An attack on the sick and disabled has stained Rachel Reeves’s first Budget.
Her decision to tighten the requirements of the Work Capability Assessment for these benefits, and to investigate sick and disabled people for fraud when it is practically nonexistent in their benefit claims, has is hugely unpopular already.
As This Writer stated on X, “Rachel Reeves announces changes to the Work Capability Assessment and a crackdown on practically-nonexistent fraud in benefits. This is not clever. Sick and disabled people genuinely need help, not persecution.”
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
This is the most popular post I have published about the Budget – and I appreciate the following response to it:
Disability rights organisations including Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Black Triangle and others wrote to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall – and to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, detailing what attacks on sick and disabled people will mean – including many deaths:
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the proposed changed to the WCA will have affected more than 450,000 new Disabled claimants by 2028-29. Many of these will lose hundreds of pounds a month with only around 15,400 able to escape into paid work.
It is clear that these measures will do nothing to address current labour shortages.
The planned changes will also unquestionably lead to more benefit deaths, a characteristic of the UK social security system which is the subject of an ongoing inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
163,000 of those affected by the changes will be people in the “substantial risk” group.
These are not people with “mild” mental health conditions, as portrayed in sections of the media. These are people at substantial risk of harm if coerced into looking for work. They include victims of child and sexual abuse and those carrying severe trauma.
Expectations on this group to engage with job centres will increase. This is entirely inappropriate; it takes years of specialist training for counsellors and therapists to learn how to engage safely with this group of people which work coaches do not have.
The new measures will unquestionably cause additional incidences of self-injury and attempted suicide among claimants while contributing to the mental health and recruitment crises among DWP staff.
The letter goes on to point out that attacking sick and disabled people is unlikely to save any money: savings will be offset by an increase in benefit appeals and a rise in demand on the National Health Service, social care and mental health services.
So this particular part of the Budget will help nobody.
Instead, as the letter states, it is “pandering to populist narratives that deny disability and demonise disabled claimants”.
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Attack on the sick and disabled has stained Rachel Reeves’s first Budget
An attack on the sick and disabled has stained Rachel Reeves’s first Budget.
Her decision to tighten the requirements of the Work Capability Assessment for these benefits, and to investigate sick and disabled people for fraud when it is practically nonexistent in their benefit claims, has is hugely unpopular already.
As This Writer stated on X, “Rachel Reeves announces changes to the Work Capability Assessment and a crackdown on practically-nonexistent fraud in benefits. This is not clever. Sick and disabled people genuinely need help, not persecution.”
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
This is the most popular post I have published about the Budget – and I appreciate the following response to it:
Disability rights organisations including Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Black Triangle and others wrote to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall – and to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, detailing what attacks on sick and disabled people will mean – including many deaths:
The letter goes on to point out that attacking sick and disabled people is unlikely to save any money: savings will be offset by an increase in benefit appeals and a rise in demand on the National Health Service, social care and mental health services.
So this particular part of the Budget will help nobody.
Instead, as the letter states, it is “pandering to populist narratives that deny disability and demonise disabled claimants”.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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