Emma Boulton Argues DWP System Penalises Disabled People Who Work

In a column for Big Issue, Emma Boulton argues that the UK welfare system penalises disabled people who manage to work or ask for additional help.

Boulton writes that the Department for Work and Pensions overturned a tribunal decision on her Personal Independence Payment claim seven months early, citing a change in needs without providing supporting evidence. Every independent assessment of her case has resulted in a win, while every DWP review has resulted in a loss, according to her account.

When Boulton’s Member of Parliament raised the case with the DWP, the agency suggested she explore avenues for income generation. Boulton states she was already working at the time, having returned to employment against medical advice because she could not afford not to work.

After being advised to submit a new claim, Boulton filed paperwork that resulted in a September decision scoring her zero points for medication management. The assessor noted that she used a pill box and watch reminders, but omitted her toilet aid, banister rails, and high-backed chair from the assessment report.

Boulton explains that during her telephone assessment, she stayed calm and answered questions clearly. She writes that this behavior is a coping mechanism known as autistic masking, which she developed in childhood.

On that call, I did what autistic women learn to do from childhood, Boulton writes. I stayed calm, I answered clearly, and I made it look easy.

Because she answered clearly on the phone, the assessor concluded she could communicate unaided. Because she works, the administration concluded she was fine.

Boulton states that the administrative cycle has created a recurring pattern of losing support whenever she appears to cope, requests more help, or maintains employment. She argues that the wider system has taken a heavy toll on her family over the past decade.

My daughters are now 21 and 25, Boulton writes. They grew up with the drinking, the police, the recovery, and 10 years of brown envelopes. They have suffered most of all, and I believe this system played a part in that.

Emma Boulton is an autistic PhD researcher at Teesside University who studies how the distress of autistic women is misread by crisis services. She also writes The Masking Pipeline on Substack.

The dispute centers on Personal Independence Payment.

The DWP decision scored Boulton two points for reading and zero points for everything else, mirroring previous decisions that had given her the same score.