Disability group slams TUC for conflating DWP PIP with work

One of the UK’s biggest disabled people’s organisations has slammed a trade union for supporting disability benefit reforms and conflating Department for Work and Pension (DWP) disability benefits with benefits that assist work.

TUC makes DWP PIP about work

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) called for ‘genuine reform’ of the DWP benefit Personal Independence Payment (PIP), as they say it enables many disabled workers to enter jobs. However, as Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) points out, PIP isn’t an out-of-work benefit and has nothing to do with employment.

Ahead of the TUC disabled members conference, the union submitted its response to the Timms review of PIP. In the submission, the TUC says that PIP is ‘crucial’ for disabled people to start and stay in work. However, the body warns that it’s not working as intended.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:

The government has a vital opportunity to support more Disabled people into work through the Timms Review. Right now, Disabled people are bearing the brunt of unemployment, low pay and insecure work – all while navigating a social security system that is not fit for purpose.

Only a genuine reform of PIP will ensure that Disabled people who can work, receive the support they need to move into and stay in work. But this must come alongside wider action too, like ensuring Disabled workers get the reasonable adjustments they need, stronger rights at work and reform of the Access to Work scheme.

Disabled people’s organisation DPAC are ‘disappointed’ that Nowak focused on work when talking about PIP and not on how it’s a vital benefit for so many.

They said in a statement:

PIP is paid to people who work and who don’t work. It is not paid on the basis of work – it is paid on the basis of daily living and mobility/ getting around. Work does not come into the assessment, nor should it. It may help people to access work, but that is not the primary purpose of it.

The TUC statement suggests that PIP reform and the Timms review is justified and should involve consideration of work. It is now being reported in the media as ‘PIP rules should be changed to get disabled people into work.’

TUC is focusing too much on work

For what it’s worth, it seems like the TUC’s heart is in the right place. They consulted with many disabled members, and as a union body, employment is probably a priority for their disabled members.

And to some extent, disability employment does need to be improved.

As the TUC statement said:

TUC analysis found that the unemployment rate for Disabled people is 8.8% – it’s highest since before the pandemic – compared to 4.3% for non-disabled people. The situation is even worse for young Disabled workers – with an unemployment rate of 24.2%, compared to 12.2% for those who are not Disabled.

The stats for young people are especially worrying. However, the DWP’s solution isn’t to support young people but instead to force them into dead-end work. And the department is throwing under 24’s on PIP under the bus before the Timms review is even complete, with the extension of the assessment period not applying to young people.

The TUC has said that PIP can only help some disabled people into work alongside Access to Work, which the department is also cutting. However, the union body falls into the trap of putting the onus on employers for workplace adjustments, something the DWP has also been pushing.

The TUC said:

Disabled workers who took part in a TUC self-reporting survey (for its submission to the Timms Review) reported using PIP payments to cover for the cost of reasonable adjustments – many workers believed these costs should be covered by their employer or other support systems.

The TUC is calling on employers to do their part and implement reasonable adjustments to help keeping Disabled employees in work.

Whilst this might be possible for bigger companies, for smaller employers, it means they’re just less likely to employ a disabled person. It also wrongly lets the DWP off the hook, as this is literally what Access to Work is for.

TUC needs to focus on what’s important

Worryingly, the TUC said Timms Review is a ‘step in the right direction’, which isn’t exactly the words I’d use for an already determined farce of a review that pretends to be co-produced by disabled people, but each to their own.

That being said, the TUC is also urging the DWP to:

• Reform the assessment process, moving away from a one-off, snapshot assessment to start capturing fluctuation, fatigue and recovery time – and making the process more accessible and less burdensome.

• Improve assessor expertise and decision-making, ensuring that assessors have relevant medical knowledge and/or training, and that medical evidence is given appropriate weight in decision-making.

• Improve first decision accuracy and reduce reliance on appeals – as at present too many people are only awarded PIP when they challenge a refusal at tribunal.

• Ensure PIP payment levels reflect the true additional costs of disability  and the extra costs associated with working – such as travel, energy and support.

• Reduce unnecessary reassessment, limiting repeat reassessments where conditions are unlikely to improve.

It’s clear the TUC is focusing on work, because that’s important to their members, but by doing so it’s feeding into the DWP’s rhetoric that disabled people are only worthy of support if they contribute to the economy. It means many disabled people are left feeling betrayed once again.

It’s well past high time that we stopped putting employment on this pedestal. Disabled people should be supported to thrive whether or not they work. And however well meaning the TUC’s statement was, all it’s done here is put disabled people who can’t work at the bottom of the heap again.

Featured image via Getty/Alishia Abodunde