‘We’re not scroungers – we need it’: Furious PIP claimants hit back at Reform’s plan to axe benefits

‘We’re not scroungers – we need it’: Furious PIP claimants hit back at Reform’s plan to axe benefits Over half of the UK’s health benefit claimants would be stripped of their payments under the plans announced by Reform UK - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Angry benefit claimants have hit back at Reform UK proposals to overhaul the UK’s welfare system. In a defiant message to party leader Nigel Farage and Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick, PIP claimants told The Independent: “We’re not scroungers – we need it”. At a press conference on Monday, Mr Jenrick unveiled plans to abolish the personal independence payments (PIP) system and make long-term claimants clean up their high street as part of Reform’s pledge to save £50bn from the welfare bill. Sonia Maud, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2011 and forced to reduce her working hours, is “furious” over the plans. The beauty technician from Yorkshire said: “I'd give anything to be able to do what I did before, but unfortunately my body's no longer able to do what I did. “I couldn't get a proper full-time job because of the MS because it affects my cognition, it affects my energy levels. Employers just wouldn't employ me, basically. “I'd give up the PIP to be able to be the person I was five years ago.” Reacting to Reform UK’s proposal to completely replace PIP and the health element of universal credit, Steven Morris, 43, who is deafblind, told The Independent: “Welfare benefits are a lifeline for disabled people. They enable us to participate in society, see people that we love, and also to seek and stay in work." The Buckinghamshire resident works as a campaigns officer for disability charity Sense. He says PIP helps him to stay in work by giving him the funding he needs for taxis to the office. “It's helped me in the past pay for therapies that have helped keep me in work that I would have had a much longer wait on the NHS,” he said. “Benefits like PIP actually help disabled people stay in work. If you remove benefits, then potentially people may drop out of the workforce and may end up needing to claim more support.” Mr Jenrick says the party would replace both benefits with a new “Health Security Allowance” given only to those whose condition is “so severe, enduring or high-risk that they cannot reasonably be expected to support themselves through work”. Crucially, unlike PIP, the new allowance would be means-tested under Universal Credit rules, taking back 55p of disability cash for every £1 earned above basic thresholds. This means working disabled claimants could see their direct cash reduced or wiped out by their wages, regardless of their condition. Reform says existing non-mental-health claimants would be protected from reassessment for three years. However, once fully rolled out, an estimated 2.89 million PIP and UC health claimants are expected to lose their entitlement – half of the current 4.5 million. For those who do qualify, or for non-severe cases, cash payments would be replaced by local council-run Disability Support Accounts (DSAs) to reimburse approved expenses. Last month, disability minister Sir Stephen Timms’ interim report into PIP found that it was “not fit for purpose”. The authors cited that too many claimants found the process of applying for the benefit as “dehumanising” and “degrading”, adding that many now claim it for essential living costs, rather than only for disability support. The disability minister’s review was announced after over 100 backbench Labour MPs threatened to rebel over proposed changes to PIP under Sir Keir Starmer’s government last year. Ministers had proposed to tweak the assessment criteria for the benefit to effectively make it harder to claim, with an impact assessment showing that 150,000 would have been plunged into poverty by the end of the decade as a result. Supported by the MS Society, Ms Maud is one of many welfare claimants who have fed into the Timms Review. She said: “We've put in all this work speaking to the people at Westminster saying, you know, we're not benefits scroungers, we actually do need it.” “We've been given these horrendous illnesses ... We're tired of begging to be heard.” “We've got this horrible PIP system that we put through, for this bit of money that just helps us function in society. It's ridiculous. It's just a little bit of help, that's all.” Removing the benefit entirely would drop 884,000 people into poverty, based on recent modelling from research unit PolicyEngine. If the health-related element of universal credit were also pulled for all of its 2.5 million claimants, this number would likely more than double. Charlotte Gill, Head of Campaigns at the MS Society, added: “Scrapping PIP is an unthinkably dangerous proposal, which could push more disabled people into poverty and worsen their health – in turn increasing pressure on the NHS, social care and other public services.” Labour has called the £50bn savings claim “fantasy economics [which is] built on stripping support from disabled people and shifting costs onto employers.” Reform UK has been approached for comment. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments