Update on the situation with recent Government benefits changes
Now the election has been called, disabled people will be wondering what that means for the recent changes to PIP, Fit notes and the Bank Snooping law
The bank account snooping law
This has failed in the Lords and the government are letting if fail, by not forcing it through, so it is now dead and won’t happen, unless the Tories get re-elected and decide to re-introduce the bill and start over again, which seems unlikely at the moment.
The PIP changes and Fit Note Reform
The first stage in implementing this is a consultation for each rule change which have started and both are going to end in July. These consultations have to happen before any rule changes can take place.
According to civil service rules for elections, the consultations have to go ahead, but it will be up to the next work and pensions minister (whoever that is) on whether they want to carry on with the changes or just drop them.
Who will be the next minister and what will they do?
Nothing is ever certain with elections, so while we don’t know who the next minister will be, we think it will probably be a Labour minister rather than a Tory one.
Will Labour carry on with the PIP changes and Fit note reform?
We hope not, but we don’t know for sure.
However we can try to influence Labour to drop the changes, by pestering Labour candidates to say whether Labour would go ahead with them or not.
If enough of us ask our Labour election candidates what Labour will do, this could get reported back as something a lot of people care about and that’s where our influence comes in.
So it’s up to you. Contact your Labour parliamentary candidate, especially if you live in a Labour target seat and ask them what Labour would do and you could tell them your vote depends on their answer.
You can contact your candidate by just searching for their name to get to their website.
Sadly, as a lot of work has already been put into this (and Starmer keeps banging on about ‘working people’ over and over) I think this draconian plan will remain.
I think the only thing we can hope for is that Labour will water it down …
There is absolutely NO chance that a Labour candidate will win in my area, but I will ask!