particularly in light of the recent economic climate and drive to get the benefits bill down.

Despite the schemes and assistance provided, it is still difficult for disabled people to gain employment. Compared to other equality strands such as race and gender, disabled representation for high level jobs is massively under-representative of the disabled population. A 2009 study from Leonard Cheshire Disability found that 43% of respondents had been turned down for a job because of their impairment. And even when people do get into work, disabled people are paid less than non-disabled people for doing the same job.

When broken down into full-time and part-time, figures show that 32.9% of disabled people were in full-time employment compared to 58.9% of non-disabled people and 14.4% of disabled people were in part-time employment compared to 18.3% for non disabled. This means that a greater proportion of disabled people in employment work on a part-time basis when compared to non-disabled people.

The public sector has shrunk during this Parliament with Departments making around 25% spending cuts across the board and even more in some areas with some Councils having their grants reduced by even 50% by 2018.

The government has looked to encourage private sector growth and has looked for it to provide 2.5 million jobs. The public sector fairs better than the private when it comes to disability employment rates; and the odds of having employed a disabled person are one and a half times higher in the public sector than in the private sector.  

Perception amongst employers on disabled people is also misguided. The UK has lower employment rates than other European countries after spinal cord injury. In a survey of employers, 33% said hiring a disabled person was a major risk and 47% said it would be difficult to retain an employee who became disabled.

Unless there is a drive to promote disability awareness to businesses, greater reliance on the private sector to provide employment opportunities could have a negative impact on employment opportunities for disabled people.

Research has found that the cost efficiency of workplace support increases over time and becomes cost-efficient to taxpayers around the fourth year of operation. For every £1 invested in supported employment, the taxpayer gets back around 43p from savings elsewhere in the system making the investment worthwhile in the third year. However, where there is opportunity for short term savings to be made, the long term benefits can often be overlooked.

The government does have policies in place that do help disabled people get into work. Aspire has received positive feedback on the Access to Work scheme. The scheme provides financial support to disabled people travelling to work as well as help at work, such as with equipment or support workers.  

We hope that this scheme will continue to receive investment and that it will be publicised wider so that people know that there is funding to help them get back into the workplace. More help from schemes like Access to Work will help towards recognising this Human Right for disabled people. Furthermore, Aspire has launched InstructAbility which trains disabled people to become fitness instructors around the country and helps them into work.

So we will end our Human Rights series on a more optimistic note on the theme of employment and we hope you have enjoyed reading these series of blogposts.

Social Security - Aspire and World Human Rights Day

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Two contentious areas of disability benefit reform relate to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Both areas are being severely criticised by disability groups and disabled people. DLA is a non-means tested benefit that recognises the barriers that disabled people face and the extra costs they incur because of their impairment. DLA is set to be replaced by Personal Independence Payments (PIP). PIP will still have the same aims to support disabled people. However, the government’s own projections show that they expect the case load, that is the numbers supported, to decrease. Within their own figures, they have also predicted that less people will receive higher mobility support.

ESA has had its problems stretching back to its creation. We have had negative reports over the years on the accuracy of assessments, assessment centres being inaccessible and the success rates of appeals.

Another damaging development has been the new under-occupancy penalties. This has been more commonly described as the Bedroom Tax. As a result of this welfare reform, we have found couples unable to share a room and people with heavy machinery being penalised for having what the government deems to be a spare bedroom.

Aspire believes that state should contribute and support disabled people if needed to live independently in society. Doing so has an overall positive effect on that person and will empower them to contribute to society too. We work with decision makers to get this argument across and we will continue to strive for this Human Right for disabled people.