Recently reported in an article published in the Big Issue Anela Anwar, chief executive of anti-poverty charity Z2K has set out why the new government must scrap cruel and dangerous plans to cut payments for seriously ill and disabled people. They said:
“Since the election of the Labour government in July there has been something of a change in tone when it comes to social security and disability. Speaking to the Observer last month, Liz Kendall vowed to end the blame culture targeted at people out of work and stop the ‘salami slicing’ of the benefits bill that we saw under previous Conservative governments. You might think, given this rhetoric, that the new government will mark a clear break from previous governments’ approaches to health and disability benefits.”
However, since then the chancellor has changed her tune and as reported in my previous blogs she has told parliament recently that within the autumn budget she intended ‘taking difficult decisions’ on social security, and said she ‘will look closely at our welfare system, because if someone can work, they should work’.
Many disabled people already face a system that is threadbare, where financial support is regularly cut or removed altogether as a result of bad decision-making. For most, the prospect of further cuts to financial support is terrifying.
Anela comments further:
“Much has been made of the previous government’s ill-conceived proposals to make radical changes to personal independence payment (PIP). Among a raft of troubling proposals was a suggestion that PIP cash payments could be replaced with vouchers. Labour has yet to set out its intentions with regards to PIP, but notably have said that they are ‘reviewing the responses people have made to the previous government’s consultation’.
“The new government has also been worryingly silent about its plans for the work capability assessment (WCA). Its manifesto said that the WCA ‘needs to be reformed or replaced’, but Labour has so far failed to provide much detail about what this would mean in practice.”
The basic rate of universal credit is just £91 per week for a single person. It’s hard enough living on this if you’re in good health and able to look for work: Trussell Trust polling released last week found that almost half of those on universal credit ran out of food in the past month. But imagine being seriously ill for months on end, and potentially for life, and having to live off this meagre amount.
The Office for Budget Responsibility analysed the previous government’s plans to encourage people to enter work and predicted that only 3% of those affected by the cuts would move into work as a result of these reforms. That leaves the remaining 97% having to survive on the lowest rate of benefits for an indefinite period.
That’s even before we consider that there is an active legal case against the consultation on which the plans are based. The disability activist Ellen Clifford, supported by Public Law Project and backed by Z2K, is bringing a claim against the rushed and unfair consultation on these plans, due to be heard on 10-11 December. If successful, the action could make the justification for bringing forward these plans even shakier.
Anela adds: “The new government has a real opportunity to reset the relationship between disabled people and the DWP. Bringing forward these poorly thought-out and dangerous proposals would taint these efforts before they’ve even begun. We need to see a health and disability benefits system that provides security and support, not one that pushes disabled people into deep poverty and leaves them at risk of sanctions.”
Anela Anwar is chief executive of anti-poverty charity Z2K.
Read the full article in The Big Issue
Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software
The prime minister is holding a sign that reads ‘Planned Welfare Changes’ and is standing alongside two placards which read ‘Damned if you do’ and ‘Damned if you don’t’. He is saying “And they say that we don’t give disabled people any choice!”. A wheelchair user wearing a Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) T-shirt is looking at him with a perplexed expression and is saying “WTF?!”.
Crippen Cartoons 
Posted by crippencartoons on 18/09/2024 at 09:56
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Vicki Lee (Facebook)
that’s what starmer wants, he wants to force sick and disabled ppl into work that will kill them just to tell the country that they were fakers coz if they were genuine then they woukdnt be working and use that as an excuse to severely limit sick and disabled ppls access to benefits, coz if one can work that means everyone can work coz were just lazy, that’s the gaslighting that will happen and this is what hes after with the budget along with forcing pensioners into even deeper poverty when he removes the single person ctax discount, while he refuses to touch the rich and makes sure they are ok, while again refusing to fund social care and fiddle the figures to make ot look like they are giving thr NHS money when really private companies will be getting even more contracts and taking money from the NHS to collapse it with streeting help, all the while making sure the euthanasia law gets passed and gaslighting and manipulating sick, elderly, disabled, ppl with mh conditions into ending themselves coz he will tell us all that it’s for the good of the country, we are a burden on society and it’s the best thing to make other ppls lives better, there wont be many protections with it either so he can use it against everyone he deems as economically inactive, yea this is coming and will happen, ppl refuse to admit it to themselves althobits staring them in their face, the sooner ppl become aware and accept it the better prepared they will be to fight back coz everyone lives depend on fighting back against starmerand his killer government