New Worker Banner

The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Back to the Workhouse

by New Worker correspondent

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) thinks we should be grateful for the new Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill as almost four million households are to benefit from uprating of the Universal Credit standard rate, and that “more than 200,000 people with most severe, lifelong conditions to be protected from future reassessment for Universal Credit entitlement”. Others are not convinced.

Among its ‘benefits’ will be a 13-week period of financial support for those affected by PIP changes as part of upcoming welfare reforms and a £1 billion employment support package to “unlock opportunity and grow the economy”. But the DWP openly declares that even people unable to wash half their body or cook a meal for themselves will be denied PIP if they have no other disabilities.

Even the Government’s own press releases give the game away. The promised 13-week period of additional protection “will give people who will be affected by the changes time to adapt”, which suggests that they can expect tough times “once they are reassessed and their entitlement ends”.

The government claims that the social security system is broken. In particular since the pandemic, too many are claiming Personal Independence Payments (PIP). This was introduced in 2012 to assist adults coping with the extra costs of living with a health condition or a disability. From the beginning it was plagued with difficulties.

Tough assessments, carried out by commercial companies, made life hard for claimants – particularly those with mental health problems. A high proportion of appeals against rejections were successful, which confirms they were conducted too harshly. The Government claims that it will be funding greater personalised employment support are not accepted by those at the sharp end.

At the annual TUC Disabled Worker’s Conference, Social Security Minister Sir Stephen Timms did not dare show his face in person and only addressed the conference by electronic means, and that with a recorded message. He claims that only 10 per cent of those receiving PIP will lose it and on a more positive note 165,000 more disabled people will be in work in five years’ time.

Timms had the brass neck to respond to calls for increased taxation on the rich to boast that this had already been done by introducing VAT on private schools and jets, exemptions on inheritance tax and the doubling of stamp duty on second homes, all of which are very modest measures.

There is also strong evidence that, contrary to its public statements in the Green Paper, ministers are planning to means-test PIP, which would restrict it only to the poorest and most disabled.

This became apparent after a Freedom of Information request showed that ministers and civil servants have been thinking along these lines for years (before Labour came to power), which demonstrates the measure is not the radical plan Labour claims. Labour’s latest proposals bear more than a passing resemblance to 2021 Tory plans to merge PIP with Universal Credit.

The Disability News Service (DNS) reports that participants in focus groups had been asked questions about who are the deserving sick.

Disabled activist groups claim the Government’s consultations have been more of a “consult-a-sham” than the real thing. The only one scheduled for Wales was cancelled.

Speaking for the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Rick Burgess said that: “The architects of these policies have two disablist beliefs, that the state should spend less on disabled people and that any benefit for people unable to work incentivises people to claim it, so that must be eliminated.”

Svetlana Kotova of Inclusion London pointed out that: “Pushing people who are ill into poverty and destitution does not bring them closer to work. If the government were willing to improve disabled people’s lives, it would invest in removing the barriers we face in the workplace and society,” but “instead, they choose to cut essential benefits and support.”

A spokesman for the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance said that “after 14 years of Tory austerity, Labour is now carrying on where they left off and stepping it up to a new level”. He also pointed out that: “The only concrete commitment in their manifesto was to consult and co-produce disability policy with disabled people’s organisations. It took them less than a year to trash this pledge and do the opposite.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall claims “this legislation represents a new social contract and marks the moment we take the road of compassion, opportunity and dignity” but not everybody is convinced. Opposition is mounting, beyond the ranks of the usual suspects and the increasingly well organised disability groups. Many normally loyal Labour MPs are waking up to the drastic impact this measure will have on their majorities, sorry, disabled constituents. Vicky Foxcroft, former shadow disability minister, resigned as a junior whip in protest about the measure saying she could not support the cuts that could affect more than a million people.

At Monday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Kendall attempted to rally support for the drastic cuts by brazenly claiming that: “Our plans are rooted in fairness, for those who need support and for taxpayers. They are about ensuring the welfare state survives, so there is always a safety net for those who need it. They’re about putting proper safeguards in place to protect the most vulnerable.” Surprisingly there were no reports of her nose growing after she made these claims.

By Wenesday no less than 127 Labour MPs, almost a half of those with no ministerial responsibilities, have put their names to what is effectively a wrecking amendment. These include 13 Labour Chairs of Committee, and some Ministers might just think about joining them in the lobbies.

Even the normally faithful Mayor of London has warned the cuts would “destroy [the] financial safety net” of “too many disabled Londoners”.

Only 87 Labour rebels are sufficient to sink the measure, but that depends on whether they really will stand up to threats of de-selection.

Echoing Margaret Thatcher, Chancellor, Rachel Reeves refused to make any concessions, declaring: “There will be no U-turn. We’re voting on it next week.”

Starmer could be in the embarrassing position of the measure passing thanks to the kind offer by Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch of Tory support, if he would only make some modest promise about not raising taxes…