The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Pat McFadden couldn’t pass up the opportunity to demonise disabled benefit claimants whilst giving a speech announcing the Youth Employment Grant.
McFadden was at Walthamstow Forest College announcing that the DWP would give businesses 3 grand to trap kids in shit jobs.But he, of course, couldn’t resist being a dick about disabled people on unemployment benefits, too.
Whilst talking about youth unemployment, he segwayed into those who’d been found unfit for work. Or as the Labour-run DWP have rebranded it, those who receive the Universal Credit health element, yknow, for their poor health.
DWP demonising young disabled people, again
McFadden said:
A young person under 25 on the health element of Universal Credit is now less likely to get a job than someone over 55 on the same benefit.
Think about that in terms of the long-term consequences for people’s lives.
A 20-year-old on incapacity benefit is more likely to turn thirty and still be claiming than to have held a steady job for a year.
Around 65% of 20-year-olds claiming incapacity benefits 10 years ago are still claiming them today.
And perhaps worst of all, a young unemployed person is over 70% more likely to die prematurely than their peers.
To be clear, he’s talking about disabled people here. He’s not talking about people choosing not to work, but those who are either too sick to or would find working too challenging in the ableist society we live in.
The 20-year-old is less likely to get a job because they can’t work. The reason people are still claiming the benefit 10 years later is that they are still as, or even more, disabled than they were 10 years ago. Anybody too sick to work shouldn’t be expected to “have held a steady job”.
And to bring in the death rate is just absurd from a department that’s responsible for god knows how many disabled people’s deaths.
Spin as always
He carried on:
All of this should tell us that this debate cannot simply be concerned with monthly income levels. It has to be about opportunity and chances in life.
The question we should ask is not just “what are you entitled to” but “how do we help you change your life.”
Our ambition should be to empower people to change their story.
This, of course, is bullshit because both questions should come into play. But only in the respect of how the DWP can support disabled people, not force them into work.
What follows next is a spectacular crash course in subtly saying too many are claiming benefits who shouldn’t be, whilst making it sound like you want to help them all:
The OBR forecast is for over 2m more people to come on to long term sickness and disability benefits over the coming years. The variety of conditions has widened. There are more young people with long term health conditions. And we have an old system dealing with new circumstances.
I recently spoke to the Timms Review steering group and met with Alan Milburn.
My message to both was the same: take this chance to advocate radical and powerful change. Enable people to change their lives. Develop a system for the conditions we see today not those of yesteryear. Always remember our obligations to support those who need it and put empowerment and work at the heart of your reports.
The levels of bullshit are off the charts. In one breath, he’s saying conditions have changed and must be accounted for, and then at the same time, that the “change” will be forcing these people into work. Whilst making it sound like they just want to support and help disabled people.
Both of the reports McFadden mentioned are actively working to make it harder for disabled people to claim benefits. The Timms review comes after PIP cuts to make it harder to qualify were squashed by campaigners and MPs. The Milburn review will basically find ways to force kids into work. Milburn previously authored a report that called for the DWP to cut benefits except for those with ‘severe disabilities’.
DWP talking about those who can’t work, when they decide who can’t work
It’s all well and good to say, ‘always remember our obligations to support those who need it’. But when you finish that sentence with ‘and put empowerment and work at the heart of your reports, ‘ you’re making it very clear that only the people you deem to be disabled enough will get support.
Because that’s what needs to be remembered here, it’s not medical professionals who are deciding who can and can’t work because of their health. But a corrupt system whose main aim is to save money.
To claim you will support those who can’t work when you get to decide who fits that ever narrowing criterion is beyond cruel.
Featured image via the Canary
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