Skip to main content

McVey's denials cannot hide her party's horrific record on disability rights

IN JULY Esther McVey was forced to apologise to Parliament for “inadvertently” misleading her fellow MPs. Her claim that the National Audit Office had called for the roll-out of universal credit to be accelerated turned out to be the opposite of the truth — actually it had called on the Tories to pause the process.

The Work and Pensions Secretary faced calls to resign from the Labour benches over her Donald Trump-like indifference to reality. Yet her dismissal of social security cuts as “fake news” today shows she remains shameless.

There is nothing fake about one million more children from working households living in poverty — a result of pay freezes or below-inflation rises, certainly, but also of the arbitrary welfare cap imposed regardless of household size, limiting child benefit to the first two offspring, a raft of cuts to tax credits and the shift to a universal credit model that means millions of families receive less.

McVey claims the idea that the Tories are “somehow letting down the most vulnerable in society, especially disabled people” is a myth emanating from the Labour Party, spread by that bete noire of an elite used to controlling the flow of information — “social media.”

Strange, then, that it is the message that has come loud and clear from disabled people themselves.

The determined campaigning by organisations such as Disabled People Against Cuts — on everything from the closure of the independent living fund, to the withdrawal of Motability funding to over 100,000 people, to the drive to take guards off trains, with all the catastrophic consequences that poses for disabled access and the “right to ride” — shows that disabled people are well aware this government is attacking them.

So does the survey by the Disability Benefits Consortium, composed of over 80 different charities and organisations, released last year that found that 79 per cent of respondents felt the shift from the disability living allowance to personal independence payments (PIP) had worsened their health, with 58 per cent saying those assessing their eligibility for the new payment didn’t understand their condition and 64 per cent saying the claim forms produced following the assessment did not reflect what they had said during it.

The United Nations itself has slammed the government for breaching the UN Convention on Disabled People’s Rights, while as early as 2012 then chancellor George Osborne was booed by crowds when awarding medals at the Paralympics because of the effect of his cuts on disabled people.

On the eve of conference Theresa May refused to apologise for the “hostile environment” policy responsible for the deportation of British nationals who had lived and worked here for decades. As PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka told a packed fringe meeting at Labour conference on reforming the welfare system, the hostile environment has been a reality for the disabled and long-term sick as well.

A work capability assessment regime that ignores medical advice and drives disabled people to suicide is not “helping disabled people into work through personalised and tailored support,” as McVey claims. It is an inhuman machine that sees assessors given targets on what proportion of applicants to reject, others recorded admitting they filled in claimants’ forms before even meeting them and helps create a culture of mockery and disbelief around disability that has seen hate crimes against disabled children rise by 150 per cent in the last two years.

Iain Duncan Smith claimed his cuts were good for people; McVey denies they are happening. Neither can mask the reality that the Conservative legacy on welfare is one of humiliation, misery and death. It is all the more urgent that we elect a Labour government that values every member of our society and makes amends for this shameful period in our country’s history.

OWNED BY OUR READERS

We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society.

 

 

Become a supporter

Fighting fund

You've Raised:£ 13,288
We need:£ 4,712
3 Days remaining
Donate today