Your say / Politics
‘My Grandad would hang his head in shame at Labour’s new austerity’
My Grandad Ben passed away when I was very young, but he had a profound impact on my life and worldview.
He was a devoted husband and father who spent much of his career as a shop steward in a union. He was also physically disabled. He lost one of his legs in his 20s after contracting gangrene in hospital.
In his retirement, he kept contributing by volunteering for his local Benefits Action Campaign. He helped other disabled and elderly people navigate complicated welfare paperwork.
He was interviewed on the BBC’s Advice Shop programme advising disabled people across the country on how to claim the benefits they were entitled to. Can you imagine such a programme on Sunday morning TV now?
Ben appeared on the BBC’s Advice Shop programme advising disabled people across the country on how to claim the benefits they were entitled to – photo: BBC
As a proud Geordie, Grandad Ben will be looking down with pride this week after Newcastle won the Carabao Cup.
But as an active Labour Party member, he would be looking down with shame at what the Labour government are doing to restrict benefits for disabled people.
Restricting personal independence payments (PIP) and freezing incapacity benefits are shameful choices from this Labour government, and Bristolians will expect their local MPs and councillors to speak out against it.
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Outside of my work as a local councillor, I run a small business supporting neurodivergent people at work.
This includes helping them navigate the Department of Work and Pensions’ Access to Work scheme.
While this particular fund appears to have been spared from cuts on this occasion, like PIP it is slowly falling victim to Labour’s new austerity.
Waiting times for Access to Work assessments have rocketed to 30 weeks for those already in work, and those with new job offers often can’t get support approved in time for their job start date.
By failing to keep up increasing demand for their phone lines, email inboxes and case managers, this government is making it harder for disabled workers to apply for the support they need to do their jobs.
It’s such a big issue for disabled workers that comedian Chris McCausland had to make it the subject of his alternative Christmas Day message on Channel 4 last year.
Around a quarter of the population are disabled by society in some way, yet 70 per cent of food bank users are disabled.
The cost of living for disabled people is often much higher; that’s why Personal Independence Payments exist.
By making it pointlessly difficult to claim PIP, this government will likely drive far more people out of the workplace (and therefore onto out-of-work benefits) than they will persuade to work.
The narrative of ‘clamping down’ on welfare spending only serves to damage people’s mental health.
No one disputes that the disability welfare system needs to change, to help more people into meaningful full or part-time work, and to remove stigma from those who can’t work at all.
Taxing extreme wealth is a much more effective way of funding this.
It’s estimated that a modest one per cent tax on wealth over £1m could raise up to £25bn per year for taxpayers – five times more than the government’s measures claim to save.
It is disappointing that this government has spent so much more energy defending multi-millionaires and billionaires than the basic needs of disabled and neurodivergent people.
Last year, the Bristol Labour group proposed a motion to Bristol City Council to make Bristol the UK’s most accessible city.
As a Green, I was happy to support this. I hope it has a lasting legacy to make improvements across our city for disabled people with mobility, sight, hearing and cognitive impairments.
The most impactful thing they and Bristol’s MPs could do to enable this is to get on the phone to Liz Kendall and co to persuade them to change their minds on these proposals.
Because nothing will make our city – and country – less accessible to disabled people than needlessly restricting the means they need to live their lives with dignity.
This is an opinion piece by Ed Fraser, a Green Party councillor for Eastville
Main photo: Green Party
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