19 Dec

More unsubstantiated claims that “millions” of disabled people are falsely claiming benefits

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Not content with pillorying disabled people in the House of Commons, it is claimed that the Labour government along with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are continuing to encourage the press and television to portray us all as work shy scroungers.

John McArdle, co-founder of Black Triangle Campaign, claims that the DWP was “emphatically” behind the “false narrative” displayed in a string of recent newspaper articles and television programmes. He pointed out that the last 14 years had shown that this hostile rhetoric always increased before major disability benefit reforms were announced. And it’s no coincidence that this comes as the new Labour government prepares its own reforms of the disability benefits system, which are set to be published in a green paper in the spring. John added: “They are trying to say the benefits bill is bankrupting the country and it’s simply not the case.”

Damaging Articles

So, what are these damaging articles and programmes that disabled people are up in arms about? Well, if we take a look at the more recent examples, there’s an article in the Mirror newspaper this month by journalist Paul Routledge who describes that “millions” of disabled people are dishonestly claiming out-of-work benefits.

He writes that “millions of people who could, and should be in work, sign on for long-term sickness benefits”. He also claimed that mental health was “the ‘bad back’ of the 21st century” because it was “easy to self-diagnose, virtually impossible to disprove”. He provided no evidence for either of his claims.

Disabled journalist and author Rachel Charlton-Dailey said she was “sickened” by Routledge’s column. She said: “The media hostility towards disabled people has been an infuriating thing to try and combat … [but] I’m especially sickened by seasoned columnists using us as a punching bag when they should know better than to publish unsubstantiated lies about benefits claimants that can cause a lot of harm and add to the public’s distrust of us.”

Dr Natasha Hirst, the disabled president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), who has frequently spoken out about discriminatory reporting in the media, said: “There are a multitude of barriers that prevent disabled people from accessing the labour market. The impact of long Covid, and lack of timely health services, plays a significant role, as well as negative attitudes from employers and lack of accessible transport and housing”.

Damaging Programmes

Three days later a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on disability benefits was aired. It claimed to expose the “scandal” of the disability benefits system that can “drive people towards benefits rather than work”, and that the costs of supporting disabled people who cannot work “threaten to derail the government’s hopes of economic growth”, and it asked the question: “Are we getting sicker? Or lazier?”

There were multiple concerns about accuracy and unevidenced claims in the Dispatches programme, while the radical working-class media organisation The Canary pointed out that the presenter Frazer Nelson – former editor of the right-wing magazine The Spectator –  had failed to state he was on the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the right-wing thinktank that devised Universal Credit.

The film for Channel 4’s Dispatches caused outrage among many disabled people who watched it. One user-led mental health group Recovery in the Bin (RiTB) described the new documentary, Britain’s Benefits Scandal, as an “atrocity”.

Rick Burgess, an RiTB spokesperson, said: “We see what this is, it is a cycle repeated endlessly of government working with media to ready the way for another round of DWP abuse. Shame on everyone involved.”

Read the full story about both the Mirror article and the CH4 documentary in Disability News Service (DNS). Both articles are written by disabled journalist John Pring who’s recently published book The Department is described as a thoroughly researched exposé of the bureaucratic violence and hostility of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over the last 30 years.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A bald DWP manager in a grey suit is standing alongside a female journalist who is typing on a computer keyboard. Above the monitor a sign declares that this is the ‘News Desk’. The DWP manager is holding a piece of paper with ‘disabled scroungers’ printed upon it. Around the feet of the journalist are other pieces of paper with ‘disabled benefits bill is bankrupting the country’ and ‘millions of disabled are dishonestly claiming benefit’ printed upon them. The DWP manager is saying: “You can run with the story as long as you don’t need any evidence!”. The journalist replies: “Don’t worry about that – we’ve never needed it before and we’re certainly not going to look for any now!”

16 Dec

Bah Humbug!

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Well, that’s another year almost over with Deaf and disabled people reeling from repeated assaults on our basic human rights. Although this time we’re being shafted by the political party that was supposed to oppose the Tory party and its anti-disabled people retoric.

But come to think of it, when they were the opposition party, Labour didn’t actually do much in the way of challenging the Tories. So, why are we surprised that once in power, Labour just picked up the Tories inhuman policies regarding benefits, education, health care, euthanasia, etc., and just claimed it as their own. It’s as though the Labour party has given itself a quick coat of blue paint and its now difficult to tell these two political parties apart!

