Well today was the day disabled people dreaded. After showboating in all the right-wing rags about Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) cuts, and telling the Sun that “we cannot keep footing the bill for jobless Britain”, Reeves took to the lectern on Wednesday 29 January and delivered her plan for growth.
Rachel Reeves: a DWP ‘crackdown’
For the last few months disabled people have been once again living in fear that our benefits would be cut, as the new Labour Party government have continued to be vague as fuck about their plans except to say they would be ‘Completely Different’ to Tory plans (spoiler: they aren’t).
Over the weekend we thought we were getting a taster of the bile Reeves was going to spew this week when she took to the Sun to tell the public she would be among other thing, “will expose how the Conservatives lost complete control of the benefits bill”.
She told the shitrag:
Next week I will tell the country that when it comes to our welfare system, I will not hesitate to act, as we have done to restore the public finances.
That includes looking closely at the rising cost of health and disability benefits.
This is an urgent problem. It can’t be ignored. We can’t walk around it, as the Tories did. We’ve got to grip it, once and for all.
So when today came around, we all waited anxiously to hear what was in store for disabled people on benefits and… well we got cast aside for a flashy new Heathrow runway.
But where was it?
When Reeves did mention the DWP and welfare it was of course in relation to work – and forcing everyone into work.
She said
Our businesses can only realise these opportunities if they can recruit the skilled staff they need.
In amongst talking about creating a national jobs and careers service (which I’m pretty sure already exists) she warned:
We will deliver fundamental reform of our welfare system, that includes looking at areas that have been ducked for too long, like the rising cost of health and disability benefits.
She said, as we already know, that Liz Kendall will set out plans “to address this ahead of the spring statement”.
She also spoke about her new meaningless word GROWTH, and said it was about “making working people better off”. So basically, sod off if you can’t work. The fact is thought these big buzz words and promises to grow the economy don’t mean shit to those who are actually struggling.
So that begs the question, why did she run to the Sun promising to crack down on benefit fraud and to “get a grip” on benefits spending if instead the focus was going to be on jobs and airport runways?
Well it’s simple.
The speech was never going to be about disability benefits, but they needed the press to think it was.
A DWP dogwhistle
Labour are, in my opinion, being deliberately vague about their benefits plans, as that leaves the most room for not only speculation, but for the press to do their job for them and get the public onside.
While Labour take their time to tell us their plans it means they have more time to throw out soundbites like Kendall’s “there isn’t an option of a life on benefits”. It means they can quietly support the latest report from IDS-founded think tank the Centre for Social Justice, which attacks mental health.
The report argues that DWP PIP shouldn’t be available to those with mental health issues. In the last few months we’ve seen many claims that mental health issues are overdramatised and played on to get benefits. So, this will surely ramp up and the government can just let this play out.
At the end of the day, Reeves speaking to the press at the weekend was nothing more than a right-wing dog whistle with the aim of dividing those who are struggling so they don’t look up.
While anyone with an ounce of sense can see that they’re throwing all sorts of plans at the wall and seeing what sticks with the economy, it’s less obvious that they’re once again making disabled people the enemy.
Whilst it might feel like disabled people got let off the hook today, it just feels like another attempt to make us the enemy.
With reforms not due to be announced until the end of March, it feels like it’s going to be a stressful few months for disabled people – who will only be vilified even more in the press.
Featured image via the Canary
