Helping the economy should not mean bullying the disabled

15th February 2025

An article in he Morning Star newspaper on Friday 14 February highlights the threat to people on disability benefits.

ESPITE losing in the High Court over proposals to make changes to the Work Capability Assessment, the government is pushing ahead with plans that will further impoverish disabled people on a mass scale.

In January, the judgment was handed down in the legal case taken by disabled activist Ellen Clifford against the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

The judge, Mr Justice Calver, found in her favour, ruling that the consultation on the proposals was "misleading," "rushed" and "unfair," squashing plans by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to cut nearly £5,000 a year in social security ("welfare benefits") from almost half-a-million disabled people.

In response the government announced that they will reconsult and “deliver the full level of savings forecast” by the proposed cut. The fight continues.

On January 25 Rachel Reeves wrote in the Sun: “We cannot keep footing the bill for jobless Britain — so I will bring forward a plan to cut sickness benefits in weeks” exemplifying the “political narrative that demonises disabled people” that Britain was reprimanded for by the United Nations earlier this year:

“Reforms within social welfare benefits are premised on a notion that disabled people are undeserving and wilfully avoiding employment (‘skiving off') and defrauding the system.”

[url=https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/helping-economy-should-not-mean-bullying-disabled]Read the full Morning Sar
article HERE[/url]