Monday 31 March 2014

Welfare and Benefit Reforms

We had an interesting talk from Debbie White about the changes to Disability Benefits and how they will affect members of our group. Most of us are over the age of 65 so, thankfully, there will be no change for us. Everything we have now will remain in place. For those under 65 reviews will take place but there is such a backlog now that it will be 2017 or even later than that.

Since we had our meeting we have seen in the press that ATOS have had their contract terminated, which seems to be a good thing after all the awful stories we were hearing about decisions they were making and the ways in which those decisions were reached. Let's hope the new people have more empathy with the people they are working with. There are scroungers claiming disability benefits, who need to be caught and punished, but the majority of claimants are genuine, and this must be recognised.