Labour Benefits Betrayal To Leave ONE MILLION Struggling.

Right, so the Labour Party, formerly the party of social justice, equality, and support for the most vulnerable in society, appears to still be bent on slashing disability benefits, now being reported that a million disabled people could see the support that is essential to their everyday lives cut, but now we know a whole lot more about where exactly the benefits bashing Rachel Reeves and DWP boss Liz Kendall are set to swing the axe. Planned cuts to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Incapacity Benefit, alongside stricter eligibility criteria, are not only misguided but deeply harmful and if we thought the Tories were bad enough just making the process harder, Labour it seems are going to act as arbiters over what they think is disabled enough now to warrant the financial assistance clearly needed. I’m not quite sure what qualifies Rachel Reeves as a doctor now, but then we’re still asking the question about what qualifies her as an economist as well having managed a complaints department. These reforms are being framed as a means to encourage more disabled people into work as well as what is supposedly fair on people who do work, marking Labour’s view of disability and the limitations that places on some people as some kind of choice. Well it isn’t, but I’ll tell you what is their choice – who they vote for going forwards.
Right, so the ongoing scandal of Labour taking the axe to disability benefits is raging on, with some media talking about divisions in the party, which when in government have a habit of evaporating when it comes to the crunch, but also as more detail is put on where the axe will now fall, and this is important not only to the people this will affect, but important in the context that this is what Starmer and Reeves and Kendall figure will be acceptable to the party to stave off rebellion, that this is what backbenchers will accept and we know this is crucial to them, because the put off bringing these measures to parliament this week in fear of the rebellion they may face in spite of that massive majority Starmer conned out of the country. In light of that we have some newspapers talking about a Liz Kendall U turn on some cuts, but when you scrutinise it a bit closer you realise they are opinion pieces designed to soften people up into thinking the government are backing down when actually there’s no concrete evidence of that at this point. The consequences of these changes will still be catastrophic for too many, plunging hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty, as a reported 1 million disabled people will lose their support, exacerbating mental health crises, and further marginalising an already vulnerable population which Labour appear to be deciding aren’t vulnerable enough.
One million disabled people to lose money to pay for higher defence spending and the billions handed to Ukraine is what it looks like, hardly a fair place to make cuts for anything, but least of all in support of war and weapons, bullets and bombs.
Personal Independence Payment or PIP, is a lifeline for many disabled people, I’ve spoken about it again and again and for good reason including in their ability to access work themselves, is set to undergo significant changes, with stricter eligibility criteria that will exclude thousands from receiving support. Where Kendall is rumoured to no longer be looking at cutting or freezing PIP if you can believe the opinion pieces, this stricter eligibility is staying. Who will that affect? Well take a look at this image of apparent conditions due to find it a lot harder to claim. I’m looking at that and seeing Spina Bifida which is literally an at birth incurable condition, my daughter has it, she’s in constant pain and it affects her mobility greatly, I’m looking at motor neurone disease, which is always fatal and if Kendall is figuring everyone with it goes on for years like Professor Stephen Hawking did then she hasn’t researched it at all. It is quite frankly one of the most horrendous conditions you can ever get as every muscle in your body shuts down until you finally stop breathing because the muscles controlling your lungs pack up. I know, I saw it happen, my mother died from this. Similarly, Incapacity Benefit, which provides financial assistance to those unable to work due to illness or disability, is being targeted for cuts as well, I can only presume because it is an older benefit it will hurry up the transfer and end of claims in relation to it. These changes are not merely administrative adjustments, these are not mere numbers on a spreadsheet, as politicians are attempting justify; they are a direct attack on the financial security of some of the most severely disabled people.
PIP and Incapacity Benefit are not luxuries but necessities, enabling disabled people to cover the additional costs associated with living with a disability. These costs include mobility aids, home adaptations, and personal care, all of which are essential for maintaining a basic standard of living. By reducing or removing these benefits, Labour is effectively condemning more disabled people to a life of poverty and hardship. These reforms are not about helping disabled people into work but about balancing the books on the backs of the most vulnerable, those least able to fight back and certainly not necessarily able to work.
One of the key changes being mooted is in relation to the changes in descriptors that qualify people for PIP, you need to get a certain number of points across the tick box exercise that is the onerous PIP application form, based on activities as these are asking what you can and cannot do in order to qualify, so by changing how these are counted, they can get people off PIP potentially, so lets look at some examples.
Under the new rules on at least one of the activities, you must now score 4 points to qualify, no matter how many points you might ultimately get at the end of the form to qualify for PIP. For example, if you need help to cook a meal that would count, but being able to use a microwave would not. If you need help to wash your upper body that would count, but not washing your hair or lower body. If you need help going to the loo that would count, but needing reminding to go would not. Needing help to engage with other people face to face would count, but needing encouraging to do so would not. Requiring hearing aids is apparently no longer going to be considered as counting as is apparently needing help to dress yourself, so people are expected to go to work in their pyjamas or naked then? Go but unwashed? Its desperate penny pinching meanness and is utterly abusive.
One of the central justifications for these reforms is the claim that they will encourage more disabled people to enter the workforce the overarching impression of coercion without consideration for disabilities is the impression I get here across this story, it smacks of Liz Kendall coming in with an axe for cuts without having a Scooby about what she’s cutting and the consequences of it. Many disabled people are unable to work due to the severity of their conditions, and no amount of financial pressure will change that. Taking money off them won’t encourage them into work, if they are physically incapable, what you will do is kill them, or drive them into the arms of the assisted dying brigade and the Kim Leadbeater’s of this world who seem to want people to choose to die with minimal oversight. Forcing them to navigate a system that is already hostile and inaccessible to them will obviously only increase their struggles.
