It’s been coming for a while, as the amount of news stories about how many disabled and chronically ill people are ‘languishing’ on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits ramped up. The rhetoric is clear: sick and disabled people are lazy liars who want to take taxpayers for a ride. So, last night a story broke in the Telegraph that Rishi is vowing to end ‘sicknote culture’ which is confusing to many disabled people as the DWP has intentionally called them ‘fit notes’ for years.
But this was just the soft launch of Rishi’s whole evil plan, with the hard launch conveniently coming at the ‘grim reaper’ Iain Duncan Smith-founded Centre for Social Justice on Friday 19 April.
‘People aren’t any more sick than they were a decade ago’ Rishi lies
Rishi started his speech by once again parroting the old chestnut that ‘the rate of people on sickness benefits has trebled in a decade, which makes no sense as people aren’t getting sicker’.
This is so fucking untrue that I can’t even comprehend being this ignorant to the suffering of the common man. To deny people are not any sicker after 14 years of Tory austerity, harsher DWP benefit changes, a sodding pandemic that made millions ill, and of course a cost of living crisis which means were having to choose between heating and eating.
A main defence for this is that Rishi and the government are saying too many people are claiming to be anxious and depressed. Yes Rishi, those of us who aren’t worth £700m are severely depressed.
So what are his proposed DWP ‘reforms’?
First, a consultation on Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
It might seem weird that PIP is being discussed alongside DWP unemployment benefits. However, it’s not when you consider that they’ve been trying to sneakily make it means-tested for years now.
As a result, a consultation will be published soon with proposed changes to the eligibility criteria, assessment, and types of support.
There’s whispers of one-off payments to help with adaptations. But that isn’t what PIP is for. It’s supposed to support us with long-term ongoing costs.
Don’t want to accept the first shit job the DWP foists on you? No benefits for you.
Rishi says that the next Tory government (hopefully in a long time) will legislate to make sure those who’ve been on DWP benefits for over a year and don’t want to accept jobs, no matter how suitable they are, will have their benefits removed.
Activists have predicted this for a long time, because life would be much easier for the Tories if disabled people all died. It’s almost hilarious that he talked about how supported into work disabled people will be – when the Access to Work scheme backlog is two-to-three years.
GPs are “too close” to their own patients, apparently
Rishi said he was also going to change who gave out fit notes. This is allegedly because doctors are ‘too close’ to their patients and often felt pressured to provide one. Not only is this questioning the judgement of qualified doctors but it’s implying people even have the time in this stretched NHS to get close to a doctor.
The alternative to this is that newly appointed DWP assessors will provide fit notes. If they’re anything like benefits assessors they’ll no doubt have no specialist knowledge of conditions – instead, working from tick boxes.
A call for evidence on fit notes is now live. It’s open to disabled people, carers and medical professionals and closes on 8th July. I urge anyone who can to respond to it here.
A desperate grab for votes
What Rishi’s done today is declare sick and disabled people the enemy of working people. Disabled people such as myself, who already live in fear of being attacked in the street and not performing disability well enough for the DWP, are even further terrified.
Rishi’s announcement today is a desperate grab for votes, whilst making disabled people out to be the ones who are stealing all the money.
Let’s not ask him about his Tory donor pals who’ve just had their assets frozen and are being investigated for fraud, eh?
Featured image via the Canary
