Thread by @SalWitcher

Here's my 1st take on @leicesterliz's statement today on proposals for disability benefits, following weeks of govt scaremongering & demonising sick & disabled people, placing their mental health under intolerable strain at the prospect of losing support they need to survive 🧵

You don't fix a broken system by making it worse. You won't stop soaring disability benefit cost unless you act to stop soaring disability & ill health due to an NHS on its knees, the ongoing consequences of a pandemic let rip, & the scale of health-destroying poverty.

You don’t get very sick & disabled people into work by gaslighting the reality they'll never work & employers will never employ them, & making their lives even harder. Many devastating forms of disability are hidden. It doesn't mean they aren't very very real.

You'll not get sick & disabled people who potentially could work into work without tackling widespread employer discrimination & ignorance, inflexible employment practices, failure to make adjustments they easily could, negative attitudes, inaccessible buildings & transport.

Such barriers lie beyond the power of any sick or disabled person to change. No amount of support to plug skills or 'employability' gaps will make a jot of difference. As @inclusionscot called it when I was the CEO, we need 'employerability' too.

We need a wide-ranging approach to remove external barriers & change negative attitudes towards disabled people - not a govt that reinforces them & makes them worse. Like the strategy set out in the 'life chances' report 20 years ago dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/eprint/7261…

The last Labour Govt understood this, when I chaired the UK Govt Disability Employment Advisory Committee, as did Ministers when I worked in the DWP Office for Disability Issues, charged with rolling out the report's recommendations. The curent Labour govt needs to wise up.

But I do agree that DWP culture - attitudes towards disabled people - now needs a major overhaul. That's why it was such aa great honour to be involved as @InclusionScot CEO & @TheSCoSS Chair in establishing a very different Scottish system based on dignity, fairness & respect.

I agree with @leicesterliz that PIP eligibility criteria need reviewing - not to remove much-needed support but because some very sick/ disabled people don't qualify for support as criteria are currently framed; people who any objective person would agree should qualify.

In fact she might like to know that Scotland started reviewing PIP-equivalent Adult Disability Payment criteria over a year ago! Due to report in July 2025, here's a review Scotland started preparing earlier. You're welcome @leicesterliz ! gov.scot/groups/adult-d…

My fear, though, is that what the UK Govt does next could have very serious adverse repercussions for the Scottish Social Security system and the Scottish people, because Scotland depends on UK funding & the 2 systems are closely intertwined.

So, for example, PIP/ Scottish ADP provides access to important reserved means-tested benefit disability-related additions - but only for as long as DWP says so. If PIP eligibility was made harsher but ADP wasn't, would they still accept ADP as a passport?

This is why I would urge people in Scotland to contact their MP, & 3rd sector to engage with the UK Govt consultation. I'd urge MSPs and all Scottish MPs to fight to protect sick & disabled people in Scotland, and to preserve the much better social security system here.

Finally, @leicesterliz @Keir_Starmer @wesstreeting, @RachelReevesMP, if you don't get tough on the causes of sickness & disability rather than on sick/ disabled people; if you don't adopt a wide-ranging strategy to remove barriers, you will fail.

You will continue making more people more sick & disabled, cost will still rise & they'll move further away from employment. More will lose their health & their livelihoods due to avoidable airborne illness. The economy will then suffer. Please think again. Happy to discuss. 🙏

@leicesterliz @threadreaderapp please do what you do 🙏