Thread by @docrussjackson

The young woman with mental health problems asked by an assessor: “Why haven’t you killed yourself yet?”

The grandfather with social anxiety who starved to death after missing his assessment and having his benefits stopped.

#ToryBritain

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

This is systemic cruelty. Against a backdrop of “scrounger” rhetoric from politicians and press so toxic that charities warned it was fuelling hate crime against disabled people, the WCA has morphed into one of the greatest social policy failures in modern times.

Hundreds of £millions of public money filled the coffers of private companies that ran the assessments, as disabled people incorrectly rejected for benefits were forced to turn to food banks. Thousands of disabled & severely ill people have died after being found “fit for work”.

Reducing the number of tests that sick claimants must endure is a good idea on paper but is outright dangerous if that test is unreliable: as it stands, 70% of those denied Pip have the decision overturned on appeal.

#ToryBritain

theguardian.com/society/2022/o…

Currently, the most severely disabled and sick claimants are protected from having to look for work and their benefits being docked. Under the new plan, this will be at the discretion of DWP “work coaches”.

Research shows disabled people are already disproportionately sanctioned compared to non-disabled claimants.

A Govt that boasts it will more “rigorously” sanction the money healthy people need in order to live will soon enough have no qualms about doing it to cancer patients.

It is not as though ministers have tried to hide their true motivation for scrapping the WCA: they’re it’s not doing it to end the hardship the assessment causes, but because there are “too many” long-term sick people on benefits. “Work is a virtue,” Jeremy Hunt told the Commons.

Hunt's language wouldn’t be out of place in a 19th-century workhouse.

For all the promises of helping disabled people back into employment, the crux of this “welfare reform” is simple: those who contribute to the economy have value, and those who can’t are simply worth less.

Ministers could go down a different path; to create a safety net for times of ill health that is humane & fair, while addressing the structural barriers to fulfilling, well-paid jobs.

The truth is, they simply choose not to.

Magnificent work, as ever, by @DrFrancesRyan 🙏