The guidelines to Personal Independence Payments

The Department of Works and Pensions have released the a guidance document for providers carrying out assessments for Personal Independence Payment. (You can find it here)  It started well, it was produced on the 22 January 2013, yet it took two days before they corrected a glaring error, it was dated 22 January 2012!

It includes, at long last Governmental recognition for the requirements to state Safely, Acceptably, Repeatedly and In a timely manner.  The one draw-back, there is no real definition of "Timely".  They give an example of someone walking 200 metres in four minutes and say that "although a little slower than normal, this is a reasonable time period for someone to walk this distance and therefore he can complete the activity in a timely manner."

Erm, my calculations based on the average walking speed for hikers tells me that a fit person should cover four and a half kilometres an hour, says that a fit person should cover 200 metres in about 2 minutes forty seconds. Four minutes is One and a Half times this (OK 1.53 times). So is that reasonable?

I would get worried, when manning checkpoints for cadets, if they were five minutes late for a 4.5km stretch of walking, half an hour late and I would have almost been calling the police for helicopter back-up! 

On top of the time problem there's one of my little bug-bears,

The STRIVER Factor.

Disabled people are not Skivers, Mr Osborne, if they have to get one hundred and fifty metres up the road to charge their gas card or electricity key they WILL do it.  They will then walk back the 150m to the meters and plug the card and key in to get heat in the winter.

They may take 30 minutes to do this, they may be stuck in bed for the rest of the day, curled up in agony, in tears and sky high on pain killers - but they WILL do it as they HAVE to.  Disabled people do not give in and surrender, it takes a lot for a disabled person to give in, after all they have been fighting for a long time to survive, and they will keep fighting. 

So why do Messers Duncan Smith, Osborne, Hoban and Ms McVey seem to think that the Disabled are valid targets under their, now defunct, blanket Skivers and Strivers Attack?

The Work Capability Assessment and the proposed Personal Independance Payment Assessment restrict the disabled person to a minute distance of 20 metres for high level payment and hence the Blue Badge for disabled drivers will be taken from people who can force themselves to walk further than that distance.  Oh and they still won't be fit for work.

I know that personally, suspension of DLA means that my car is hanging in the balance. I lose my car, I lose my ability to get to work (if  had a job), let alone actually work when there!  Why they have to fix a benefit that needs sorting, without a sensible fix, just a plan that two months before it starts is not ready, I do not know.