Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

Describing it as a “moral mission” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has unveiled his plans to impose fresh curbs on benefits.

Apart from proposing a new consultation on Personal Independent Payment (PIP), a non-means-tested benefit that helps with extra costs caused by long-term disability or ill health, he has vowed to significantly reform the benefits system.

Based upon an expected rise in benefits spending which includes an increasing number of people who are claiming PIP for anxiety and depression, Sunak stated that it is no longer sustainable. He therefore intends to introduce a more “rigorous” approach with “greater medical evidence” being required to substantiate a claim.

Mr Sunak also claimed that Britain is suffering from a “sick-note culture” and warned against “over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life”. He revealed new trials will be under way that will put an end to GPs being allowed to sign patients off sick, with the responsibility shifting to “work and health professionals” instead.

Along with this he pledged to “tighten” the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) so that “hundreds of thousands of benefit recipients with less severe conditions will now be expected to engage in the world of work.” He added that if the Tories were to win the election, people who were still out of work after 12 months will have “their benefits removed entirely”. He also spoke about benefits being sanctioned if someone does not comply with conditions set by a work coach.

Disability Rights UK’s head of policy Fazilet Hadi accused the government of targeting disabled people for a failing economy. She said:

“The Prime Minister’s approach to systemic inequalities caused by government policies and underfunding of public services, is to further penalise, punish and threaten disabled people living on inadequate benefits.”

Mind chief executive Dr Sarah Hughes said that with mental health services at breaking point after years of underinvestment …

“[It is] insulting to the 1.9 million people on a waiting list to get mental health support, and to the GPs whose expert judgment is being called into question.”

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chairwoman of the BMA’s GP committee, accused Mr Sunak of pushing “a hostile rhetoric,” with Unison general secretary Christina McAnea stating:

“Lengthy waits for NHS operations and treatment have left people languishing at home, too sick or injured to work. Threatening to remove benefits and forcing sick and disabled people further into poverty is most definitely not the way to increase the health of our sick nation.”

Note: Government figures show that £69 billion is currently being spent on benefits, however a Policy in Practice report released last week found that over £23bn worth went unclaimed in the last year, excluding disability benefits.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

An Asian male in a self propelled wheelchair is sat facing two large dogs. The dogs are snarling with one of them having a ripped piece of the disabled man’s suit in it’s mouth. He has also torn a chunk out of the wheel of the wheelchair and left the man covered in cuts and bruises. A PIP application form and a medical sick note lay ripped apart on the floor. Around the dogs neck’s are two discs. One carries the initials ‘DWP’ whilst the other reads ‘Sanctions’. Standing behind the dogs is the PM Rishi Sunak who is saying to the disabled man: “You won’t be needing benefits – with the system we’ve created there’s now every incentive for you to seek work!”