Legal News

The chief of the Flintshire Mind, a mental health support organisation in North Wales, has warned that changes to the welfare benefits system could force individuals with disabilities to lose their independence. Plans to reduce Government spending on welfare benefits for the disabled by 20 per cent could abolish individuals’ abilities to leave their own homes and will put strain on mental health services in the county, according to campaigners. In Flintshire alone, 9,640 individuals claim benefits, at a cost of £37.2 million per annum to the Government. However, if the Government’s plans are given the go ahead, this figure is set to plummet. The House of Lords recently approved plans to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

Jenny Murphy, Flintshire Mind’s chief officer, said that the reforms could force individuals with disabilities to become effectively “prisoners in their own homes”. Ms. Murphy reported that the individuals who had contacted the organisation had been left terrified at the prospect of the reforms leaving them with little or no income. She added that the process of reforming the benefits system had the potential to cause deterioration of some individual’s mental health conditions.

A national survey, conducted by Mind in 2011, revealed that for 87 per cent of individuals, the prospect of changes to the current welfare benefits system stirred up feelings of anxiety. Seventy-five per cent claimed that the prospect worsened their mental health conditions and 45 per cent had contacted their healthcare professional because it was already having an impact on their health.

The welfare benefits solicitors at Duncan Lewis are able to advise clients of their rights and assess clients’ eligibility to welfare benefits.