I will be honest with you and say that the title for this blog comes from a very powerful and extremely well written book by disability campaigner, Ellen Clifford
I think that many people, myself included, were delighted to see the back of the last Conservative Government which came across as cruel, incompetent and uncaring.
Their attacks on disabled people were unwarranted and unjustified. They just saw disabled people as an easy target, a group of predominantly vulnerable people who were easy prey for their nasty politics – they certainly lived up to the title of ‘the nasty party’
Like many people, I hoped that the election of a new government would lead to change of attitude, in fact that at least a ceasefire would be declared in the Government’s War on Disabled People.
To be perfectly honest with you, I am very disappointed that the new Government did not:
Scrap the PIP Consultation
Commit to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People into UK law
Commit to reform the Social Security system so that it is based on the principles of the social model of disability and not the ableist assumptions which it currently embraces.
Commit to implement as much of the Disabled People’s Manifesto’s proposals as possible within this Parliament
Pledge to fully implement the BSL Act and make the learning of BSL widely available including through schools and workplaces.
Promise to end the disability, ethnicity and gender pay gaps
The sad reality is that the new Government appears to be carrying on what the Conservative Government started and are continuing to wage the ‘War On Disabled People’
In her budget speech the Chancellor said:
"We inherited the last government’s plan to reform the work capability assessment. We will deliver the savings as part of our fundamental reform to the health and disability benefits system that my right honourable friend the work and pensions secretary will bring forward.”
At this time we do not know whether the Chancellor intends to achieve the cuts, because they are cuts not savings, through implementing the Conservative’s proposals or whether they will be achieved in a different way
The reality we are facing is that the changes to the Work Capability Assessment first proposed by the previous Conservative government, will affect an estimated 453,000 Disabled people estimated by 2028/29. We understand that the out of work benefits for severely disabled people will be cut by more than 50% as part of the Chancellor’s £3 billion welfare ‘budget savings’
After 14 years of a conservative government that saw attack after attack on Disabled people, from benefit cuts to the disproportionate deaths of disabled people during the Coronavirus pandemic, we hoped that the new Labour government would ‘do the right thing’ concerning disability equality and rights.
You may recall that the DWP Secretary of State was also threatening to send ‘work coaches’ into mental health hospitals – can you believe it? In the immortal words of John McEnroe 'You cannot be serious!'
I do not know how many readers of this blog have read ‘The Department’ by John Pring the editor of Disability News Service which exposes what I have described as the ‘Institutional Inhumanity’ of the DWP
The most recent example of this has happened last week when the DWP were ordered to disclose key documents about “dehumanising” plans to reform Work Capability Assessment.
I quote from the statement issued by Ellen Clifford and Disabled People Against Cuts:
“During a hearing about the “rushed and disingenuous” consultation used to justify proposals to tighten the Work Capability Assessment, the DWP was ordered by a judge to disclose key internal documents to Ellen Clifford, a disabled activist bringing a legal challenge over the consultation. The DWP had not done any employment or disability assessments of the proposals they wished to consult on before the consultation was launched.
They did, however, undertake reviews to work out what savings may be made from the proposals before consulting. This included estimating how many Deaf and Disabled people may no longer be assessed as having limited capacity for work or work-related activity, if the proposals were implemented.
No information about potential savings or numbers impacted was provided to consultees as part of the consultation process.”
This is not only despicable and inhumane but totally unacceptable behaviour by the now former Conservative Government. What makes matters worse is, that as you will have seen earlier in this blog, that the new Labour Government are committed to making these changes to the Work Capability Assessment and to continue the attack on disabled people.
The truth is that whilst the ‘War On Disabled People’ probably started in the late eighties, with the attack on disability benefits, this attack became relentless and it now appears that it is going to continue under the new Labour Government.
Unfortunately the election of a new Government has not brought an end to the ‘War on Disabled People’, it has not even brought a ceasefire.
The simple truth is that we must remain vigilant in challenging this Government and demanding Real Change
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