Various Crips have spoken out about how punch drunk they are feeling, what with having to challenge the government in so many different areas, areas that we thought we’d been making some progress in, but here we are, back at the beginning again. And this time without any real political allies!

I don’t know about you but I’m getting really pissed off with being governed by rich pricks who are doing everything they can to remove us from society, or at the very least making the general public believe that we’re all a bunch of useless eaters who are responsible for the £127.5 billion deficit, the low wages and high prices, the breaking down of the NHS and just about everything else that’s going down the pan due to their asset stripping.

Bah humbug doesn’t really cover it … I can see that I’m going to have to take my gloves off next year and really start challenging this corrupt status quo!

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

 A threadbare, drooping christmas tree stands in a red pot which has ‘Merry Christmas’ written on it. It has a few hanging baubles and some broken lights along with three signs which read ‘Broken Labour Promises’, ‘Recycled Tory Policies’ and ‘Benefit Cuts’. A large red label hangs from the tree which is being looked at by a black disabled wheelchair user. The label reads ‘From your caring Labour Party’. The disabled person is wearing a purple t-shirt that has ‘Not Dead Yet’ printed upon the front.

15 Nov

Crippen and the DWP’s terrible and inexcusable treatment of disabled people

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , .

The way the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has treated disabled people in the last 15 years “will go down in history as a terrible and inexcusable crime”, MPs were told this week during a debate on the new government’s budget.

Independent MP Apsana Begum told fellow MP’s during a debate on the Labour government’s budget that there was “extensive evidence about the serious harm caused to people subjected to dehumanising assessments and sanctions, including reports of deaths (as highlighted in John Pring’s book ‘The Department’) directly related to the social security regime”.

She called for a “long-term overhaul of the social security system”, which she said was “not fit for purpose”.

Begum was not the only MP to refer to the impact of the last government’s welfare reforms on disabled people.

Labour’s Emily Darlington, MP for Milton Keynes Central, reminded MPs on Monday that under previous Conservative governments, disabled people had taken their own lives due to welfare reform.

She said that 14 years of “failure” had also led to “three million people using food banks, more than 700,000 children plunged into poverty, mortgage costs nearly doubled, the worst pay rises since the 1950s… mental health worse than at any time on record, more people sleeping rough and more families without their own home”.

She said the Conservative party continued “to deny, to justify and to refuse to apologise to those people right across the country and in my constituency”.

You can read the full story in the Disability News Service article by John Pring

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

The setting is the Crown Court with all of the Tory MP’s who have been associated with DWP benefit changes crammed into the dock. On the floor in front of the judge and the jury are copies of Disability News Service. They each bare a headline telling of Tory and DWP complicity in subjecting disabled claimants to dehuminising assessments, sometimes leading to their deaths. Members of the jury are pointing at the ‘the accused’ with angry expressions. The judge is saying to them: “I think you’ll find that guilty is sufficient – rather than HANG THE TORY BASTARDS!!

27 Oct

Crippen shares a message

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

A message from the disabled activists who took John Pring’s new book to Parliament.

Thanks to you we did it!

On 2nd September 2024, Disabled campaigners from across the UK took 650 copies of The Department: How a Violent Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence by John Pring to Parliament. Each one was in a black envelope individually addressed to each MP as a contribution from Pluto publishers.

TV stars Cherylee Houston and Lisa Hammond turned up on the day to help us carry the books along with representatives from Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations supporting the initiative.

Contrary to the advice that we had been given on a number of occasions when different members had contacted Parliament to confirm how best to make the delivery, the books were denied entrance. This meant that the meeting we had booked for MPs to come and hear about the further social security cuts that are planned as a continuation from Tory policy was not able to happen.

Instead, campaigners took a spontaneous decision to blockade the entrance to Parliament. After hours of stand off with the police, Parliament security agreed to get a vehicle to collect the books and take them to the security centre that checks mail.

We are in the process of checking with MPs if they received their copies of the books. So far it looks as if they did. We are in the process of working out our remaining budget to send copies to devolved and regional administrations in the UK.

