Disability Allowance Changes – Life changing or life threatening?
Welcome to the first part of Myles' project looking into the changes to disability allowance, check back for future instalments where Myles will be interviewing a representative from 'Scope' the disabled charity.
The government has decided to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) causing mass hysteria within the benefit claiming world.
So, basically the government thought it was too expensive and too old fashioned for the twenty first century, so bigwigs within Westminster believed a brand spanking new benefit (PIP) would be appropriate for disabled claimants to make the system fairer for them and more cost effective for the average tax payer. With DLA in the bin, it means tougher scrutiny and the possibility of even less money for those who are already squeezed in the current economic climate. People have already complained about the new system, believing there is not enough information on how and when to transfer, unfair assessments of their impairments and mishaps involving the database, when transferring from DLA to PIP.
This surely is worth investigating as to whether it can be all bad, so my first port of call is the local charity ‘Ideal for All’, who care for disabled residents and are willing to provide me with interviewees on their first hand experiences. I have also set up an interview with the national disabled organisation ‘Scope’ where representative Warren Kirwan will be grilled on the charity’s perspective on the changes and provide advice from the experts’ mouth.
By Myles Mclean