News

I’m a member of the Labour Party and disgusted at the present welfare policies, they are just carrying on with the same policy of the previous government. The delays in PIP new claims, transfer from DLA to PIP and reassessment of current PIP awards. 

 "by mistake", as if, and if it is true, HOW CAN THAT POSSIBLY HAPPEN!! Heartbreaking. Dwp has no accountability.

Everyone who posts and/or reads B&W posts, please, look out for those around you who are vulnerable, and seek support when you need it.

A very sad story in the sun newspaper today about a young girl who took her own life because pip sent out a reduced award letter by mistake 

In other news.

In November 2025 the government appointed Alan Milburn to head an independent impartial expert review into why so many young people are Not in Education, Employment, or Training. The review is focused on disabled young people and expected to report in spring 2026.

He did a interview with the Times Newspaper today.
Milburn says:

"It starts in schools. One in five pupils are now getting Send diagnosis. The vast majority of those then trip into the benefits system because they get child disability allowance. The vast majority of people on child disability allowance qualify for adult PIP. And then you're into a world of benefits. Honestly, is that the aspiration we should have as a society, for a whole generation of young people? A life on benefits?"

"So there’s a whole cohort who are sort of invisible. We just don’t know what’s going on. But if what is going on is that they’re stuck in their bedrooms gaming, and the incentives in that system are to enable them to do so — hey, Houston, we have a problem.”

"And if you're on benefits and not in work in your twenties you're probably not going to be in work in your thirties, your forties, your fifties, and that exacts huge consequences. I think a lot of the debate around this has been framed in the wrong way as fiscal problem. It is a fiscal problem, but it's a moral problem"

"So Anxiety is normal. Depression is normal. I got asked a brilliant question the other day by the guy leading the mental health prevalence review for Wes, which was what proportion of the adult population at any one time could be classified as having a mental health condition? I got the answer completely wrong. Because it's 83 percent. There's a difference between a diagnosis and a disorder. And OK, so people might have anxiety or depression, but it doesn't mean that therefore you should be written off for not being able to work"

“We’re at real risk of the debate in the country being about work being bad for your mental health rather than overwhelmingly work being good for your mental health. Because the alternative to that is being unemployed, being out of work, being economically inactive, that’s bad for your mental health because you don’t have purpose. You don’t have earning power.”

“Net levels of migration are falling fast. Every employer complains about the shortage of skilled labour. So the workers have got to come from somewhere. And here we have a million young people or thereabouts who are a potential source of labour. This is what you might call an opportunity.”

"we've got to look at where we're spending public money. We're spending more money on health and disability benefits for 16 to 24-year-olds than we are on apprentices. Is that the right priority?"

"You've got to make the right choices. As I say, I think as a country we've been making the wrong choices and we're now paying the price"

Gee Wiz I wonder what the independent expert review findings and recommendations will be.

All three current independent, impartial expert reviews. This one on young disabled people. The one on if mental health conditions, ADHD and Autism are being over dragonised. And the Timms PIP review. All look rigged to me. The government picks people whose opinions are already well known so knows the conclusions it will get. Just to give the government and MPs the façade of saying they are going by expert advice and evidence and co-production. 

We haven't been able to vote in years now and currently not allowed this year either. Like living in a dictatorship democracy died in 2020

Through my union I have organised lobbies of the 2 local Labour parties in my area. I even got to speak at one of them last July. The local Labour parties are spineless and unwilling to publicly oppose the cuts to disability benefits as their MPs support the cuts. They will thoroughly deserve to get trounced in the local elections.