To be concerned about what Liz Kendall is up to with disability benefits?

[Locutus2000]

The Times reporting just how enthusiastic Labour are about targeting the disabled.

I can only hope they are getting the worst ideas out there first, if not I dread to think what is coming in the upcoming review.

I was confident Labour would at worst be no worse than the Tories.

I was wrong.

Free archive link here.

They have placed themselves in a bind by saying they won't raise taxes. From the article, it looks like they're targeting mental health. I heard they're putting the DWP into mental health wards to talk to the sick about getting jobs

I'm wondering how this works in reality.

You were very naive to believe Labour wouldn’t be worse than the Tories. Just look at history

There are a lot of rumours at the moment. I'm waiting for the green paper.

But Kendall did say things before the GE that hinted at the direction of travel, so not a massive surprise. I almost didn't vote for them because of it, but the Tories would probably be meaner to disabled people.

I think if they go too far, they might alienate a lot of their backbenchers.

I mean benefits specifically, an area where Labour have traditionally been kinder than the Tories.

But Kendall did say things before the GE that hinted at the direction of travel, so not a massive surprise. I almost didn't vote for them because of it, but the Tories would probably be meaner to disabled people.

She sure did. I wasn't listening.

How depressing this year is turning out to be.

Yes it’s been well reported since before the election that labour, like the Tory’s will be clamping down on disability benefits. An overhaul is needed and the Majorie political parties recognise this. We don’t know what the plans will be yet though I don’t think.

Reeves has always had it in for disability benefits. But there's enough Labour MPs to do whatever the hell they want right now and I don't see they'll get much opposition from the Tories.

An overhaul is needed

The last overhaul (DLA to PIP) isn't even finished yet.

That article says the country spends £65bn a year on sickness benefits. That’s not the total welfare bill - it doesn’t include pensions and doesn’t include unemployment. That’s just paying people who are too sick to work. That’s completely unsustainable. I don’t know whether the answer is better support to stop people getting sick/better treatment, more support for employers to employ people with disabilities or better screening/tighter criteria (or all of them), but it’s simply unaffordable. And if the fastest growing type of claim is for depression and anxiety (as the article says) then that’s obviously open to abuse.

I'm one of the people on sickness benefits. I use a wheelchair.

If employers were a bit less prejudiced against disabled people and a bit more prepared to make reasonable adjustments I might still be in work.

She should be shouting at employers as much as disabled people.

(I don't work at the moment but did for twenty years including ten years after my accident).

That’s behind a paywall so I can’t actually read the article to comment. What does it say?

Does the archive link:in the OP not work for you?

I think a lot of people thought Labour would be generous with the elderly, disabled, and those on benefits. They were wrong. RR has already reduced WFA and is now coming after the disabled. I think she wants to reduce all benefits if she can. The previous government also wanted to reduce disability payments. Remember there was talk of vouchers. Employers need to make more reasonable adjustments.

The answer is to tackle the NHS waiting list. More people can see that now since Covid unfortunately for Labour
I read on a thread om here last night that someone has been waiting eleven years for a knee replacement. I know someone who has been waiting six years for the same procedure

We have to do something. The country cannot afford the £65 billion a year it’s costing in disability benefits.
My BIL says he’ll never work again after a stroke at 50 (caused by being v overweight and borderline alcoholic) I’ll admit it does grate rather that he is given a lot of things from tax payers for doing absolutely nothing.

He seems to spend most of his time travelling about in his free car buying things for himself. My thinking is that if he can drive a car, walk around shops etc he could do some work, even if it was 10 hours a week.

Ah yes, that one worked.

so on the surface we have heard it all before. No matter which party there is usually an obligatory attack on the most vulnerable but it never seems to get past how it ‘could’ or ‘may’ be brought forward.

my gut feeling is that this is just a political tool which they are using to test the water to see if there’s a public appetite for it. I’m dubious that it will ever get through parliament at the moment.

I’m actually not convinced that disability benefits are costing nearly as much as the government would have us believe anyway. A bit like how they try to make out benefit fraud costs far more than it actually does.

Unfortunately Liz Kendall is further to the right than some Tories, George Osborne was quite enamoured with her apparently and saw her as a future star. Its no surprise she has been put in charge of the DWP, she is very much a hatchet man. Labour really need to be careful, by all means help people get back to work if what they mean is actually help them, to get treatment, to find appropriate work and so on but they must know that people were sickened by the Tories actions on the work capability tests and their involvement with ATOS and they would not be impressing anyone to follow suit.

There's definitely a thick atmosphere at the moment of people who believe the disabled just aren't trying hard enough.

It seems to be aimed particularly at mental health difficulties but I've had it aimed at me as a physically disabled person.

I loved my career. It's been devastating losing it - now I'm being called lazy to boot.

The NHS has been in a shambles for years. I'm certainly a lot more ill than I need to be, and have been so since my diagnosis. Of course we've got more sick people than ever. Isn't that an obvious consequence? I can only blame the Tories for that.

There is no disputing that the sickness benefits bill needs to come down, that is just a fact as it is wholly unsustainable.

I feel that fixing the woeful mental health care in this country, allowing people with conditions like depression and anxiety to go into a work environment will help. But those employers also need to have flexibility, allowing wfh or other reasonable adjustments.

So willing to cut benefits but, happy to keep funding illegal immigration.

Has anyone watched the Channel 4 Dispatches programme with Frazer Nelson? It's worth watching as very informative.
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/fraser-nelson-on-benefits-channel-4-dispatches-review-b1198242.html

"Free car".

They are not "free".🙄

Qualifying for the Motability scheme has nothing to do with whether someone is able to work or not.

Employers need to make more reasonable adjustments.

This. If the government focused on adjustments that could help people with disabilities and mental health difficulties into employment then they would be less likely to need benefits. There are many young people who struggle with school and in the majority of cases they are neurodiverse. These people are also likely to struggle in the workplace. Making workplaces more inclusive of neurodiversity and other disabilities would allow far more people to work.

I have a teenager who is autistic, selective mute and diagnosed with severe anxiety. I would love for her to work and I think with the right adjustments she would be able to. I also don't want to worry about her living in poverty because she wouldn't be able to access benefits if she couldn't find anywhere that would employ her.

Labour have got form on this. They introduced the WCA in the first place. It go's right back to Yvette " imaginary wheelchair " Cooper.

I don't trust them to protect disabled people at all.