e-Petition to Downing Street to abolish PIP.

[Jima1]

Hi,

I’m a retired local government Principal Welfare Rights Officer with 30 plus years experience and former DLA Tribunal Member (1994 -2005)

I am seeking your support in an e-petition I have submitted to Downing Street and am sending a similar e-mail to this to all Benefits Advice/Welfare Rights Organisations in the UK.

I am seeking support from all UK Welfare Rights organisations to sign my e-petition on the Downing Street website to abolish PIP for two reasons.

Firstly, as you’re aware ATOS have pulled out early from their £500 million pound contract to carry out continuing WCA’s, but continue to carry out medical assessments for DLA/PIP for the DWP.

Each new PIP claim - worth between £21 and £134 a week to disabled claimants - costs an average £182 to administer, compared to £49 under DLA, the report said.

In my opinion as a retired Welfare Rights Lawyer, PIP should now be scrapped and DLA kept with some modifications. I ask you to sign my petition to the Government to cancel PIP.

I would be grateful if you would support my petition at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/61694 and also ask you to pass it on to any other organisation associated with welfare rights.

You can if you wish check me out at www.benefitsandwork.co.uk where I work voluntarily as a researcher and senior moderator and have done so for nearly nine years.

Please note, if you sign the e-petion your name will not appear on the Downing Street website, only the actual number of signatories to date.

Many thanks for reading this.

Jim Allison
retired Welfare Rights Lawyer & former SSAT member (1994 -2005)
Alternate e-mail address for this petition : welfareadvice@me.com

[Flymo]

There's already a thread on this e-petition here (click).

[Jima1]

Yes it was taken from my original post. The petition closed today 4/3/2015 with less than 2,500 votes. A great disappointment, as the success figure for PIP, especially Enhanced Mob is forecast to drop by over 50%. However, the High Court have granted another Judicial Review, even on cases already considered and failed. See below:

Permission granted to challenge the DWP’s administration of the Personal Independence Payment scheme

DATE: 02 Mar 2015

Claimants of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) have granted permission to judicially review the administration of PIP applications by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) on the ground that the DWP are failing to determine applications within a reasonable time. Permission was granted by Cox J for these test cases to proceed despite the individual claims now having been determined, as, in her view, the cases raised a wider point of public importance as to the lawfulness of the systemic delays so far encountered in the grant of the new benefit.

Cox J also granted permission for the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust to act as an intervener in the challenge, in support of the claims.

PIP is a non-means tested benefit and is intended to meet the additional needs of people suffering with long-term health conditions or impairments. PIP began to replace Disability Living Allowance for eligible claimants aged between 16 and 64 from 8 April 2013.

Zoe Leventhal and Sonal Barot act for the intervener in this case, the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, instructed by Leigh Day.

More at http://www.irwinmitchell.com/newsand...enefits-fiasco