"DWP should have clear resolutions and goals to help people with disabilities in 2023"

Happy New Year! Traditionally, at this time of year, we set resolutions to improve and goals to achieve this year.

I've got it all sorted and yes, I have world domination in my sights, thanks for asking.

Normally, I'm a firm believer that "New Year New Me" is pure nonsense and I tell anyone who says it to shut up or they're awesome just the way they are. However, I think now is the perfect time for the Department of Works and Pensions to embrace this sentiment.

The past year has been a spectacularly horrific time for people with disabilities under the Department of Works and Pensions.

They were taken to the High Courts after the National Disability Strategy was ruled illegal. They have (rightly) been criticized for refusing to publish a report on the scale of disabled suicide deaths after being denied benefits. We also saw the minister who was supposed to represent us demoted to undersecretary (since reinstated), insufficient cost-of-living payments.

So with that in mind, I've written down some resolutions and goals that I think the government, especially the DWP, should take in order to do better for people with disabilities.

Rachel asks for a comprehensive disability strategy or action plan (Stock Photo) (

Picture:

Getty Images)

First, the government must commit to creating a comprehensive disability strategy or action plan – or whatever Disability Minister Tom Pursglove has up his sleeve now.

>

One who genuinely works with disability activists and organizations to have our best interests at heart and protect our rights. Instead of focusing on our return to work and tackling fictitious benefit thieves - a reminder that only 0.07% of benefit claims are this fraudulent and 89% of them turn out not fraudulent.

And if they want to be obsessed with taking people with disabilities out of employment subsidies, they should actually create legislation that protects the rights of people with disabilities to work from home and in the way that suits them. fits best.

The government must also commit to closing the disability pay gap, which stands at over £3,700 a year, and the unemployment gap, currently at 6.8%, the double that of non-disabled people.

One of the main goals the Department of Works and Pensions should be working towards is a complete overhaul of the benefit application process.

The current system of applying for disability benefits forces people with disabilities to focus on the worst times in their lives and is dehumanizing and traumatic for many. The questions on the application form appear deliberately vague and leave no room for fluctuating disabilities.

Heaven forbid, write that the worst aspects of your condition only affect you sometimes or a few days a month. They see it as recognition that you can carry on as "normal" on certain days, so you don't need any financial support.

Then, after an agonizing wait, comes an assessment with someone who very often is not a medical professional whose job seems to be to trip you up every step of the way and tell you once again every terrible part of your pathetic existence for them as they type at a computer and compare your health to a set of checkboxes.

You wait again up to twelve weeks, during all this you are on the weakest am...