Today was finally the day disabled people had been told to fear, budget day. According to the mainstream media, chancellor Rachel Reeves was going to go hard on benefits claimants – but when it actually came down to it, we barely got a mention.
If you’re a disability hating gammon, you probably tuned into the budget expecting the government to completely destroy those work-shy scroungers’ “grift” of Motability. But you’d have been sadly disappointed, as it barely got a passing glance.
After all that, disabled people got just 2 minutes in the budget speech
In actual fact, all she did was talk about things she’s already announced that would affect those on disability benefits. It’s almost like Reeves and the Labour government know how much clickbait their hate of disabled people will gain them, compared to things like business grants.
She didn’t even come on anything related to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) until 35 minutes in, speaking on the topic for a grand total of 2 minutes. So what did she actually say? Well nothing we don’t already know to be honest.
Reeves parroted the usual Labour bluster:
We will reform that system so that it is a system that does not count the cost of failure, but one that protects people who cannot work and empowers those who can.
Politicians love spouting bullshit about supporting people who can’t work. But, they always conveniently forget that they’re the ones who set the parameters of who is considered able to work.
Taking credit for old plans
For the two minutes Reeves rattled through very thinly disguised brags in relation to disability. Like I said, most of these had already been announced by the DWP. She said they had brought back face-to-face benefits assessments. She made a vain attempt to make it sound like a good thing that, once again, assessments would be harder for disabled people to attend. Because obviously, the reason there’s so much Personal Independence Payment (PIP) fraud (less than 0%) is that people are pretending they’re disabled while really they’re doing their assessments whilst on a speedboat, or something.
Reeves also said that Universal Credit (UC) changes will get 15,000 people back into work. However, as Disability Rights UK points out, she neglected to mention that these cuts will push 100,000 people into poverty.
She mentioned Alan Milburn’s plan to tackle “rising youth inactivity”. As I reported for The Canary when this was announced, the investigation will seek to blame disabled kids and frame them as not wanting to work, so they can be punished – not supported.
Reeves then moved on to her pet project, the youth guarantee, which will basically push kids into training and low-skilled work. Then, in classic DWP fashion, threaten to take their benefits if they refuse to do it.
She tried to make it sound like a good thing that the government will provide funding for small and medium businesses to train young people, but this only shows that they never thought of smaller businesses in the first place. It’s clear that the goal of the guarantee was to always push kids into shit paying jobs for multimillion-pound making organisations that have all partnered with the government.
And finally, onto Motability – well, barely
And finally, she moved on to Motability. She crowed:
The Motability scheme was set up to protect the most vulnerable, not to subsidise the lease on a Mercedes-Benz. So I am making reforms that will reduce generous taxpayer subsidies. and Motability have confirmed that they will remove luxury vehicles from their scheme. Getting the scheme back to its original purpose, of offering cost-effective leases to disabled people.
However, as the Canary reported yesterday, the removal of premium brands from the scheme was actually only a small part of what Motability have planned. While Reeves made that the crux of her Motability segment, what will actually save the British taxpayer money is working to ensure more of its cars are made in the UK.
Reeves had very little to do with the decision and the reforms, though it didn’t stop her from taking the credit. Oh, and on how much it will save the taxpayer: Reeves claims it will save £300 million, but as Disability Rights UK pointed out, the DWP wasted £400 million on fighting against PIP appeals.
Nothing about actually supporting disabled people, of course
Despite her also saying “we can’t leave welfare untouched”, there was nothing about welfare reforms in the budget. Seemingly, this is because to announce it in one go would be too easy. Instead, they’ll clearly be leaking a constant drip of changes that make it harder to understand exactly how much is changing.
And, still missing from all of this is any commitment on how the government will actually support disabled people who can work into work. There was no mention of commitment to Access to Work, a scheme that is instead being quietly cut. The saddest thing amongst all this is that while the child benefit cap is being celebrated, disabled parents are again being forgotten. But, they’re the ones who will suffer the most.
All in all, Reeves’ budget was the usual government bluster that took plenty of pot shots at the Tories. But when it comes to throwing disabled people under the bus, Labour have plunged to depths the Tories could’ve only dreamed of.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Guardian News
This post was originally published on Canary.