We apologise for not having updated you meanwhile. We are all volunteers who try our best to be active on top of living with our disablement and we apologise for not being able to do everything as good as we should. We are tremendously grateful for the money that was donated to this and the sacrifices people made.

Links to coverage:

ITV reports on Mum wants answers

DNS report on Disabled activists defy bureaucrats

DNS report on Commons confirms MPs received book

The Canary report on DWP protest at parliament

Big Issue reports on book to MPs

Disability Rights UK report on delivery of book

Disability Rights UK report on activists lobby parliament

26 Oct

Crippen asks again “Fraud – What Fraud?!”

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

They’re at it again, claiming that billions of pounds are being lost to fraudulant benefit claims, which includes those by people on long term sick and those who are disabled.

Where they get these figures from is a real mystery as the last government’s own figures showed that benefit fraud was at its lowest ever at less than 3.5%, much of which could be attributed to DWP error.

And you’ll remember it was ex-PM Rishi Sunak who claimed that millions were being  fraudulantly claimed through Personal Independent Payments (PIP) at the same time that DWP figures, released just days before Rishi Sunak called a general election, showed that overpayment of PIP due to fraud had dropped to Zero per cent, a fall from 0.2 per cent the previous year. 

So, where are they getting this misleading information from? Or, are they just making it all up? But why?

Perhaps it’s something about finding a scapegoat for the shambles that exists called ‘government’ and the billions of pounds that are lost, mis-appropriated or mis-managed by initially the Tory party and then the Labour party. The two words ‘piss-up’ and ‘brewery’ come to mind!

Or is it, as has been recently announced by Labour, just an excuse to access the bank accounts of all those who claim benefits? Just another example of the carrot being replaced by the stick once again?

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Keir Starmer is standing behind a BBC microphone holding in his hand a script with the words ‘Billions stolen on benefits’. Other pieces of paper are spewing out of a printer behind him with ‘Fraud, fraud, fraud’, ‘Disabled are all workshy scroungers’ and ‘disabled costing billions in fraudulant claims’. Sitting at a computer is Labour MP Liz Kendall who is saying: “I wonder what they’ll say if they ever find out that we’re just recycling old Tory lies?!”. Starmer replies: “Don’t start thinking Liz – just keep with the programme!”.

20 Oct

Crippen warns about the UK End of Life Bill

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized.

Disabled activists warned that a bill to allow assisted suicide for people with a terminal illness would pressure disabled people to end their lives prematurely, and that too little time had been set aside to understand its “far-reaching” implications.

Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) from across England and Wales have united to warn of the grave risks of proposed new legislation that would allow assisted suicide for people with a terminal illness. They believe parliament’s focus should be on improving access to health, care and other services. And they have outlined their ethical and human rights concerns in a briefing sent to MPs.

Kim Leadbeater’s terminally ill adults (end of life) bill received its first reading in the House of Commons yesterday (Wednesday) and is now set to be debated by MPs on 29 November. The bill would “allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life”.

Ellen Clifford, co-ordinator of the UN monitoring coalition, told Disability News Service (DNS):

“Parliament only gets one go at this and if they get it wrong the consequences will be very dangerous both for individual people vulnerable to abuse and society as a whole. Our support services – palliative care, the NHS, social care and mental health – are currently broken. The government must get on and fix the foundations, so we all have the chance to live with dignity.”

Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), a grassroots group of disabled activists who campaign against legalisation, said laws introduced in other countries have started with “relatively strict parameters” but then “expand and expand”.

Phil Friend, co-convenor of NDY UK, explained:

“ … in a world where there is growing awareness of coercive control, and where we know that many do not receive adequate or appropriate medical care, pain management or social care, we are creating the conditions for people to find themselves agreeing that, yes, they should probably die, including to avoid feeling like a burden.”

Paula Peters, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), said the proposed bill had caused “deep concern and alarm for many disabled people”. She added:

“It is impossible to put strong enough safeguards in place to prevent coercion and feeling that we have become a burden on our families and the state. We fear that non-disabled people will be making choices about what is best for us and that our voices will be dismissed as they often are.”

