Post by nickd on Jul 2, 2011 8:23:33 GMT 1
The BBC gave a lot of coverage to a legal challenge which Disability Alliance have launched on Government this morning.
The alliance say Government hasn't listened and have written a formal letter of claim; in particular they have challenged how the cut backs in Disability Living Allowance will unfairly impact upon the disabled.
Neil Coyle of Disability Alliance spoke of the unfairness of the reforms and cut backs and said that for many it was unfair to put people through the rigours of unnecessary medical assessments.
Government has reacted by saying it has and continues to listen, it accused those seeking to challenge them as creating anxiety.
Here's how Disability Alliance covered this on their website before the claim was made...
"You may have heard that Disability Alliance might be taking legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over some Government welfare plans. Our legal advisors, Unity Law, have examined Government plans and believe there is a very credible case.
Disability Alliance is especially concerned over plans to abolish Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for working age people (defined as 16-64 years of age by DWP) and introduce a new benefit (Personal Independence Payment – PIP) which will have a £2.17 billion lower budget by 2015. PIP will not provide an equivalent level of support for the 652,000 disabled people currently receiving low rate care DLA payments.
We have raised our concerns with DWP over the last year, since plans were announced in June 2010. We have ensured our member organisations’ views and those of the disabled people we have surveyed have been communicated to DWP. We have aired concerns in meetings, briefings, a consultation and evidence to two parliamentary committees. Over 5,500 organisations and people responded to the Government consultation on DLA reform. But concerns have sadly gone unanswered and the Government have made no changes to plans to reflect the level of anxiety disabled people and organisations like Disability Alliance have communicated.
We are very concerned that the timetable for the passage of the Welfare Reform Bill may prevent adequate analysis of the potential impact of plans to be undertaken. We do not want to take formal legal action but feel we have no option if our concerns remain unaddressed.
We have sent a ‘letter of claim’ to DWP. Unity Law drafted the letter which formally highlights our concerns about the Government plans and outlines the legal basis for our challenge. Disabled people are protected by UK (Equality Act) and European law. DWP have clarified that all DLA recipients are ‘disabled people’ in Welfare Reform Bill documents. DWP has a duty to promote disabled people’s equality of opportunity which we believe is being ignored in plans to considerably reduce support. We also believe the Government is failing to take into account the need to impact assess the potential costs of ending support for some disabled people and their families; we have evidenced potential costs to the NHS and local authority services for example."
Other disabled groups are apparently joining forces in a judicial review of Government's policies.
www.disabilityalliance.org/dlachallenge.htm
The alliance say Government hasn't listened and have written a formal letter of claim; in particular they have challenged how the cut backs in Disability Living Allowance will unfairly impact upon the disabled.
Neil Coyle of Disability Alliance spoke of the unfairness of the reforms and cut backs and said that for many it was unfair to put people through the rigours of unnecessary medical assessments.
Government has reacted by saying it has and continues to listen, it accused those seeking to challenge them as creating anxiety.
Here's how Disability Alliance covered this on their website before the claim was made...
"You may have heard that Disability Alliance might be taking legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over some Government welfare plans. Our legal advisors, Unity Law, have examined Government plans and believe there is a very credible case.
Disability Alliance is especially concerned over plans to abolish Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for working age people (defined as 16-64 years of age by DWP) and introduce a new benefit (Personal Independence Payment – PIP) which will have a £2.17 billion lower budget by 2015. PIP will not provide an equivalent level of support for the 652,000 disabled people currently receiving low rate care DLA payments.
We have raised our concerns with DWP over the last year, since plans were announced in June 2010. We have ensured our member organisations’ views and those of the disabled people we have surveyed have been communicated to DWP. We have aired concerns in meetings, briefings, a consultation and evidence to two parliamentary committees. Over 5,500 organisations and people responded to the Government consultation on DLA reform. But concerns have sadly gone unanswered and the Government have made no changes to plans to reflect the level of anxiety disabled people and organisations like Disability Alliance have communicated.
We are very concerned that the timetable for the passage of the Welfare Reform Bill may prevent adequate analysis of the potential impact of plans to be undertaken. We do not want to take formal legal action but feel we have no option if our concerns remain unaddressed.
We have sent a ‘letter of claim’ to DWP. Unity Law drafted the letter which formally highlights our concerns about the Government plans and outlines the legal basis for our challenge. Disabled people are protected by UK (Equality Act) and European law. DWP have clarified that all DLA recipients are ‘disabled people’ in Welfare Reform Bill documents. DWP has a duty to promote disabled people’s equality of opportunity which we believe is being ignored in plans to considerably reduce support. We also believe the Government is failing to take into account the need to impact assess the potential costs of ending support for some disabled people and their families; we have evidenced potential costs to the NHS and local authority services for example."
Other disabled groups are apparently joining forces in a judicial review of Government's policies.
www.disabilityalliance.org/dlachallenge.htm
