Dis Life: 'If you're not working, it's hard to keep pace with rising costs'
We’re a week off a final gasp of summer heatwave and the shops in my neck of the woods are already starting to fill up with Christmas tat. Which means, in fashion terms, autumn is practically upon us, and the look for this season is a nice tight belt.
The Times is reporting that the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is looking at cutting the welfare bill amidst fears of having to increase it by £4 billion due to inflation driven by increasing wages and the cost of clothing.
Extrapolating, because working age working people are doing marginally better again, ie possibly being able to afford a little more fuel and food if not luxuries and leisure, those who cannot work due to ill health or older age have to inhale deeply and tighten up a notch. Post World War II the Government had an idea that those affected by severe hardship, through no fault of their own, should be caught in a social safety net whereby those of us who could help did help.
Post pandemic, we appear to have wiped the collective memory of what it meant to feel poor – as those who were on short-term benefits when jobs were effectively wiped out left, right and centre are back to the grind, and the message seems to be people not in work cost too much.
I still don’t understand this: why do those in power not look at need, then cost of need, and then how to manage the taxation system across the board to raise enough money to meet those needs. We hear time and again of retail and utility companies making profit and doling out dividends to private investors as the cost of the goods they sell and utilities shoots up. Profit is seen as progress, but those who need to survive – not thrive, but survive – are cut out of the economy entirely, eking out inadequate amounts of food and foregoing water and heating usage.
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No specific areas of the welfare bill have been mentioned out loud, but popular choices normally include keeping benefits at levels out of pace with the cost of living. Speaking of which, the cost of basics such as bread, cheese and milk have shot up by 30% according to new data from the consumer organisation Which?. Food has been going up at over 15% each month according to data from Kantar, and while the pace of rising prices has slowed, it’s not falling. So riddle me this – if you’re not working, and getting those magic wage increases, what the hell are you doing to keep pace with rising costs? Sinking? Sinking.
Debt charity StepChange has pointed out that these massive hikes in the cost of living are hitting the poorest the hardest. And poor people can’t buy in bulk to make savings. One in seven people are skipping meals. One in three people on Universal Credit are skipping meals. These people are the poorest in society. Half of everyone living in poverty is either Disabled or part of a household with a Disabled person living in it. We used to be called Invalids. When the poorest people in society, Disabled people, literally cannot afford to eat, it would appear that while not said out loud, that word is still very much applied to us in spirit.
So good to see Jody Cundy lined up to appear on Strictly this autumn. Winner of eight golds, one silver and three bronze medals in swimming and cycling across seven Paralympics, he’s an amputee with a CBE. Hopefully his dancing will be a lot better than that unintentional rhyme. I can’t help secretly hoping that he’s going to go on from here to start a new precedent for triathlons of swimming, cycling and dance, because I would be so here for that in practice. He has said he’s normally last on to the dance floor but to “bring on the glitter and sequins”. Can’t wait!
Speaking of glitter and sequins, Margate hosted its Pride celebrations this weekend. Out of all the minority groups, LGBTQIA+ is the one which has the most visibility through such events and all the corporate rainbow plastering that goes with. And in towns like Margate, the support that community offers to other minority groups and Disabled people within the community is bright, light and heartwarming.
It’s somewhere where hands are reached out and down, to lift everyone up. Margate’s finest Tracey Emin was there, and posted on her Instagram about how she has to prep for such events post surgery, and how she decided to ditch her skirt, which was causing her issues around her Stoma, to be free to dance. The joy in her photos – in all the photos – from this weekend was palpable. Sitting on a wheelchair-friendly plinth in the Dreamland ballroom, drag goddess Dame Jame made a beeline for us Disabled people to meet and greet and air kiss. Not as a pat on the head, but because like often sees like – those who have been through it, and those who need to shine like glitter and sequins, seen, heard and valued.
It was also great to see the mighty Soul II Soul as part of the weekend, and to realise that their kick-ass lead singer Charlotte Kelly is both blind and still at the top of her game a quarter of a century on from when we first heard them. We don’t always either see or clock Disabled people front and centre stage. What an absolute joy to be able to do so. Back to life, back to reality – it’s good to see that despite all the challenges for so many of us Disabled people right now, reality can also mean being given, and owning, that stage.
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