iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Good work Charlie. "A Lapsed appeal is where DWP changed the decision in the customer’s favour after an appeal was lodged but before it was heard at a tribunal hearing". We have to wonder how many claimants would have already given up, after being denied initially or at Mandatory Reconsideration.

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Dr Jay Watts @shrinkatlarge.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Please give this flyer to any healthcare provider you come across as the more signatures we get the better. Thanks to the fab @argentas.bsky.social for the flyer idea, the qr code and being a FOi genius! #WelfareNotWarfare

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Correct. Sorry, I meant to say activity, not descriptor

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Yeah, it's the fact that the points awarded during the assessments can be so arbitrary that causes so much stress. You never know how they will assess from one time to the next, even if your condition hasn't changed!

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Many sections you can only score even numbers and only washing and bathing has a 3pt option, so maximum of 21 points without scoring any 4s or above. But the point you were making about scoring lots of pts but getting nothing under the new rules is 100% correct assets.ctfassets.net/vms0u05139aw...

assets.ctfassets.net

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

It would be 21/84 (one '3' and nine '2's), because there is only one descriptor that has a '3 pts' option (most have descriptors that score 0, 2, 4 etc). The point you made absolutely still stands though. You could score 21 points and still not be eligible for daily living under the new rules.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Thank you for pointing that out. I have plenty of experience of the PIP application, assessment, and scoring criteria, but don't have any experience with ESA or with UC WCA / LCWRA, so it's taking me some time to figure out all the implications of the changes to those groups.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

The more I read the disability reforms green paper, the more it feels akin to: "We've decided to drive a truck into a huge crowd of people. We're not consulting on that decision, but we invite responses on what mitigations we should put in place for those affected."

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

The daily living component is however used as the gateway for carers allowance and the carers element of UC. So there will be knock on effects from that if claimants lose the daily living component.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

One think to bear in mind is that there are no changes proposed to the mobility component of PIP, which is generally what the local authorities are interested in with regard to blue badge applications. So even if someone loses the daily living component they should retain their mobility entitlement

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Louise Murphy @louisemurphy.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

As an aside - it's frustrating that this data was only released via the FOI process and wasn't included in the Green Paper evidence pack. (Despite the Green Paper being released a month ago now, we still only have an "interim evidence pack", which just includes 6 charts rehearsing old material.)

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Completely agree. It was also a disgrace that it took them 3 weeks to offer the document in an accessible format, particularly given the group the changes will affect.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Also, if the percentages they provided were for those who were not awarded at least 4 points in all ten categories, the figure for the standard daily living rate would have been 100%, as by definition anyone scoring 40+ points would be in the enhanced rate bracket and not the standard rate bracket.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I'll admit it may have been less confusing if I had posed the question the other way around, but *all* was correct in this context. eg. "Which students scored less than 40% in *all* of their exams?" is the same as "Which students did not score 40% or more in *any* of their exams?"

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Tom Royston @tomroyston.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

DWP's wording is unhelpful, but I think actually the stats being provided re the 'all' and the 'any' FOIs are the same: if you sum 13% of 1.6m (standard DL) and 87% of 1.3m (enhanced DL) you get an overall 46% of the 2.9m total DL awards excluded.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I was hoping this was a mistake, but someone else has submitted a similar FOI, and the figures tally 13% of 1608000 = 209040 87% of 1283000 = 1116210 (209040+1116210) / (1608000+1283000) = 46% of total recipients do not meet the 4 pts requirement. (The other FOI response says 54% do score 4 pts)

whatdotheyknow.com

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

The DWP have responded to my FOI request. Their figures indicate that 87% of clamants currently receiving PIP daily living at the standard rate, and 13% of claimants receiving enhanced rate, are likely to lose their entitlement if the score 4 changes go ahead. www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pers...

Text and table screenshot from the DWP response to my Freedom of Information request. The original document is linked in the post.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Hi Rachel. It's already gone viral on X, and I've posted links there to the full FOI response, so I'm not worried either way. Thank you for asking though!

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Kidney Care UK @kidneycareuk.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

📣 Read our response to the new #WelfareGreenPaper released by govt yesterday that discusses changes to benefits in the UK. We want to see a system that respects, understands & listens to all, especially when it comes to people with #CKD More info: kidneycareuk.org/news-from-ki...

