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How cynical: The Labour government is trying to bribe rebellious backbenchers into supporting its planned attack on disability benefit claimants with an offer to expand free school meals to children in families receiving Universal Credit.
According to the i paper, the announcement is not the result of careful planning or compassion.
Instead, it is part of a calculated effort by Labour ministers to placate backbenchers outraged by upcoming votes on cuts to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and the Universal Credit health element — changes that could drive hundreds of thousands of people into deep poverty, hardship, and crisis.
This is not policymaking for the people.
It is party management – and it’s happening at the expense of some of the most vulnerable people in the country.
A school meal for their silence?
The £1 billion school meals pledge is being sold as a major anti-poverty move – but is it?
It doesn’t start until September 2026 – and it still relies on means-testing and an application process that many families will miss or avoid due to language barriers, digital exclusion, or shame.
Labour could have announced a universal, automatic programme, starting this year — like London already has.
It could have scrapped the two-child benefit cap, a measure the Institute for Fiscal Studies says would be more cost-effective at reducing child poverty than expanding free school meals.
But instead, Labour chose the cheaper headline, delayed implementation by over a year, and kept the stigma intact.
Why? Because the point of the policy isn’t to reduce poverty.
The point is to buy time and buy silence — especially from MPs who are deeply uncomfortable with the direction Labour is taking on disability.
Cutting PIP won’t save money — but will break lives
Let’s be clear: cutting PIP and the Universal Credit health element will not save the country any money at all.
It will simply shift the cost:
-
To GPs and A&E departments overwhelmed by people in crisis.
-
To local councils that are already buckling under rising demand for social care.
-
To charities and food banks trying to fill the gaps.
The idea that people are “faking” disability to get extra cash — the implied justification for these cuts — is a myth with deadly consequences. The DWP’s own figures show the amount of fraud in the disability benefit system is negligible.
And the benefit system is already deeply hostile and invasive, riddled with assessment failures, wrongful sanctions, and degrading treatment.
Labour is not only continuing this system — it is threatening to double down on it. And it thinks a free school dinner will make that acceptable to disgruntled party backbenchers.
Will it?
Will Winter Fuel Payments be next?
This isn’t the only example of Labour trying to offer crumbs to cover up cuts.
-
The government has been floating changes to Winter Fuel Payments for vulnerable elderly people, after radically cutting eligibility for them last year, in another bid to placate backbenchers.
-
Again, announcements of “help” are starting to look increasingly like distractions, designed to obscure the dismantling of what’s left of the social safety net.
Austerity in all but name
Labour has said repeatedly that “there is no money” — an old lie with a new face.
There’s no money to:
-
Fund teaching staff
-
Raise benefits in line with inflation
-
Scrap the two-child benefit limit
-
Properly support disabled people
But there is money for:
-
£1 billion on a delayed meals scheme
-
Subsidies for private companies
-
Public-private partnerships that benefit donors
-
A growing surveillance state to police claimants
- And let’s not forget the £15 billion on plans for war, and a further £15 billion for rich developers to build transport projects in the north and west of England.
This is Tory austerity in all but name — and it’s being rolled out by a party that once claimed to represent working-class and marginalised people.
Don’t fall for it
A free school meal is no substitute for a decent income.
It won’t pay the heating bill.
It won’t replace the independence stolen when PIP is cut.
It won’t erase the cruelty of means-testing and the surveillance of the poor.
Labour is betting that voters and MPs can be distracted with food handouts and warm words.
But the disabled people whose support is being stripped away won’t be fooled — and nor should you.
This isn’t a government fighting poverty.
It’s one managing optics.
And it’s doing it at the expense of the people who need the most protection.
Share this post:
Labour’s ‘school meals’ bribe mustn’t stop the fight against its betrayal of disabled people
Share this post:
How cynical: The Labour government is trying to bribe rebellious backbenchers into supporting its planned attack on disability benefit claimants with an offer to expand free school meals to children in families receiving Universal Credit.
According to the i paper, the announcement is not the result of careful planning or compassion.
Instead, it is part of a calculated effort by Labour ministers to placate backbenchers outraged by upcoming votes on cuts to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and the Universal Credit health element — changes that could drive hundreds of thousands of people into deep poverty, hardship, and crisis.
This is not policymaking for the people.
It is party management – and it’s happening at the expense of some of the most vulnerable people in the country.
A school meal for their silence?
The £1 billion school meals pledge is being sold as a major anti-poverty move – but is it?
It doesn’t start until September 2026 – and it still relies on means-testing and an application process that many families will miss or avoid due to language barriers, digital exclusion, or shame.
Labour could have announced a universal, automatic programme, starting this year — like London already has.
It could have scrapped the two-child benefit cap, a measure the Institute for Fiscal Studies says would be more cost-effective at reducing child poverty than expanding free school meals.
But instead, Labour chose the cheaper headline, delayed implementation by over a year, and kept the stigma intact.
Why? Because the point of the policy isn’t to reduce poverty.
The point is to buy time and buy silence — especially from MPs who are deeply uncomfortable with the direction Labour is taking on disability.
Cutting PIP won’t save money — but will break lives
Let’s be clear: cutting PIP and the Universal Credit health element will not save the country any money at all.
It will simply shift the cost:
To GPs and A&E departments overwhelmed by people in crisis.
To local councils that are already buckling under rising demand for social care.
To charities and food banks trying to fill the gaps.
The idea that people are “faking” disability to get extra cash — the implied justification for these cuts — is a myth with deadly consequences. The DWP’s own figures show the amount of fraud in the disability benefit system is negligible.
And the benefit system is already deeply hostile and invasive, riddled with assessment failures, wrongful sanctions, and degrading treatment.
Labour is not only continuing this system — it is threatening to double down on it. And it thinks a free school dinner will make that acceptable to disgruntled party backbenchers.
Will it?
Will Winter Fuel Payments be next?
This isn’t the only example of Labour trying to offer crumbs to cover up cuts.
The government has been floating changes to Winter Fuel Payments for vulnerable elderly people, after radically cutting eligibility for them last year, in another bid to placate backbenchers.
Again, announcements of “help” are starting to look increasingly like distractions, designed to obscure the dismantling of what’s left of the social safety net.
Austerity in all but name
Labour has said repeatedly that “there is no money” — an old lie with a new face.
There’s no money to:
Fund teaching staff
Raise benefits in line with inflation
Scrap the two-child benefit limit
Properly support disabled people
But there is money for:
£1 billion on a delayed meals scheme
Subsidies for private companies
Public-private partnerships that benefit donors
A growing surveillance state to police claimants
This is Tory austerity in all but name — and it’s being rolled out by a party that once claimed to represent working-class and marginalised people.
Don’t fall for it
A free school meal is no substitute for a decent income.
It won’t pay the heating bill.
It won’t replace the independence stolen when PIP is cut.
It won’t erase the cruelty of means-testing and the surveillance of the poor.
Labour is betting that voters and MPs can be distracted with food handouts and warm words.
But the disabled people whose support is being stripped away won’t be fooled — and nor should you.
This isn’t a government fighting poverty.
It’s one managing optics.
And it’s doing it at the expense of the people who need the most protection.
Share this post:
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