Read the full story in DNS

Members of the UN Monitoring Coalition include The Alliance for Inclusive Education, All Wales People First, Disabled People Against Cuts, Disabled People Against Cuts Northern Ireland, Disability Rights UK, Disability Wales, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Liberation and The Omnibus Partnership in Northern Ireland

DPOs who have spoken out against the Bill include Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), Disability Rights UK, All Wales People First, Liberation, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Disability Wales and the Coalition of UK DPOs that monitor implementation of the UN Disability Convention.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A balding, white male wheelchair user is travelling through a cemetery. A small sign in front of him says ‘Plots for Sale’. A larger sign alongside of him reads ‘Special discount – government discount for those disabled people who apply to take their plot earlier by signing a ‘do-not-resuscitate’ notice’.

20 Oct

Crippen shares an article by Bob Williams Findlay

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Written by Bob Williams-Findlay October 2024

“In this post, I want to cover a number of tensions and contradictions which I believe run through ‘disability politics’. As ever, I define disability politics as being the social and political action required to end the imposition of disablement and its prime agency, disablism. Together they create the conditions whereby disabled people are excluded from and/or marginalised within mainstream social activity. Hence our Movement argued that we are ‘disabled by society’. I share this slick mantra, but at the same time believe we need greater clarity.

“I have previously argued that one of the biggest contradictions within early disability politics and more modern times is that disabled people want to be included in a society which actively excludes them. Capitalism is directly responsible for disablement, however, at differing points the needs of Capital requires society to adjust the unequal and differential treatment disabled people encounter. Here is another contradiction: welfarism cushioned the experience of social exclusion, on the one hand, whilst maintaining it on the other.

“It is understandable that disabled people have pushed for deinstitutionalisation and social inclusion; but to what extent is that feasible? Capitalist social relations rely heavily on the ability of the lower classes to sell their labour. Disabled Marxists tend to argue that this ‘need’ underpins the creation of disablement and the legitimising of it through disablism – the negative evaluation of impaired bodies which justified our social exclusion. Yet, as I have stated already, at times these evaluatons are watered down to encourage or force more groups of disabled people into the labour market. The neoliberal agenda since 2010 has adopted the carrot and stick approach.

“There is much to discuss about ‘work’, what it is, alongside exploring the various benefits and detriments involved. I can’t address these issues here. There is a view that ‘work’ means a degree of security, improved health for some and greater spending power. For me the issue is not about whether or not disabled people can/should work, but rather the impact of disablism on people who are of working age – how are they being both judged and treated.

“In the film, “When Barbara Met Alan”, one of the slogans heard was: ‘we want, what you got’. This raises many issues in my opinion and relates to what I call the ‘disability dialectic’. Disabled people cannot fit into the status quo; if we could, then we would not be ‘disabled by society’. So we fight to ‘transform’ society which means going up against the interests of Capital. We have always fought for ‘betterment’; making our lives better, but only through overthrowing the status quo will it be possible to build an inclusive society.

“So the last contradiction I want to pose is: what does ‘nothing about us, without us’ actually mean in the context of opposing discrimination and oppression? Some want a seat at Liz Kendall’s Taskforce table; to do what exactly? Disabled people were not included in the agenda setting; it is highly unlikely that agenda will address institutional disablism in the labour market. When Rachel Hurst and I promoted political coproduction [the meaning of NAU,WU] it was not only agitational, it was underpinned by the demand for a shift in power relations. As a Trotskyist, I view ‘nothing about us, without us’ as a transitional demand because it challenges the existing oppressive relationships we are subjected to.

“I am not conviced the current disability politics practiced by today’s activists adequately address the structural nature of disablement when they go cap-in-hand demanding “Rights”. Rights are meaningless without the power to enforce them.

“The reason I co-founded DPAC was the unquestionable belief that we, disabled people, had to build a new social movement, foster a sense of community, and build alliances with allies. Over the last 15 years we have not made serious inroads because disability politics have lost their radical vision. Equally does not mean ‘sameness’; it is about people’s lives having ‘equal value’ and capitalism can never deliver that.”

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A caricature of Bob Williams-Findlay stands alongs side a large stone edifice wielding a large sledge hammer. The edifice comprises of large stone blocks, each block representing the points he has made in the accompanying article about oppression by capitalism. Bob is saying: “Let’s show these oppressors the real use of disability politics and smash this edifice to the ground!”

6 Oct

Crippen hears how Mo Stewart informs the new Advisory Board

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Remember how Labour decided to ignore disabled people when it sent out invitations for people to join their new Labour Market Advisory Board?

