The Tories discriminate against mental health patients. It’s official.
The Tory government wanted to save money on benefits. The Tories have a record of attacking the poor Cameron and Osborne claimed they were making difficult decision when they launched their anti-working class offensive, codename Operation Austerity.
In March 2017 the Theresa May government decided to accelerate those attacks by depriving people with serious mental health issues of the right to claim additional benefits for travel. The PIP scheme, which is supposed to assess the genuine needs of people with health issues, contains provisions for additional payment to people who have difficulty travelling, for example with using public transport. People who have mobility issues are assessed and given a score. Claimants who have more than 8 points get a mobility allowance of £22 per week. Claimants with a score of 12 points get an enhanced rate of £58 per week.
So the post-Cameron Tory government, the new caring Theresa May government, the one who makes speeches about caring and supporting the genuinely needy, thought up a great wheeze to save themselves billions of pounds. In early 2017 they introduced regulations that meant people with mobility problems as a result of psychological distress could not get more than 10 points on their assessment. So, no matter how severe the mental health issues affecting their ability to get around, they could not get the higher rate as a direct result of their psychological state.
Why introduce such a specific regulation, unless it was to discriminate against people with mental health problems? No reason. Or at least, that was the finding of the High Court. In December 2017 the court ruled that the regulations were ‘blatantly discriminatory’.
Blatantly discriminatory.
It is estimated that about 164,000 people are affected by these regulations. The government itself estimates that their the ruling against their discriminatory regulations will cost them £3.7bn between now and 2022. Not that cost was an issue for the anti-working class government. They reason they give for their attempt to discriminate against people with psychological medical issues? In the words of Esther McVey, Work and Pensions Secretary, “Our intention has always been to … provide the best support to claimants with mental health conditions.”
By discriminating against them? Saving billions was just a lucky bonus.