Letters: Is DWP about to go after disabled people daring to save money for their future funerals?

Big Issue readers have a few things to say about the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) having access to benefit claimants’ bank accounts, LGBTQ+ veterans and the housing crisis.

DWP snooping on bank accounts is a recipe for disaster

I work in housing, and it’s standard practice to ask for the last three months’ bank statements. I have had to make several referrals to fraud teams for unusual activity in bank accounts over the years. In some of my cases the people were attempting to hide activity for fraud reasons, and some were unaware. From my personal experience it was about 50/50. In principle it’s a good idea. However, in practice, the DWP does not have a good track record of handling sensitive information well and is fast to sanction without all the facts and slow to progress appeals. It does seem to have a recipe for disaster written all over it when they wrongly accuse a vulnerable person – which will happen. 

r/YorkieLon, Reddit 

Rachel Reeves remarked: “I can today announce a crackdown on fraud in our welfare system, often the work of criminal gangs.” We know damn well this isn’t what will happen. They will go after the disabled for daring to save up some money to pay for their future funeral. 

r/chaosandturmoil, Reddit 

This is a classic dystopian concept. Why do Labour keep coming up with this stuff? Forty per cent of universal credit claimants at the moment are in work. That’s likely to increase over this parliament. False accusations are a certainty. 

r/TinFish77, Reddit 

Never forget

Thank you for featuring LGBTQ+ veterans this Remembrance Day. I am one of those veterans. I don’t talk about it very often and haven’t done until the Lord Etherton report, which I did the cover artwork for and also helped with designing the new Veteran LGBT+ pin. The ban has been a very big part of my life, hiding that I was a veteran for so long because of the pain that it had caused me. Still to this day, over 25 years later, I suffer with the trauma that will never leave. So thank you my friends, thank you. 

David Tovey, Instagram 

Cut it out

The proposals for benefit cuts for disabled people seem dehumanising and sorely unfair. My son has mental health issues and severe social anxiety. I cope every day with his meltdowns so I know any changes would send him spiralling into a self-harming episode. Ms Reeves has NO IDEA of the impact her cuts would cause to people like my son. 

Elizabeth Burns, Margate 

• How to navigate DWP disability benefit applications and PIP assessments
• ‘I have nothing’: DWP takes millions from benefit claimants every year to pay for its own mistakes
• DWP using AI to assess benefit and universal credit claims poses ‘significant risk’, experts warn

Skill bill

What an excellent special edition on housing [Issue 1639, 28 October-3 November] highlighting the issues and many of the solutions. Thank you for picking out skills for a special mention. Skills England offers many opportunities to tackle the skills challenges faced across the housing and construction sector. As you showed, across the UK there are many successful housing schemes being progressed by local and combined authorities. Likewise, for skills, we have a lot to learn from across the UK and Europe. 

When you look across Europe the dual vocational training systems of Germany and Switzerland, the lifelong learning policies of Denmark and Finland, employer training through tax incentives in France and the Netherlands, and the sectoral funding approach in Belgium, they all have something we can learn from. Getting the UK-wide skills system is important for housing, for economic growth, and also for social equity. Perhaps  Big Issue could have a special edition on skills next year? 

Dr Michael Cross, Portsmouth 

House rules

My family tried to build a small house on the site of a home that was bombed during WWII and has since only been garages. The rules were so limiting, we couldn’t build a house that would match the terrace next door. To comply, we’d have to build a strangely shaped building with an angled roof – even though a matching house would not have blocked any light. 

We got planning permission, but then the council wanted an enormous amount of tax on top of planning fees for “infrastructure” levies, even though the site already had electricity and water and needed no infrastructure. So we just didn’t build the house. 

This is why London has such a big housing problem. The authorities are difficult and greedy. It is expensive and restrictive to build anything. 

r/Alarmarama, Reddit 

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