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

I suspect they will drag their heels and/or refuse to release the information prior to the government's impact statement being published.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

So sorry to hear this. There are so many who are perfectly happy to gaslight those with disabilities and complex long term health issues by telling them what they should and shouldn't be capable of, rather than listening to the lived expeiences of those for whom these issues are a daily reality.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

The issue is that that the most significant proposals within the green paper are explicitly excluded from the the consultation

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Stef Benstead @stefbenstead.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Benefits and Work have done a really good piece here, looking at what the DWP is and isn't consulting on. It isn't consulting on the major issues: scrapping WCA; PIP Daily Living & UC Health Element; freezing UC HE until 2029/30; 4-point criterion for PIP www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/dwp-lau...

benefitsandwork.co.uk

DWP launches entirely bogus Green Paper consultation

Get the benefits you're entitled to: help with personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit (UC), employment and support allowance (ESA),disability living allowance (DLA). Claims, assessments...

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flâneurben @flaneurben.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Wrote to my MP (Joe Powell, Lab, Kensington & Bayswater) fwiw #UKpol #benefits

Letter to Jow Powell MP for Kensington & Bayswater
Dear Mr Powell,
Disability benefits
I was fortunate to be represented by your predecessors Karen Buck and Emma Dent Coad, whose personal commitments to social justice were sustaining through the dark days of the Tory governments from 2010. I was initially optimistic when Labour secured a majority last summer that the UK would be able to move away from an irrational commitment to the neoliberal economic dogma which has done so much to immiserate all but the very wealthiest people in this country.
I'm afraid that any remaining optimism has been pretty much extinguished by today's statement by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
As a practising GP who has worked in the NHS since I qualified more than 20 years ago, I understand well the relationship between ill-health, disability and poverty, and I have witnessed at first hand the inevitable and deliberately cruel effects of previous governments' cuts to the support available to people who are not able to work: for any reason, but particularly because of illness and disability.
I frequently provide reports for patients of mine who are claiming Personal Independence Payment for the first time, or who are undergoing reassessment, and so I am well aware of the already-stringent criteria that have to be met before PIP is awarded. In my professional opinion, there is no-one who would meet the current PIP criteria who could not be said to be significantly disabled.

In order to achieve a nugatory reduction in benefits spending, to help the Chancellor meet her self-imposed and self-defeating fiscal rules, Ms Kendall proposes to further tighten the eligibility criteria for PIP and other illness-related support, and to freeze, cut or abolish the incapacity components of Universal Credit. These changes are estimated to reduce claimants' incomes by several thousand pounds a year.
We know from long experience that making people poorer doesn't make them any healthier, nor any more likely to find suitable and dignified work. Everyone, regardless of employment, pays taxes and stimulates the economy through their consumer choices. These kneejerk changes, chasing short-term gains, will have profoundly harmful long-term effects on individuals and on the economy as a whole.

Respected charities including Scope, Mind and the Child Poverty Action Group have already identified the harm these cuts will do to millions of people and their families who are already among the poorest in Britain. Your colleague Debbie Abrahams bravely warned the Government against “balancing the books on the backs of sick and disabled people.”
The cynical media management on this issue that has been on display in the past few days has also been appalling. For the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to imply that disability benefits are given based on over-diagnosis of mental health problems, or to deliberately conflate PIP with being unemployed, is shameful. Baroness Grey-Thompson has rightly warned of the increase in discrimination, abuse and violence that disabled people will experience as a direct result of the Government's pandering to the worst instincts of the right-wing.
What do you plan to do to limit the impoverishment, distress and further ill-health that will inevitably flow from these reckless proposals?
Yours sincerely,

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Anna Landre @annalandre.com · 18/03/2025

"We need to ask government what they think they're doing when they say disabled people ought to work, but they're making it damn near impossible for us to do so." - Me for Novara Media live last night on Labour's cuts to PIP and other disability benefits

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Kidney Care UK @kidneycareuk.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

We're concerned to hear about potential cuts to the disability benefits which provide a lifeline to many people with #KidneyDisease who face additional costs of disability. We want a welfare system that treats people with dignity. More info: kidneycareuk.org/news-from-ki...

