Mo Stewart is the research lead for the Preventable Harm Project (2009-2019), which exposed the influence of corporate America with UK social policy reforms since 1992. Her book Cash Not Care: the planned demolition of the UK welfare state was written for the disabled community to alert them to the adoption of ‘disability denial’ by the UK government.
Here she gives an overview of how the UK’s welfare system has negatively impacted disabled people’s lives and livelihoods over the past 30+ years.
Disabled community living in fear of the DWP
For anyone who is unfit for work, and not financially independent, the relentless political challenge to the integrity of the chronically ill and disabled community by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been ongoing since October 2008.
Under the leadership of Gordon Brown, the ‘New Labour’ administration introduced the fatally flawed Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to restrict access to the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) disability benefit, which was destined to cause preventable harm for those in greatest need.
The chronically ill and disabled community learned to live in fear of the DWP, especially following the election of the Coalition administration (2010-15). Their attacks on the previous Labour administration were relentless with claims that Labour had spent excessively on the welfare budget, which was used to justify the adoption of austerity measures. Of course, this claim was untrue as identified by the Institute for Fiscal Studies who revealed the largest spend on welfare was by the John Major Conservative government (1990-97). By comparison, the Labour administration(s) (1997-2010) had reduced welfare costs and the welfare costs funded by the Coalition were half the level of disability spending when at its peak in 1995-96.
Coalition’s hostility towards disabled benefit claimants
The multi-millionaire Coalition Chancellor, George Osborne MP, introduced extreme austerity measures to limit welfare costs which the general public was destined to resist. So, to make the idea of the need for austerity measures more acceptable, the Coalition administration gave the public someone else to blame and publicly challenged the integrity of disability benefit claimants. It worked very well. During the Coalition administration’s term in office disability hate crimes, including murder, increased by 213%.
The Coalition appointed Iain Duncan Smith MP as the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. His hostility towards claimants of the ESA disability benefit was highlighted by the tabloid press, with various front page banner headlines claiming that 75% of disability benefit claimants were bogus. Rewarded with a knighthood in the 2020 New Year honours list, for his ‘political and public service’, Duncan Smith continues to attack the disabled community in receipt of benefits via the national press but is less inclined to respond to personal correspondence.
The ‘Deaths by Welfare’ timeline identified that The Express had published a misleading and inaccurate benefit fraud story about incapacity benefit claimants “faking their illnesses”. This press support was significant because it was deemed to be ‘One of the most significant tabloid articles that would lay the groundwork for the Conservative-led coalition to secure public support for an even harsher and more dangerous regime of welfare reforms and cuts under Iain Duncan Smith’.
There is a tendency to overlook the growing evidence of the public health crisis generated by the DWP, with little mention of the fact that the National Audit Office identified that the DWP underpaid benefit claimants by a record £3.3bn in 2021-22. Claimants of the Personal Independence Payment used by the disabled community had the highest underpayment rate. Where is the redress and why is no one held to account?
Have you been impacted by the UK Governments’ rigorous and more brutal regime of welfare reforms over the past three decades? Share your thoughts in the comments box, on social media or contact us to publish your own personal story.
You can find out more about Mo Stewart and read her research papers in full by visiting her website.
If you have a research or conference paper, thesis, book, dissertation or multimedia project of relevance to the disabled community you’d like us to publish, visit our research page for more details.