Then there is the fact that there is no evidence that any of this will work, merely an assumption being made by the likes of Kendall and Rachel Reeves that cutting benefits will incentivise work. How can there be when cutting money to some people will make no difference to their fitness to work at all and the removal of PIP may prevent some disabled people who can work from being able to. There is no evidence to suggest that reducing financial support will lead to increased employment among disabled people if they cannot work and if they rely on PIP to get to work. Instead, it is far more likely to push them further into poverty, making it even harder for them to access the resources and support they need to find and for those in work to actually keep their jobs. There is no positive outcome for the people PIP is there to support by cutting it and given how hard the Tories already made it to claim, making it worse is just carrying on with the damage that they did. Where is the change there that you stood for election on Starmer? This is not a policy designed to empower disabled people; it is a policy designed to punish them for their circumstances. How dare you be disabled!
But one of the most alarming aspects of Labour’s alleged reforms is the apparent devaluation of mental health conditions. Reports suggest that the criteria for PIP and Incapacity Benefit are being tightened particularly to exclude many people with mental health issues, effectively dismissing mental health as less serious or less deserving of support, that is a properly Tory mindset.
By treating mental health as a secondary concern, Labour is sending a clear message that if your disability is not visible, it is not valid, or at least less so than physical disabilities and even they are not above being targeted as I’ve already discussed. Stigmatising mental health conditions, that’ll help them, but it also ignores the fact that many people with mental health issues are already struggling to access the support they need to begin with. Cutting their benefits will only deepen their isolation and despair, with potentially life-threatening consequences, though again there’s Kim Leadbeater stood there in black cloak carrying a scythe.
However there is another way, it is being fought for, it isn’t getting much attention though and when you realise where it is coming from, you soon realise why. The Green Party has emerged as a vocal opponent of these reforms, because this is where the progressive politics is these days, especially as more and more socialists have joined the party, because they are member led, and members genuinely get a say. Green MPs have called for a more compassionate and inclusive approach to welfare, one that recognizes the diverse needs of disabled people and provides them with the support they need to live with dignity, that this is not the place to makes these cuts, taxing the rich, which Labour is falling over itself to avoid, is exactly where the money needed can be raised with minimal harm to people’s lives. Choosing to hit the disabled over the rich is where Starmer’s Labour is. Remember when Jeremy Corbyn proposed a National Care Service, to elevate mental health? How far the party fell after him, no wonder he had to be crushed in the manner he was. Serving the people? Who did he think he was?
Coming back on thew matter of Kim Leadbeater and her increasingly concerning assisted dying bill though, especially in light of these disability reforms, there is a real and present danger for many disabled people who already feel abandoned by the state.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, a disability rights advocate and crossbench peer and who is herself disabled, a former Paralympian as some of us may remember, has been particularly vocal in her criticism of these plans to axe disability benefits in light of Leadbeater’s Grim Reaper Bill. She has warned that the combination of benefit cuts and relaxed assisted dying laws could create a “perfect storm” for disabled people, leaving them with no viable options and no hope for the future and commentary like that evokes images and thoughts of useless eaters and the sort of people who once advocated for the extermination of disabled people, because it wasn’t just the Jews such people came for was it? And if Rachel Reeves cries at being a called a Red Tory, she’ll be in floods over comparisons with fascism I’m sure.
The impact of these appalling plans must also be understood in the context of the existing poverty crisis among disabled people that we already have as well. According to the Trussell Trust, almost one in five people receiving Universal Credit and disability benefits are already living in poverty. These individuals are struggling to afford food, pay their bills, and maintain a basic standard of living. Cutting their benefits will only make a bad situation worse, pushing them further into destitution and despair and riving even more of them to food banks.
Ultimately, Labour’s disability reforms are not necessary or an inevitable response to economic challenges; they are a deliberate choice to prioritise fiscal austerity over human dignity. By targeting disabled people instead of asking the super rich to pay a bit more, the government is choosing to destroy lives rather than support them. This is not a policy born out of compassion or pragmatism or need but out of a callous disregard for the most vulnerable in society, Labour desperate to find something else to cut, because they are no different to the 14 years of the Tories we’ve already had.
Starmer’s Party and their disability reforms are a betrayal of the Labour Party’s core values and a devastating blow to disabled people across the country. By cutting benefits, tightening eligibility criteria, and devaluing mental health, the government is not only failing to support disabled people but actively harming them. These reforms will not help more people into work; they will push them further into poverty, isolation, and despair.
The growing opposition to these cuts, led by the Green Party, disability rights activists, and advocates like Tanni Grey-Thompson, is a powerful reminder that these policies are not inevitable and don’t have to be accepted and those who choose to vote for them are truly sickening and depraved individuals not worthy of representing us. Public pressure can and must force the government to reconsider, because the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Of further impact to the disabled will of course come NHS reforms and as Wes Streeting snivelled in parliament last week, more privatisation is to come because Labour are proud to be out-Torying the Tories on such things even as people voted Labour for change! He’s a special sort of chap isn’t he and not in a good way! Get all the details of his pride in being more Tory than the Tories in this video recommendation as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe if you haven’t already done so, so as to make sure you don’t miss out on all new daily content as well as helping to support the channel which is very much appreciated, right now the channel is less than 500 subscribers away from hitting 100,000, getting over that line would be a massive deal for me, so please do consider it and I’ll hopefully therefore catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.