Government welfare reforms are unravelling

The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
Delays to Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and the rising cost of implementing the welfare cap provide further evidence the government’s welfare reforms are ‘unravelling’, the TUC has said.

The union body was commenting after the implementation of the new benefit for people with disabilities was described as a “fiasco” by MPs and leaked government memos revealed concerns in Whitehall that costs were out of control.

The public accounts committee said some disabled people had waited up to six months for their PIP claim to be decided.

PIP is the replacement benefit for disability living allowance for people of working age and was introduced nationally from June 2013 for new claimants. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The government’s disastrous shake-up of the welfare system continues apace… revelations about the Personal Independence Payment and the Employment Support Allowance smack not only of incompetence but of a systematic attempt to remove the safety net people depend upon when they fall on hard times.” She added: “It is disgraceful that terminally ill and disabled people are being made to wait for months for vital benefits. Taking money away from the most vulnerable in our society is not the way to make work pay. The government’s welfare reforms are unravelling, with costs shooting through the roof and millions being made to suffer.”