IN 2016 the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities produced a damning report, which concluded that disabled people in this country faced systematic discrimination on multiple levels.
A follow up in 2024 concluded that Britain;
has failed to take all appropriate measures to address grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities and has failed to eliminate the root causes of inequality and discrimination.
The UN committee hearing in March 2024 noted how hundreds of disabled people had killed themselves due to sanctions and other repressive measures of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which really should be called the Department for War on the Poor.
The deep levels of poverty in this country are shocking.
According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation;
We saw from our latest Destitution in the UK report that around 3.8 million people experienced destitution (where they could not afford to meet their most basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed) in 2022.
In October 2023, 2.8 million people were in arrears with their bills, 4.2 million were going without essentials while 3.4 million households reported that they didn’t have enough money for food.
Meanwhile food bank use is off the charts.
What is the new government doing about this? Well that can be summed up by Liz Kendall, Secretary Works and Pensions, when she said the government would no longer tolerate people “taking the mickey”.
Benefits are to be increased this year by a miserly 1.7% when officially inflation is at 2.5% and forecast to rise.
Also, despite the High Court finding the previous governments changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) illegal, the Labour government has announced a new review. This is being done to cut billions off the benefits bill, driving large numbers of people ever deeper into poverty.
Hannah Sharland at The Canary has observed that Labour’s plan to further cut benefits;
…perfectly encapsulates how the new Labour government is completely wedded to this neoliberal economic ideology. It is austerity-driven welfare cuts through and through – without any regard to the true costs. And of course, the true costs will be disabled people’s lives.”
Already Labour has refused to lift the two-child cap on parents claiming universal credit, condemning hundreds of thousands of children to poverty, and cutting the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners
Liz Kendall and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, have made it clear between them that people on sickness benefits are a burden on our society and that the money spent on sick people claiming universal credit, employment support allowance and personal independence payments could be better spent on more “important things” in our society.
Reeves has gone further in one of her statements regarding the autumn Budget warning that she would “look closely at our welfare system, because if someone can work, they should work.” The insinuation being disabled people claiming benefits are a bunch of skivers who choose not to work as a lifestyle choice.
As Amy Wells, senior communications and membership manager for National Survivor User Network said;
Little regard is being paid to whether it is possible or beneficial for disabled people to get ‘back into work,’ furthering the rhetoric that people are not valuable beyond their contributions to the economy.
Rumours are floating that people with mental health problems will not be accepted as a category under future disabled benefits plans. I think there will be a lot of resistance to that. If true this would throw some of the most fragile people into destitution.
It’s worth noting that this all takes place in the context of the pandemic and the legacy that it left on society
Not only did it cost the country financially in lost revenue, but it has left behind a legacy of poorer health. No wonder the benefits bill has been climbing and it has nothing to do with people wanting to skive, but they can't admit the real reason so they have gone on the attack. This coming from the hands of a government/Labour Party that is meant to be all about helping the most vulnerable in our society.
