Content

This Council Notes:
 

1.    
Government proposals in the ‘Pathways to
Work’ Green Paper 2029-30, would reform the welfare system in
a number of ways: increasing the Universal Credit standard rate and
the value of disability benefits for those considered most
disabled; scrapping the Work Capability Assessment; introducing the
‘right to try’ and reforming the disability benefit
assessment; narrowing the eligibility criteria to Personal
Independence Payments (PIP), and reducing health-condition related
Universal Credit (UC-H).
 
There is much
to be welcomed in the Green Paper overhauling, as it does, a broken
welfare system. However local impacts if not mitigated, could
include:
·       
Increased rent arrears among privately renting
households that include disabled people;
·       
Increased pressure on social services
·       
Increased use of food banks
·       
The loss of carers’ allowance by some of the
carers in the City caring for people no longer eligible for
PIP
 
This Council resolves
to:
 

1.    
Respond to the Government’s consultation by 30
June requesting:
 
·       
a full impact assessment be undertaken before any
changes are implemented;
 
·       
increased and flexible funding from central
government budgets to the NHS and local councils, such as through
the Household Support Fund, so services can provide financial and
wraparound support to residents who may lose access to disability
benefits;
 
·       
meaningful co-production with disabled people in
shaping all government policy, so that policies and services are
developed in a way that responds to the needs and experiences of
disabled people, promoting their full participation and inclusion
in society