Disabled people are back “in the firing line” on spending cuts, disabled activists have warned, following decisions announced by Labour’s new chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
Reeves told MPs that there would be cuts to social care and winter fuel payment to address what she described as a “£22 billion hole in the public finances” left by the previous Tory government.
Reeves also warned that she would “look closely at our welfare system, because if someone can work, they should work”.
As reported in Disability News Service (DNS) she told MPs: “We will ensure that the welfare system is focused on supporting people into employment, and we will assess the unacceptable levels of fraud and error in our welfare system and take forward action to bring that down.”
Her comments mirrored those by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, who suggested last week that she wanted to increase pressure on disabled people to move off benefits and into work, while disregarding risks to their health, and that she wanted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to move from being “a department for welfare” to becoming “a genuine department for work”.
Also among a series of other measures, she also appeared to suggest that cuts to benefits would be announced later in the year, and that it would “not be possible” to take forward reforms to adult social care charging that were repeatedly delayed by successive Conservative governments.
The announcement came just days after a report by the disabled people’s organisation Disability Law Service showed that disabled people across England were continuing to face unlawful discrimination and inequality on an “unparalleled” scale due to “unjust” social care charging policies.
Disabled campaigners have also raised serious concerns about Reeves’ announcements and comments.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, said the chancellor’s comments on economic inactivity “were interchangeable with those of the previous government”.
She said: “The reasons for more people being unable to work due to disability and ill health isn’t down to a poor work ethic, it’s because of an ageing workforce, high levels of mental distress, lack of NHS treatments, a failing social care system and negative employer attitudes and behaviours. We heard nothing about tackling these underlying drivers of ill health and disability … This was a truly shocking move from a new UK government, which purports to be on the side of the most disadvantaged people.”
Linda Burnip, of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), said she had expected the new Labour government to be “awful” but it had so far been even worse than she could have imagined.
She added that this new Labour government did not appear to recognise the “holistic” approach that would need to be taken if it wanted more disabled people in work, including funding free social care, fixing the NHS and the mental health system, and ensuring a well-functioning Access to Work programme, accessible transport and flexible working hours.
Linda said the announcement suggested Reeves wanted those disabled people who could not work to be left without any support at all, or even deported to Rwanda.
She said: “I dread to think what else she’ll try to cut. Older and disabled people will be in the firing line, though, from the looks of things so far.”
Rick Burgess, a spokesperson for Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP), said of the Reeves comments on benefits spending: “This hostile rhetoric is all too familiar to us. Not only does this approach fail to solve the long-standing problems of our social security system, it is also lethal.”
You can read the full story in DNS.
Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software
Caricatures of Rachel Reeves (Labour Chancellor) and Liz Kendall (Sec DWP) can be seen holding a large placard with ‘Disabled are workshy scroungers – they’re the ones to blame! Reeves is saying: “And the Tories even left us with a nice scapegoat … eh Liz?!” Kendall replies: “Well Rachel, the public certainly seem to have bought it!” On the floor are two copies of the Disability News Service. One headline reads ‘Chancellor Reeves says disabled must seek work’ the other one reads ‘Kendall says DWP should become a centre for work and not welfare’.
Crippen Cartoons 