{"id":14357,"date":"2018-01-12T16:53:07","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T16:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14357"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:13","slug":"fresh-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14357","title":{"rendered":"Fresh hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Disability rights campaigners are beginning 2018 with fresh hope following an end of year High Court victory against the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discriminatory welfare policies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the end of December, the High Court ruled that changes to eligibility rules for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) made at the start of 2017 were \u00e2\u20ac\u015bblatantly discriminatory\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 against people with mental health<\/a> issues.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The court said the regulations, which excluded people who have difficulty undertaking journeys because of psychological distress from receiving PIP, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcannot be objectively justified\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The government insisted that the rules were fair because people with mental health problems have fewer needs than other disabled people<\/a> who find it difficult to travel. The High Court said the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s position was no more than subjective opinion and that there was no evidence to back it up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The ruling<\/a> could help more than 160,000 people with mental health problems, who may now be entitled to additional PIP support.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Secretary of Unite Community south east London branch Ellen Morrison attended the hearing in December, along with other Unite Community members.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Brilliant gift\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was a brilliant gift for disabled people before Christmas and welcome news for the many Unite Community members campaigning for disability rights,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Morrison said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt signals hope for many campaigners that the government isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t infallible and that the cruel decisions of its benefit assessments can be brought into question.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be surprised if 2018 sees a lot more legal challenges, not just with PIP but with Universal Credit as well, which is also going to have a really devastating impact on disabled people.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Head of Unite Community Liane Groves said the case \u00e2\u20ac\u201c brought by the Public Law Project on behalf of an anonymous client \u00e2\u20ac\u201c backed up the finding by a United Nations\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 committee that the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s benefit and austerity policy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s constituted systematic and grave violations<\/a> of disabled peoples\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Groves said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government have been shown, again, to be behaving in a cruel and vindictive way towards disabled people.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rethink<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The ruling should prompt the government to rethink their attempts to save money by targeting disabled people, commented Unite lead professional officer for mental health Dave Munday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Munday explained that making life more difficult for those with mental health problems was often counterproductive, as it results in further demands on already stretched health services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTake the case in point: The affect is not just that the individuals concerned will be unable to travel but that they will be seriously disadvantaged in their ability to participate in society.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe effect of this is to likely worsen their mental health condition further.\u00c2\u00a0For the professionals involved, including our mental health nurse members, it puts even more pressure on their ability to support the people they care for.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disability rights campaigners are beginning 2018 with fresh hope following an end of year High Court victory against the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discriminatory welfare policies.   At the end of December, the High Court ruled that changes to eligibility rules for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) made at the start of 2017 were \u00e2\u20ac\u015bblatantly discriminatory\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 against people with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,404,831,232],"wps_subtitle":"High Court win against PIP bias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26483,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14357\/revisions\/26483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}