'Tories are doing their best to make disabled people the enemy of the taxpayer'

03 October 2023 , 20:31

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt speaks at a fringe event at the Tory Party Conference (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

It’s the Conservative Party Conference! All aboard the crumbling railways to Manchester - though not if you actually want to get there. A city which has welcomed the Tories as you’d expect, with the Manchester Evening News running a four-page report on just how much the government’s own Levelling Up plans have failed.

‌The Tories went straight in reminding us all who public enemy number one is, those pesky disabled people of course. Absolutely not their mates who got fast-tracked contracts during Covid, or the energy companies or the policy makers announcing silly non-laws. Oh no nothing to see here, hate those workshy benefit fraudsters instead.

Firstly, at a fringe event, the work and pensions secretary Mel Stride blamed the internet for why so many young people are on benefits. Yeah, it’s probably Twitter’s fault, not that we’re still in a mass disabling event that is striking down formerly fit and healthy young people. The good old “kids think they’re disabled cos the internet told them so” argument isn’t a new one. But if a community is so strong that it’s making disabled people feel seen and helping others to identify then I’m proud to be a part of it.

‌Hot on his heels came Chancellor Jeremy Hunt with the announcement that he was waging war on benefits. Funny that, I’m pretty sure the war has been going on for over a decade. Hunt claims to be “cracking down on benefit shirkers” and those that “game” the system. This implies that the benefits system is a piece of cake to navigate - when it actually involves filling out forms of 40+ pages, agonising waits and dehumanising assessments.

‌There’s also the deep insinuation that the system is full of fraudsters, which the DWP has particularly fuelled this year. However, just 0.07% of claims were investigated for fraud in 2021/22 and 87% of those were overturned. The department also wasted over £750 million in the last decade on fighting benefits assessments appeals and tribunals to try and deny benefits. The chancellor also doesn’t want us to focus on how much was lost in unpaid tax last year (£42 BILLION), because why would we expect the literal person who’s supposed to be in charge of the UK’s finances to care about that when it’s his pals doing the tax dodging.

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‌But this isn’t something the common hardworking man who the Tories are trying to turn against us will know, and that’s why the language is so vile and troubling. “Crackdown on benefit 'shirkers'" and "Declaring war on 10,000 workshy benefit claimants", this is dangerous language aimed at pitting the honest taxpaying workers against us. And the thing is, Hunt isn’t proposing anything new. If you’re in the fit-for-work category you already have to prove you’re looking for employment and face sanctions or getting thrown off it all together.

‌Now this is nothing new from the CPC, I imagine those wild guys love plotting war on the poor and disabled so much they might have a themed party night dedicated to it. The night, hypothetically, of course, ends in behaviour that is definitely Not Safe for, never mind, Fit For Work. But given how much focus has been on benefits fraudsters and cracking down on the workshy already this year, it feels much more insipid. That they’re going hard on their mission to starve disabled people.

‌And finally this morning, Jacob Reese Mogg told Kay Burley "The benefits system should be there as a safety net, not as a lifestyle opportunity." This just shows how little experience they have of the benefits system if they think it’s an aspirational lifestyle. It’s not like “can’t afford my gas bill chic” is the latest autumn trend, people on TikTok doing this or that on heating or eating.

‌The Tories are doing their best to make disabled people the enemy of the taxpayer - because we’re an easy target. And if they’re focusing on us they’re not asking questions about PPE contracts, the inaccessible railways and how much in bonuses huge party donors receive.

‌Nobody chooses a life on benefits or makes the decision to be so sick to work that they have to live in horrific poverty. The only people who choose their financial circumstances are the rich ministers who are destroying working-class people’s lives and telling them it’s disabled people’s fault.

Rachel Charlton-Dailey