Benefit cuts will cost the economy.

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/29/labours-benefit-cuts-will-cost-uk-economy-billions-charity-says

Interesting article which repeats what some of us have been saying about the likely consequences of the proposed measures, including increased pressure on services.

With the greatest of respect for Access to Work, not a single employer has ever taken on a person with disabilities because they could acess this scheme. That is why there is still such a large percentage of people with disabilities out of work. To be fair, I neither want nor expect employers to take people on out of compassion or charity, but we are a very long way off that when employers simply assume lack of competance or reliability when they see the word "disability".

Many PIP claimants are in work. Many people with disabilities are in work because they receive PIP. Others are in work because they receive Universal Credit to allow them to work to their capacity. Contrary to what many of this and other threads think, it is not black and white - not disabled = unemployed.

The issue is, as this and other threads like it, that there is no nuanced thinking at any level. People on "benefits" don't work (many actually do). People who don't work are lazy (undoubtedly that is true of some, but not most). People who claim to be unable to work are liars / scroungers (yet our health care system is in shambles, people are not getting the health care they need, and that is making thgeir conditions worse). People who don't work shouldn't expect a decent standard of living (but does that actually mean that people who can't work deserve to live in poverty, and what kind of human being are you if you think that?). Labour say they will get more people into work, but on the news this morning we are told that vacancies are at an all time low and graduates can't even get supermarket warehouse jobs. And whilst being no fan of Labour, the last lot said the same and then presided over the rise in claimants.

I doubt this thread will change anyone's mind about anything. It will simply serve to reinforce what is already well-known - many voters will vote for the people who promise them simple answers, despite the fact that simple answers have never provided one iota of change and people will continue to apportion blame to the government and "other people" rather than accept the simple fact that this is what they voted for, they are getting it, and it was never going to work. A politically inept electorate gives you politically inept government, whateer their purported "colour".

And no, no single adult is going to get rich on benefits.

But if you are claiming UC, DLA for a couple of kids (as seems to be quite normal round here), carers, and PIP for one of the parents, yep that’s a very comfortable life indeed - around £50k, if not more.

This sort of emotional blackmail won’t work on me any more

The people you claim are earning the same amount of money on NMW have to spend around £12000 a year extra just on their disability.

I don't care - if you can't come to a compassionate response on your own, why should I waste my time trying to turn you into a decent human being?

Allegedly those working for a similar pittance as benefit claimants are supposed to be mentally and morally superior, if not financially better off.

So two classes of people are struggling the same way, yet being pitted against each other because of the source of their negligible income.

The focus should be on the deliberately engineered reason for the rapidly increasing wealth gap between the poorest and the richest, who's doing it and most importantly the ideological motivation and end game, which seems frighteningly obvious to those with even a rudimentary grasp of history and economic cycles.

Progress and new technology is as much a threat to stable civilisation as it could be a benefit, because of the money involved. We have no precedence for this, it is nothing like previous advances in industrialisation, because it's instantly all pervasive and harder and harder to keep up with. Whatever we have public access to now, research in the combined military and private sectors is years ahead, with little oversight or will to legislate against negative impact.

It's all one of the biggest mind games ever seen.

You can call it emotional blackmail but the actual fact that many many people are utterly dependent on their benefits to survive won't go away.

Calling it emotional blackmail is misdirection away from the fact that either you don't care or you're woefully misinformed.

It’s telling that people aren’t actively opting to become disabled to access this purported gravy train, though.

You can call it emotional blackmail to point it out, but if I disability was that much of a golden ticket we would see people voluntarily opting in, wouldn’t we? As it is, the only group anybody can point to are some NEETs, who aren’t actively disabling themselves. They are just saying they feel sad.

If it’s really true that NEETs are being given disability benefits en masse for being a bit down and anxious, even while amputees and cancer patients are regularly turned down, isn’t that the thing we should be looking at?

In what jobs? There are more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available already.

Helen Barnard, the director of policy, research and impact at Trussell, said: “Slashing support for disabled people who most need our collective protection from hunger is cruel, irresponsible, and out of touch with what the public wants.”

I wonder what backs this assertion up. The polling after the announcement showed the public largely support the changes.

That’s exactly what’s happening.

In fairness, the huge class of people who work for NMW are keeping the country going, and arguably we should be treating them better. But putting groups against each other is all just a very convenient distraction from what's really going on.

Everybody working in the disability sector and the poverty reduction sector can, of course, see up close how the system and the economics really function and what the effect is on clients.

Why would you not take that more seriously?

That not seriously how you arrive at your opinion on national policy issues?

@Thronglet are you unable to eat fruits like an apple? Or grapes?

@MapCollector - "Accepting there will be a few who slip through the net"
90% are going to slip through the net. That's not a few, that's nearly all PIP claimants.

If DH and I could both work full time on NMW we'd be £6,000 a year better off than we are now.

We are not raking it in having a child with ASD, we get £400/mth DLA, that's it. DH could claim carers allowance but it's difficult because he gets paid in lump sums so we need advice which he hasn't had time to get because of working and caring for DS.

The public also largely thinks that PIP is an out of work benefit, so maybe they mean people who are informed of the facts and not basing their view on tabloid headlines.

@Kindersurprising 'won't be pretty' indeed it won't be, many people will die.

Most of the people you are all talking about don’t tend to have many marketable skills due to their long time health issues. Most jobs they could apply for are physical and offer little or no adjustments for people with disabilities. So no you won’t find more people miraculously working as care workers in hospitality etc . These jobs require people to be physically fit able to stand for long periods able to lift etc etc. most people have long term conditions which flare up really easily. They are very unlikely to be offered a job in the first place and certainly won’t be able to keep it once the truth of their disability becomes apparent. I know this because i meet with these clients every week.

Not everyone who is pysically well can work. I have a teen with severe learning difficulties. What job could they do provided they would need picking to, taking home and 1:1 support throughout?

What? This is a discussion about policy isn’t it?

It’s amazing how politics has become one big marketing wheeze.

Grapes are way out of my budget. Apples aren't very filling either, plus they need good grip, so I wouldn't choose those. The only suitably filling easy to hold fruit is bananas but they tend to go off immediately unless you can get to the supermarket to choose an unripe bunch.

I tend to stay away from anything that will perish fast. I'd love to have fresh fruit every day because it's one of my favourites but it's so expensive and it doesn't last.