Well, our good friend disabled researcher Mo Stewart has now been invited to provide information to the Advisory Board regarding the identified public health crisis and preventable harm created by UK social policy primary legislation. Certainly a step in the right direction eh?!

The sort of information that Mo will be providing is well documented, mostly from her own work as research lead of the preventable harm project and from her many publications including ‘The public health crisis created by UK social policy reforms’.

Mo addresses her concerns to Professor Paul Gregg, Chair of the new Advisory Board and also Professor of Economic and Social Policy in the Dept of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath. She has kindly shared these concerns with me, which, with her permission I will now share with you.

Mo notes that the Advisory Board boasts significant members but no disabled member, and certainly no one with any expertise regarding the identified government induced public health crisis now ongoing in the UK. This crisis is negatively impacting on the health, wellbeing and survival of many of the chronically ill and disabled community who are unable to work.

It is also linked to a disturbing number of suicides of some of those in greatest need following relentless intimidation by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) when adopting the politics of fear using the fatally flawed Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to restrict disability benefit access. This was also identified by Professor Jonathan Portes as ‘one of the biggest social policy failures in the past 20-30 years.’

She also notes that Liz Kendall, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for the Labour administration, has invited the involvement of the new Advisory Board when working towards her planned White Paper. However, her comments since taking office demonstrates the same disturbing commentary as the previous Conservative administration regarding the numbers of people who claim disability benefits. This continuing demonisation of chronically ill and disabled people who are not in paid employment, is based on fake news and right-leaning ideology.

Mo tells Professor Gregg that, whilst she fully comprehends that he has a job to do, he should also consider that there has never been any evidence of vast numbers of fake disability benefit claims. That the hostile political rhetoric attacking disability benefit claimants adopted since 2010 by the various governments has worked well, as indicated by the rise in prosecuted disability hate crimes which climbed by 213% during the Coalition government‘s term in office (2010-15). All this of course aided by the tabloid press.

Mo concludes by reminding Professor Gregg that we are living in very dark and dangerous times since the adoption of neoliberal politics in the UK. This, coupled with the influence of corporate America with UK social policy reforms since 1992, and the adoption of social policies introduced using a fiscal priority whilst disregarding the health, wellbeing and survival of those in greatest need, has guaranteed that many people would be ‘killed by the state’ with no-one held to account.

Further, there is a disturbing history of preventable harm against those in greatest need created by successive UK neoliberal administrations and identified by a multitude of academics from a variety of universities, which is detailed in published evidence routinely disregarded by the DWP.

Well, that should give Professor Gregg and his colleagues on the Advisory Board food for thought. … Let’s see what they do with it?

NB: What’s also worrying is that years later, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for the Coalition administration is still attacking the disabled community ‘languishing on benefit’ in his column in the Telegraph, without providing any evidence. It would appear that this man has a habit of using false statistics to gain attention to his hostile rhetoric and has even been challenged by the UK Statistics Authority who identified his many claims advising that they were ‘unsupported by the official statistics’. It’s also worrying that he now appears to be an advisor to the Labour government.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Professor Paul Gregg, Chair of the new Labour Market Advisory Board is sat at a large table. He is wearing informal clothing and is holding a document that says ‘Preventable harm project’ whilst on the table in front of him are other documents reading ‘Killed by the state’ and ‘High rate of suicide’. Alongside of him are a suited man and a woman and also Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) who is wearing an ID badge with ‘DWP Advisor’ printed upon it. Gregg is asking: “So is someone going to tell me who this Mo Stewart is?!”. The man and the woman are both saying; “Er …” whilst IDS is thinking: “Oh shit!”

1 Oct

Crippen asks “Fraud – What Fraud?!

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , .

You may remember back in April of this year I ran a blog article about the DWP hiring more covert surveillance officers to track down disabled people who were fraudulently claiming benefits. At the time the government’s own figures showed that benefit fraud was at its lowest ever at less than 3.5%, much of which could be attributed to DWP error.

Well, having got rid of the Tory’s, we now have a labour government that has decided to continue with the harmful rhetoric that the DWP continue to pump out to a gullible public through the national press. But how did this attack against disabled people start, especially those claiming benefits because they cannot find accessible employment?

