I feel that to get closer to the true inclusion of disabled people within society as contributing citizens, we need to move away from the current arrangement of compensation based payments and replaced with more personalised outcome based needs led payments and/or services.

By compensation payments, I am referring to DLA and its successor, PIP. The assessment is in terms of whether you qualify for a level of benefit at a specific amount. For some people, this will be a drop in the ocean to what we need while for others, it may be far more than what they really need, especially in the long term.

Because DLA/PIP is a random amount, it quickly gets swept into a person’s general income and there is no incentive to spend it to “personal independence”. I therefore because everyone should get what they specifically need when they need based on their specific situation, not some rights based common denominator. 

Some people may need a lot of support for a few months and than very little. I also strongly believe payments MUST be based on outcomes. I mean it is not about your right to go out, but to be support for the specific trips you need to do for work/education/family/leisure. You need to need based on meeting outcomes not based on some notion of rights. The right is the responsibility to meet your outcomes.

If you like what I say, have a look at my website at www.simonstevens.com or follow me on twitter, @simonstevens74