Over 100 organisations are calling for urgent changes to the benefits system to ensure disabled and seriously unwell people are protected from further harm during the COVID-19 emergency.
Currently, unless a medical professional signs a form saying the person has six months or less to live, claimants are forced through a laborious process of form-filling, interviews and assessments.
A report revealing terminally ill people face devastating and far-reaching financial hardship has been welcomed by the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
The Leader of Newport City Council has signed a document committing the council to the TUC’s Dying to Work charter. This highlights the council’s commitment to supporting employees with a terminal illness to stay in their job for as long as they want to.
Lloyds Banking Group is the latest employer to sign up to the Dying to Work Voluntary Charter, which is seeking greater security for employees living with a terminal illness.
The Association recommends that legacy claimants should be passported to Universal Credit automatically, and that the migration of claimants should be paused while issues are addressed.
People must have 'a reasonable expectation of death within six months' to be fast-tracked for benefits. MP Madeline Moon has presented a Bill challenging the government's definition of terminal illness in such cases.