You’ll remember the Coalition administration elected in 2010? Well, it was this administration that started to change the public’s perception of disabled people. They vehemently challenged the integrity of the chronically ill and disabled community and routinely accused disability benefit claimants of fraud while failing to produce evidence to support their claims. Their often hostile rhetoric encouraged a 213 percent increase in prosecuted disability hate crimes, with successive administrations disregarded the thousands of deaths directly linked to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

And what with recent stats from the Home Office revealing that disability hate crime has risen by 43%. It doesn’t take much of a leap to connect this to the vitriol being pumped out by the DWP.

If you’ve read Mo Stewart’s book you’ll know how the WCA “ … was adopted using a discredited and dangerous biopsychosocial model of assessment to restrict access to long-term disability benefit. Influenced by corporate America since 1992, the UK social policy reforms guaranteed that many of those in greatest need were destined to die when, covertly, killed by the State.”

Sounds a bit dramatic, doesn’t it? “Killed by the state”. But this has exactly what has been happening since Margaret Thatcher started her devotion to neoliberal politics, which is the ideology that supports free market competition with an emphasis on minimal State intervention, would eventually be identified as being at ‘the root of all our problems’ (Monbiot, 2016).

Thatcher’s well-documented insistence that the welfare state was an unacceptable financial burden on the public purse, opened the door to the influence of corporate America with UK social policy reforms and the ‘planned demolition of the UK welfare state’ (Stewart, 2016).

Incidentally, every 30 years confidential Cabinet Papers from past UK governments are released into the public domain. In 2012, the 1982 Cabinet Papers from the first Thatcher administration (1979–83) were released, offering evidence demonstrating the political expectation to eventually demolish the UK welfare state, including the National Health Service (NHS).

It’s all there folks, you just have to dig for it as John Pring, disabled Editor of Disability News Service (DNS) and Mo Stewart, disabled researcher and lead on the Preventable Harm project, have done. Mo writes:

“Thatcher’s social policy right-leaning neoliberal legacy has been continued by every successive administration. This included introducing American corporate influence for the development of UK social policy reforms by the Major administration (1990–97) (Stewart, 2018); the adoption of American social and labour market policies by the Blair administration (1997–2007) (Daguerre, 2004; Daguerre and Taylor-Gooby, 2004); the adoption of the Work Capability Assessment in 2008 to limit access to the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) disability benefit by the Brown administration (2007–10) (Gentleman, 2011); and the increased use of sanctions, which removed all income to successfully intimidate disability benefit claimants, and to starve some of them to death (Pring, 2020a), by the Cameron-Clegg Coalition administration (2010–15).”

In the Independent Living review of John Pring’s book they comment that: “As demonstrated in the ‘Department’, a disturbing number of chronically ill disability benefit claimants committed suicide, linked in no small measure to persecution by the DWP, and to the fear instilled by the relentless threat of sanctions that meant the total loss of their only income which guaranteed destitution.”

Description of cartoon for those people using screen reading software

The PM Keir Starmer and a Civil Servant are standing each side of a large Labour Part Press Release statement hung on the wall. It reads ‘Disabled benefits claimants are all work-shy scroungers with most of them fiddling the system and taking your hard earned money!’ On a table in front of them are four other cards. One reads: ‘Benefit fraud at its lowest rate ever’, another reads: ‘PIP fraud at zero!’, the third one reads ‘Disability hate crime up 43%’, and the final card reads: ‘DWP ignores research re 600 suicides linked to WCA’. The civil servant is asking the PM: “But Sir – what about the facts?!” whilst pointing at the cards upon the table. Starmer replies: “Facts – when have they ever played a part in politics?!”

28 Sep

Crippen discovers why we’re all so punch drunk!

Posted by crippencartoons in Uncategorized.

Our friends at Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) have been monitoring the language being used by the government recently.

Phrases like “punching down” and “hostile environment” appear amongst the usual retoric, along with the carbon copies of speeches once used by the Tory party.

Of course, I couldn’t resist using one of these phrases for a cartoon!

Interested in joining DPAC? Here’s the link.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Kier Starmer PM is seen holding up a small wheelchair user by the scruff of his neck. Starmer is wearing a large boxing glove and the disabled person has a prominent black eye. Starmer is saying: “It’s what we refer to in the Labour Party as punching down!”

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