The Department for Work and Pensions has just announced the 10 private companies on the shortlist to deliver the personal independence payment (PIP) assessments, which everyone receiving disability living allowance will have to undergo from next year when DLA is replaced by PIPs. With 3.2 million captive customers, not to mention a monopoly on all new claimants, it’s not hard to see the appeal of the contract for profit-hungry companies untroubled by the ethics of slashing 20% from the money provided to disabled people to help them meet some of the basic expenses that living with a disability inevitably incurs.
Category Archives: disability
How can it be right to profit from disability?
Disability living allowance is being replaced with personal independence payment assessments, and private companies are queueing up to cash in
Atos has been shortlisted for the PIP contract, despite being criticised for its handling of work capability assessments.
As sickness benefit cuts take effect, thousands face hard times
Fears those too ill to work will be unable to meet basic living costs as government limits contributory allowance to 365 days
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Randeep Ramesh Social affairs editor
- guardian.co.uk,
Jenny Wheatley who was made redundant due to her anxiety and depression will lose her ESA as her husband earns £18,000.
Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian
It all began with a telephone call. Earlier this month, Malcolm Parker, who has not worked since his spine collapsed three years ago, was rung out of the blue by an official from the Department of Work and Pensions. There was only one question: did his wife work more than 24 hours a week? Yes, said Parker, reasoning honesty was the best policy.
A fortnight later a letter dropped on the Parkers’ doormat. The department wrote bluntly to say his contributory employment and support allowance (ESA) would disappear on Monday.
Parker was taken aback. Having worked for 44 years in the construction trade and diligently paid his national insurance, he had expected to be protected should the worst happen. His wife Ruth was at first perplexed and then increasingly angry. Although her husband can visit the toilet by himself, with some difficulty, she comes home every lunchtime to feed and check on him.
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