Dr Mark Brookes, Campaign Advisor at Dimensions, was awarded a full 15 points at Tribunal having scored just 2 in his initial PIP assessment. He said:
“Too often, people with learning disabilities like myself are left out of thinking in welfare reform. Applying for PIP left me frustrated and worried about money – I had to wait over a year to get the support I was entitled to and during that time, it was hard to make ends meet. The current system is not fit for purpose and needs a complete reboot so that it can help the people it’s designed to support. This report has to be listened to because we need change right now.”
Dimensions therefore welcomes today’s Disability Benefits Consortium report. DBC analysis shows that changes to welfare benefits since 2008 have led to disabled people losing £1200 per year on average, compared to £300 for non-disabled people – and the greater the disability, the greater the loss.
As one of the 80 charity members of the DBC, Dimensions agrees that