A disability rights campaigner has launched a petition in a bid to stop the Government merging assessments for Personal Independence Payments and Employment And Support Allowance.
The planned changes – due to start in 2021 – were announced recently in a speech by Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, but London-based activist and blogger Lisa Egan is urging people to fight this, saying: “PIP is to cover the extra care & mobility costs arising from being disabled. It has nothing to do with employment status. ESA is an income replacement for people unable to work due to illness.
“Being different benefits with different purposes, they have very different eligibility criteria. Merging assessments would cause huge harm, especially for PIP claimants in work or planning to move into work. What has happened with Universal Credit should be a lesson in the problems of merging unrelated benefits.”
The petition so far has approaching 3,000 signatures in the first three weeks since it was set up. At At 10,000 signatures, Government will respond to this petition and if it reaches 100,000 it will be considered for debate in Parliament. The petition closes on Sept 19.
