Writing in her capacity as the research lead for the Preventable Harm Project (2009–19) Mo Stewart switches her focus to the Chair of the Conservative Disability Group (CDG), Barry Ginley, who has spoken out against the government’s downgrading of the role of disability minister.
In a letter to Ginley Mo writes that she notes with interest his concerns that the role of the disability minister is being downgrade, as reported in the Disability News Service. Also, his comments that “the government does not hold disabled people’s interests at the heart of policy”, and that disabled people would now “not believe the government” when it announces any future policy which claims to improve their lives.
She continues to inform the Chair of the CDG that the chronically ill and disabled community who are unfit for work will never believe that the government are trying to ‘improve their lives.’ The past 15 years having been filled with various DWP ministers and Secretaries of State relentlessly challenging the integrity of the disabled community who are unfit for work by claiming that many were fraudulent, which always was totally untrue, and was a thinly veiled character assassination of long-term disability benefit claimants.
In fact, as previously mentioned in this Blog the government’s own figures for fraud and error regarding DWP claims shows that any fraud committed by disabled claimants was recorded at only 0.5% and that most loss was due to the DWP’s own incompetence!
Indeed, as Mo continues to inform the CDG Chair, that adopting social policies which were guaranteed to cause preventable harm to those in greatest need was based on many false claims by the administration, which worked very well when supported by the national press. She reminds him that disability hate crimes, including murder, increased by 213% as advised by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Mo also points out another piece of misleading information put out by the Tory-LibDem Coalition was that the Labour Party had spent excessively on welfare, which wasn’t true. The biggest past expenditure on welfare was by the John Major Conservative government (1990-97) as identified by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In comparison, the expenditure on welfare by the last Labour government had fallen.
Mo adds:
“The CDG doesn’t seem to be acknowledging this ongoing government generated public health crisis, which suggests … that they don’t know about the very well documented and unnecessary human suffering created by social policy primary legislation and imposed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) … identified as a ‘violent bureaucracy’.
“May I suggest that until and unless the CDG, and the Conservative Mental Health Group, acknowledge the oppression of the chronically ill and disabled community who are not in any position to benefit from paid employment, then the long-suffering disabled community will not take the concerns of the CDG very seriously. You appear to disregard their identified oppression due, entirely, to social policies and the often-shameful comments by successive government ministers, which always attracts publicity by the right-leaning press. Fortunately, the online press do their best to alert the public to this ongoing government induced public health crisis.”
Mo finishes by suggesting that someone urgently needs to investigate the many thousands of suicides directly linked to the DWP disability benefit assessments with, as yet, no-one held to account. Also, she hopes that the CDG will now offer much greater public support to those in greatest need and challenge the administration whose devotion to social policies adopted using a fiscal priority, whilst disregarding health and wellbeing, was guaranteed to cause death, despair and preventable harm to many of those in greatest need.
Mo Stewart – Fellow, Centre for Welfare Reform writing in her capacity as the research lead for the Preventable Harm Project (2009–19)
The public health crisis created by UK social policy reforms
Justice, Power and Resistance 6(2): 217-228
Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software
The Prime minister Rishi Sunak is seen standing alongside of the Chair of the Conservative Disability Group Barry Ginley. Ginley is holding a piece of paper with the ‘Question – Why have you downgraded the position of minister for disabled?’ printed on it. Sunak is saying to him: “And don’t start getting ideas above your station – remember you’re only there to … “ Ginley interrupts by adding: “Make you look good?!”
Crippen Cartoons 