We can be forgiven for thinking that the Tory Party Manifesto has been influenced greatly by the likes of Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) having received a copy of the George Orwell novel ‘1984’ during his more formative years.
His Machiavellian influence on public health services and the subsequent crisis that has resulted due to his brutal and relentless assault on the integrity of claimants of long-term disability benefit(s) mirrors Orwell’s description on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and behaviors within society.
For those of you unfamiliar with this dystopian novel which was published in 1949, it broadly examines the role of truth and facts within societies and the way in which they can be manipulated. The story takes place in an imagined future in an unspecified year believed to be 1984, where Great Britain has become a province of a totalitarian superstate. Led by ‘Big Brother’, a dictatorial leader supported by an intense cult of personality manufactured by the ‘Thought Police’, he instigates government surveillance and, through the ‘Ministry of Truth’, historical negation-ism and constant propaganda that persecutes individuality and independent thought.
Back to the present where our very own Ministry of Truth has succeeded in convincing most of society that those on benefits, especially those benefits relating to disability and long-term illness, are work shy scroungers, depriving society of much needed revenue to support, for example the NHS. They continue to feed this rhetoric to the mainstream media who are only too happy to paint the chronically ill and disabled community as cheats and frauds.
What they fail to publish however, are the government’s recent figures that show disability benefit fraud was only at 0.5 percent, meaning that 99.5 per cent of disabled claimants who depend upon social security benefit for their financial and physical survival, are genuine. There is just no evidence of any significant fraud by the chronically ill and disabled community. They also fail to publish the fact that there has been a disturbing increase in prosecuted disability hate crimes fueled by the misinformation originating from these government sources.
You’ll recall also that Mo Stewart, Research Lead for the Preventable Harm Project, in her recent letter to IDS takes him to task over his recent comments in the national press, where he urged the Government to get people languishing on disability and sickness benefit(s) back to work, thus indicating that his well-documented opinion of the chronically ill and disabled community who depend upon social security benefit for their very survival remains as hostile as ever.
The Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) is continuing to build upon its Big Brother reputation by proposing to use powers under a new bill currently going through Parliament. This will allow them full access to the bank accounts of all pension credit, universal credit and employment and support allowance claimants. Any bank failing to collect and pass on data to the DWP will be subject to heavy fines. It is estimated that almost 9 million claimants would be caught in this surveillance net with the DWP claiming that the new powers will result in 74,000 prosecution cases and 2,500 custodial sentences … but based upon what? Their own figures show that most of the money lost by DWP is due to their own incompetence and not by fraud!
As Black Triangle, the grassroots disabled people’s organisation run by and for disabled people stated:
“Anyone who imagines that the DWP will use such sweeping powers reasonably and proportionately probably hasn’t ever claimed benefits … this is, beyond doubt, the thin end of a very thick wedge”.
The new system will begin to be rolled out in 2025, though all banks may not be fully involved before 2030.
Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software
An Asian wheelchair user has reached up to tear away the calendar page for December 2023. However, the new calendar page that is revealed is for January 1984. High on the wall behind him is a CCTV camera with the initials ‘DWP-TV printed on it. A large exclamation mark sits above the disabled person’s head.
Crippen Cartoons 