Mum Nicola Holmes says that if Personal Independence Payments (PIP) are removed under a Labour shake-up, it is an assault on families like theirs, and it will push them further into poverty
Former actor and beauty therapist Nicola Holmes , 55, lives in Tewkesbury with husband Wayne, an electrician, and their two children Ethan, 18, who has autism, Down’s syndrome and severe anxiety, and Ella, 16, who has PDA (pathological demand avoidance) anxiety and is situationally mute.
Vulnerable people, like Nicola and her family, who are claiming PIP have accused the government of targeting society’s most vulnerable by stopping benefits as part of the new Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.
This is despite Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) confirmation that benefit claimants affected by proposed changes to PIP will have their payments protected for a 13 week transitional period.
Existing claimants affected by changes to the PIP daily living component, including those who lose their eligibility to Carers’ Allowance and the carers’ element of Universal Credit, who will receive the additional protection, feel it is nowhere near enough.
Mum Nicola says the cuts will push families like hers deeper into poverty. The family relies on husband Wayne’s income as self-employed electrician, PIP for Ethan, universal credit and carers’ allowance.
Reacting to today’s benefits announcements, she tells The Mirror: “This Is not reform. This is collapse.
As a mum of two disabled teenagers, both autistic, and one who also has Down’s syndrom, I feel completely abandoned by a system that was supposed to protect us.
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“It almost feels too late for them now, as if the bureaucracy is simply determined to age them out of the system, rather than ever step up and support them properly.
“I can’t work, not out of choice, but because I am caring full-time for two incredible, vulnerable human beings in the total absence of meaningful provision. I also have a chronic health condition, brought on by the relentless stress of caring.
The system has failed my young people again and again, and in doing so, has failed me and my husband as their parents. As a family, we have been left behind.
“Now, the government plans to make brutal cuts to Universal Credit and PIP. Making the process even more nefarious and complex.
“Disability should not be scored by numbers. Lifelong conditions should be accepted as just that and not be needed to be reassessed. Disabled people should not have to prove their worth in society.
“It’s a direct assault on families like mine…families already surviving on the bare minimum. We are constantly exhausted, financially drained, emotionally spent. These cuts won’t just make life harder. They will make it impossible.
“PIP and carers’ allowance are intrinsically linked. Removing them from thousands will have a violent domino effect of astronomical proportions.
Carers allowance is not meant to be a wage and yet it is included as earnings and therefore taxed as one. The Government makes out people are getting something for nothing – but carers provide the equivalent of a second NHS.
‘This will be catastrophic. Instead of rebuilding the foundations, the government is accelerating collapse by targeting those of us who were already barely hanging on.
‘We’re not seeing reform, we’re watching the systematic removal of care and responsibility from governance. Social safety nets have become traps. Services have become mazes.
“It feels like the lives of disabled people, and those of us who care for them, simply don’t matter anymore. We’re seen as burdens to be managed or costs to be cut, rather than human beings with potential, rights, and futures worth investing in.
‘This is very serious.”
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