However, it is becoming clear that Wales is going to suffer more than the rest of the UK, having a higher proportion of people receiving support for health conditions than in England. As a result, these cuts will be particularly harmful, with 91% of recipients of standard daily living and 16% of enhanced daily living rate recipients set to lose their Personal Independence Payment:
In Denbighshire, home to some of the most deprived wards in Wales, this means almost half the people currently in receipt of Personal Independence Payment will no longer be eligible for daily living support.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a non means-tested health benefit. This means that you’re entitled to financial support because of the way your health affects your daily life and mobility, regardless of your income or savings.
The assessment for the daily living element of PIP asks questions such as “tell us about the difficulties you have with preparing food and how you manage them”.
Research by Scope UK suggests that, on average, disabled households need an extra £1,010 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households.
PIP – a standard daily living payment of £73.90 per week and an enhanced rate of £110.40 per week – is designed to go some way to help meet the cost of disability on day-to-day life.
Universal Credit health top-ups – worth an additional £423.27 each month – are based on your ability to do work-related activity, with a separate and more prescriptive assessment asking questions such as “can you safely get around a place that you have not been to before without help?”.
The reforms considered in the parliamentary vote will tie Universal Credit health top-ups to daily living PIP and change the eligibility criteria for this element of PIP, making it much more difficult to prove eligibility and, therefore, making it much harder to qualify for Universal Credit support.
Somebody entitled to both the highest rate of daily living PIP and the Universal Credit health top-up will be entitled to £1,324.10 per month.
Following an investigation by Citizens Advice Denbighshire, through Freedom of Information requests to the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), the scale of the changes on which Members of Parliament are voting has been revealed.
16% of people receiving the highest rate of support in Denbighshire (compared to 13% in Great Britain as a whole) will lose their health-related benefits. For those receiving both daily living PIP and Universal Credit health top-ups, this will mean a 68% reduction in their monthly income from £1,324.10 per month to £421.14 per month.
91% of standard daily living claimants in Denbighshire as a whole are set to lose all their health-related benefits (compared to 87% in Great Britain as a whole).
These percentages – 16% for enhanced and 91% for daily living recipients – are the same for Wales as a whole, according to the DWP.
It is no surprise that there is so much pressure on Welsh MPs to vote against these changes. They should listen and vote accordingly.
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