Disabled anti-cuts activists have heavily criticised the TUC after it drew close links between personal independence payment (PIP) and employment in its response to a government review on the future of the disability benefit.
In its submission to the Timms Review, the TUC claimed that reforming PIP was “an important part of the solution to boosting disabled people’s employment rates” and that it was “vital that disabled people who can and want to work receive the support they need to enter and stay in employment”.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak (pictured) said the government had “a vital opportunity to support more disabled people into work through the Timms Review”.
He added: “Only a genuine reform of PIP will ensure that disabled people who can work, receive the support they need to move into and stay in work.”
But Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) has expressed disappointment at the TUC’s actions.
DPAC pointed out that PIP is paid to disabled people who work and to those who do not work and is assessed according to the barriers they face in daily living and mobility.
A DPAC spokesperson said: “Work does not come into the assessment, nor should it.
“It may help people to access work, but that is not the primary purpose of it.”
DPAC said the TUC statement suggested that the Timms Review should examine how PIP can help more disabled people into work, with media reporting that its rules should be changed to “get disabled people into work”.
DPAC member Bill Scott, a former head of policy for Inclusion Scotland, said Nowak’s comments made him “angry” because the TUC boss was suggesting that PIP was an out-of-work benefit that had to be reformed to encourage disabled people into work “and that its availability was responsible for the number of disabled people who are workless”.
He said: “Both claims are absolute nonsense. PIP actually enables thousands of disabled people to work and is paid regardless of employment status.”
Scott, who is also a former chair of Scotland’s Poverty and Inequality Commission, said the rise in the number and proportion of disabled people who are workless is partly due to worsening public health, including a major surge in mental health conditions, particularly among young people, and musculoskeletal issues affecting older workers.
Another key factor, he said, was the rise in the state retirement age, which means “tens of thousands of disabled people whose conditions naturally become more severe in their older years are now counted as part of the workforce”.
He also pointed to backlogs and payment delays in the Access to Work scheme, which mean disabled employees “are waiting months for the adjustments needed to safely carry out their roles”.
And, he said, disabled candidates face inflexible working conditions, inaccessible physical environments, and employer bias that is exacerbated by the cost of adjustments being shifted onto them because of Access to Work’s flaws.
He said: “I’m a lifelong trade union member and long-time activist but I feel utterly betrayed by what Paul Nowak has said and so will hundreds of thousands of other disabled people.
“Honestly, I’ve spent over 20 years trying to build bridges between the trade union movement and disabled people and I feel as though I’ve totally wasted my time as all the suspicions that disabled people had about them are borne out.”
Nowak’s comments came as the TUC’s annual disabled workers’ conference was taking place in Bournemouth.
Last September, at the annual TUC Congress in Brighton, two motions opposing Labour’s cuts to disability benefits and calling for campaign support from the TUC and its general council were passed unanimously.
One of those motions had come from last year’s TUC disabled workers’ conference.
But disabled activists say the TUC has subsequently done little to fulfil its pledge to “raise our voice against any further planned cuts and ensure that the voices of disabled workers are heard”.
This week, a report to the conference by the TUC disabled workers’ committee claimed that last summer’s decision by the government to abandon plans to slash spending on PIP was “directly attributed” to successful TUC lobbying.
And it said the government’s change of direction, following “swift and effective lobbying by the TUC, trade union movement and disabled people’s organisations”, meant the calls for the TUC to co-ordinate and organise protests against the proposed cuts to PIP were “not needed”.
But some disabled union activists have raised concerns over the TUC’s failure to do more to support disabled people in their fight against cuts being imposed by the Labour government, such as attacks on the Motability car scheme, the Access to Work programme, and the health element of universal credit.
DPAC member Lee Starr-Elliott told the annual CWU communications union conference earlier this month that there was a “dangerous silence” coming from the TUC on the “coordinated, systematic attack” on disabled people’s support.
He told delegates: “While the TUC waits, our members are suffering.”
A TUC spokesperson said: “It’s vital that disabled people who can and want to work receive the support they need to enter and stay in employment.
“At the same time, those who can’t work should be able to live in dignity and receive the support they need, without fear that their lifeline will be taken away from them on a whim by inaccurate assessments.
“That’s why we called for genuine reform of PIP.
“Right now the system isn’t working as well as it should for disabled people – that needs to change.
“When the government announced proposed cuts to PIP which would have hit the most vulnerable, the TUC stridently campaigned against these cuts alongside disabled people’s organisations.
“The TUC is actively making the case to government on the issue of PIP changes and reform, and will continue to champion the rights of disabled people.”