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Finally, if your disability causes fatigue, and carrying out one or more of the tasks on a given day would prevent you from completing others, that needs to be reflected in your answers and tickbox choices. Hopefully this will help you get started. Please feel free to DM me if I can advise further.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Also, remember that it is 'on the majority of days' so if you are able to complete one of the tasks on a good day, but you good days are in the minority, make sure to explain that and select the option that corresponds to what you are able to do on the majority of days, not just on your good days

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Remember when answering that the assesment criteria for each task are 'repeatedly, reliably, safely, and in a reasonable time period', so if you can carry out a task but it causes significant pain to do so, or would take you more than twice as long as someone without a disability, that doesnt count.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

It's been a long time since my partner went through the initial application, so all of our recent experience has been with the renewal process, but you may find it helpful to start with the paper forms, even if you later transcribe everything you have written into the online application.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Yes, include those in the treatment section, and include *all* meds in the medications section. Remember that the PIP application is less about your condition(s) and more about how they affect which activities you are able to perform and what help you need in order to do so.

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Him Over There, now available for work @snathe.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

If it wasn't for the absolutely magnificent work of the CAB whose help in completing my wife's PIP claims and with the appeals processes was so, so welcome, I think we would have given up long ago. I'm fairly good with form filling but it's a system seemingly designed to sap your energy.

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Webster Likes Games @samwebster.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Allow me a short vent: PIP is already torturously hard to get. I applied nearly a year ago and we're currently awaiting a tribunal date. But sure, keep villainising and coming after those with formally diagnosed lifelong conditions that already make life harder. Absolute pricks.

What is PIP? As we've been reporting, ministers are looking at tightening criteria to qualify for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), one of the key disability benefits.

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Debra @dooft.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

“The government is reportedly focusing on cutting incapacity and disability benefits to stem rising spending and support more people into work. But while the system needs reform, Ministers appear to be focused on cutting personal independence payments (Pip) – a benefit that isn’t related to work.”

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Rob McDowall AMRSPH MIHSCM FRSA @mcdowall.me · 17/03/2025

If you think it is easy to get PIP then you’ve never applied for it or tried to apply for it or assist those who have. It is a, if not THE most soul destroying and humiliating of experiences.

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SH @rodfaestet.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

PIP is a brutal brutal process. among many reasons i didn't renew mine given that process requires so much for one to just evidence it. i had assessors come to my house to quiz me, i had paperwork to fill, it saved my life and i fear for those who won't be entitled to it

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Anyone who thinks the PIP application process is too easy has obviously never had to go through it and doesn't understand the burden of proof required required to meet the criteria.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Brutal is absolutely the right description. Those with disabilities typically learn to adapt and focus efforts on the things they *can* do, but the PIP application process forces you to focus and reflect on all the things you can't do which in itself can be a very distressing and negative experience

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

We've already seen how hard PIP is to get for many people. We have already seen people dying because they were unjustly denied it, or because it has been delayed. PIP is an essential lifeline for many. Proposing to cut it is a gross mistake, which needs scrapping. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

theguardian.com

‘How can I not charge my wheelchair?’ The real effects of benefit cuts for millions of disabled people

One of those waiting for Labour’s announcement explains why he depends on personal independence payments

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Beans is shocked that you thought the bonsai was deciduous. He also wants to know if he gets extra treats for being a good boy and not pulling off all of its leaves this year?

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Stephen King @stephenking.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

It's official: The lunatics are now running the asylum.

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Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

90% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die from the disease. That's why the medical community is excited about the results of a small trial in which nearly half of the pancreatic cancer patients who received an mRNA vaccine for the disease remained relapse-free three years later.

sciencefriday.com

A Vaccine For Pancreatic Cancer Continues To Show Promise

In a small trial, nearly half of pancreatic cancer patients who received an mRNA vaccine for the disease had no relapse three years later.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Wishing you a very happy transplant anniversary @scoutj.bsky.social, and sending love and gratitude to all the donor families out there who have chosen to give the gift of life.

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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

You don't want to read this. And I don't want to write it. iandunt.substack.com/p/you-dont-w...

iandunt.substack.com

You don't want to read this

And I don't want to write it.

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Martin Bonner @argentas.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Thank goodness it's Friday 🤣

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Kidney Care UK @kidneycareuk.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

❗For #WorldKidneyDay, we want more people to know just how #BloodyAmazing their kidneys are! They do an amazing job filtering blood & keeping our organs working. However, many don't realise their importance or the risks until it's too late. More info: kidneycareuk.org/news-from-ki...

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