A chronically ill, disability rights activist has launched a vital new petition. It’s to urge the Labour Party government to “halt” the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) brutal benefits cuts to disabled people unable to work.
What’s more, it’s with some irony that the call to stop these cruel cuts comes straight from the heart of none other than DWP boss Liz Kendall’s own constituency. That is, the chronically ill activist behind the petition is Kendall’s constituent. And, she fears – like countless others – that the work and pensions secretary’s plans will strip her of the disability benefits she relies on.
DWP benefit cuts: a vital new petition
In March, DWP boss Liz Kendall finally laid out the government’s sweeping catalogue of plans to ‘reform’ disability and health-related income-based benefits. It set this out in its Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working green paper.
Broadly, this made for a callous combination of catastrophic cuts that will harm chronically ill and disabled claimants.
The government is now consulting on some of these DWP plans until 30 June. You can respond to this here. Scandalously however, it isn’t consulting on many of its most dangerous proposals. Of course, this is those that will hit chronically ill and disabled people hardest.
So now, one chronically ill disability rights activists has taken action against the government’s atrocious plans.
‘Support, not hardship and deprivation’
Chronically ill and disabled Leicester West resident Abi Broomfield has started a parliamentary petition.
This demands that the Labour Party government stop the cuts it has set out. In particular, Broomfield has honed in on some of the worst, most damaging proposals. Notably, these are largely cuts that will leave chronically ill and disabled people unable to work worse off. Or, it will otherwise deny people benefit entitlements entirely.
Notably, the petition reads:
We want the Government to halt all planned benefit cuts for disabled people unable to work. Instead of reducing benefits, we want them to rise in line with inflation. We want support, not hardship and deprivation, for those who cannot work.
We feel that disabled people who cannot work should not have their benefits cut. Acquired Disabilities can end careers, and we feel that those who previously contributed to tax deserve support. We also believe that people born Disabled need steady support without cuts.
Alarmingly, the government’s own Impact Assessment has already revealed the devastating impacts of these cuts on vulnerable populations. For households with disabled members, this is arguably the most stark.
By 2029/30, 3.2 million families (some current, some future claimants) who will lose average of £1,720 per year from DWP benefits in real terms. Of these, a staggering 96% (3.1 million) have at least one family member who is disabled. This equates to 20% of all households with disabled family member.
Households with at least one disabled family member also lose £100 more on average per year than households without a disabled family member. But by comparison, just 1.8 million (48% of total affected) households with a disabled family member purportedly gain from the changes. It means that just 12% of households with disabled family members benefit from the changes.
Disabled people ‘should not be punished for being unable to work’
To top it all off, the government has manipulated its own figures. Specifically, it has deliberately misrepresented the number its cuts will push into poverty. So while it has estimated that it will throw 250,000 – including 50,000 children – into poverty, the reality is likely much higher.
The assessment doesn’t differentiate how many of these are chronically ill and disabled people unable to work. Nonetheless, it’s likely many of those losing out will be those in the LCWRA category. In other words, it will be people who can’t work.
None of this is to even mention the compounding impacts of fourteen years of Conservative class war on welfare. Nor does it take into account repeated below inflation benefit rises and the lingering after-effects of the partly pandemic-induced cost of living crisis. So, as the petition continues:
We feel the pandemic widened the gap between current financial support and the extra cost of living for Disabled people; these proposed cuts will worsen this. We think forcing people to work will strain the fragile NHS and that Disabled people should not be punished for being unable to work.
DWP cuts will only cause more harm and deaths
Broomfield told the Canary what compelled her to set up the DWP-based petition. Firstly, she highlighted that:
Not everyone can work, and this Labour government is penalising Disabled people because of this very fact.
And notably, the government’s plans will directly affect her too:
As it currently stands, I, along with hundreds of thousands of others, will be losing my PIP entitlement. I rely on mine to help pay for some of the additional costs I face due to my disabilities.
Moreover, Broomfield spelled out the brutal reality of these DWP cuts as entirely contrary to Labour’s ‘back-to-work’ claims:
These cuts won’t get Disabled people into work; instead, they will cause serious physical and mental harm, and even deaths within our community. Plus, it’s going to seriously damage an already vulnerable NHS and care sector as Disabled people facing these cuts will inevitably have to rely on them more.
On top of this, Broomfield took the decision to launch the petition because the government has left chronically ill and disabled people with no other participatory democratic recourse:
Another crucial reason why I started this petition is that the government is ignoring us and has conducted little to no research about the benefits they’re cutting and the devastating outcomes this will cause. As parliamentary petitions are the only ones that the government has a legal obligation to respond to and listen to, I’ve gone down this route.
Plus, Broomfield has the unfortunate disadvantage of living in the constituency of one particular parliamentary representative: Liz Kendall. Needless to say, she’s one MP who won’t be convinced to challenge the cuts:
I want to challenge this government, especially my own MP Liz Kendall, to not enforce these Draconian measures but to actually uplift Disability benefits to match the actual real-life costs associated with being Disabled.
Sign the petition and send the Labour Party the message it can’t get away with it
Now, the petition needs as many people as possible to sign it. Currently, the petition is just shy of 1,000 signatures. At 10,000, the government must issue a response. If more than 100,000 people sign it, the government will have to consider it for a debate in parliament.
Together then, signees can send a strong, uncompromising message to the Labour Party government. In no uncertain terms, they can tell it that the public overwhelmingly opposes its callous DWP cuts.
To date, Labour ministers’ response to the outcry hasn’t engendered much to be hopeful about. So far, they have only exhibited the government’s glaring wilful obtuseness.
However, the petition could at least expose this government for the scapegoating neoliberal charlatan it really is. It will ensure that never again can the Labour Party claim to listen to and champion the rights of chronically ill and disabled communities across the UK.
You can add your name to the petition here.
Featured image via the Canary
