On Tuesday 1 July I sat watching a live feed from the House of Commons, whilst caring for my disabled daughter who has a life-threatening condition alongside Down’s Syndrome. I am, sadly, very well versed in the cruel and cold treatment that the Department For Work and Pensions (DWP) bestows on disabled citizens like myself and my daughter.
I know because I’ve been on the receiving end of it. A procedure that decimated my mental health and left me without any financial support for over two years, until a member of my myalgic encephalomyelitis healthcare team stepped in to advocate for me.
So, knowing how difficult and traumatic our UK government and the DWP already makes it for disabled people to get even a scrap of support, I have struggled to understand why Keir Starmer’s Labour government would seek to make the lives of disabled people even harder.
The DWP debate was heartbreaking
I watched some impassioned speeches from some excellent MPs, clearly stating why the Welfare Bill needed to be withdrawn. In particular, Ian Lavery (MP for Ashington and Blyth) who clearly stated the bill was ‘outrageous’. And then I watched as a Welfare Bill designed to push disabled and sick people into abject poverty was voted through.
I felt physically sick.
I know how damaging the DWP system already is. I know what it is like to live in poverty. I know what it is like to be disabled and I know what it is like to be the parent of a disabled child. What I don’t know is how any decent human being can work towards punishing vulnerable people whose lives are already very hard indeed.
I am aware I sound heartbroken.
I am.
You see, I have been a Labour voter all my life. I voted for my current MP David Smith, for North Northumberland, based on the election promises made by the Labour Party in 2024. In their election manifesto they pledged to champion the rights of disabled people. They promised that our views and voices would be at the heart of all they do.
On election night, David Smith was door knocking in my area. He stopped to have a conversation at my house, where we discussed the community group I run that supports disabled children in Northumberland. I expressed the serious concerns facing the disabled community and he asked if he could meet with us to hear them. All of these promised, combined with what I thought was a solid manifesto, led me to vote for Labour.
I voted as a disabled woman, based on Labour’s manifesto pledges to disabled people like me. Sadly, it seems they were all lies.
Lie after lie after lie
My MP, David Smith, voted for the Welfare Bill. A bill that has been openly condemned by every single disability and human rights organisation. A bill that openly ignored the voices, pleas, and experiences of the millions of disabled people in this country. A bill that will cause hundreds of thousands of disabled people and children (yes, us disabled women do have children) into abject poverty.
Every MP who voted for this outrageous violation of human rights has betrayed their most vulnerable constituents and reneged on the election promises their party made towards disabled people.
You got us to vote for you and then you stabbed us in the back and swept our human rights away without even a second thought.
Furthermore, the lengths that the Labour Party has gone to, to push this catastrophic DWP legislation through, has been utterly shocking. Suddenly deciding that actually, it will only be new PIP claims that will be assessed under the new discriminatory criteria. Then in an outstanding manoeuvre, aimed at manipulating those MPs who were rightly challenging the front bench, into voting for it, verbally suggesting that the entire section on PIP will be scrapped.
It must have worked.
MPs voted for a bill that still had, in writing, that disabled people must score 4 points in any one category to qualify for PIP. That means people who need help to dress, wash and prepare food will not qualify for any support.
What happens then? If you can’t pay a support worker to help you then you don’t dress, wash or prepare food. It’s that simple. People will suffer. People may well die.
No trust left
There is no trust left. None. No confidence. Labour lied in its election pledges about listening to disabled people. We have been categorically cut out of the debate on this. Frozen out. Liz Kendall has silenced us and by doing so has breached the human rights of every disabled UK citizen.
So when Stephen Timms tries to offer reassurances, nobody believes him. I know I don’t believe anything they say anymore. It’s devastating from a party that once stood for the working classes, because lets face it, it’s working-class disabled people that will be affected the most by these reforms.
One day you are able to work your job, the next you’ve become disabled by a stroke, or a heart attack, or an accident. In my case it was Covid. In what world could you even have imagined that the Labour Party would choose to punish working class people for becoming disabled? This new world.
It’s not just the shocking reforms that aim to remove DWP PIP, a benefit that assists disabled people to work, that are devastating. It’s the punishment of young disabled people that makes me sick to my stomach.
My daughter, when she turns 16 will not be able to claim the health element of Universal Credit until she turns 22. I am not saying she wont be able to do any work, but as a parent-carer, you have to be realistic about your child’s condition.
Without going into too much detail, my daughter is medically complex and she will require a lot of support throughout her entire life. It’s almost like Keir Starmer’s party has no concept of what it is like to live with a debilitating condition. Or, if they do, they choose to ignore that people like me and my daughter exist.
That’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it. It’s easier to stonewall our voices. To ignore the facts. To gloss over the lives of people whose bodies simply do not work properly. To deny the fact we exist.
But we do.
It’s not too late to stop the DWP changes
We live our lives as best we can, often fighting just to get through each day. My daughter literally fights for her life on a regular basis. We already suffer with pain, barriers to pretty much every aspect of life, and poverty. The majority of food bank users are disabled people.
I have more respect and admiration for every single disabled child and adult I know than any of the MPs who have just voted to make our lives even more hard. You don’t know what courage is.
Perhaps though, if you spent some time talking to and actually listening to disabled people you would learn what it is. If only you could have been courageous enough to put the lives of your vulnerable constituents first.
It’s not too late. Call on Keir Starmer to withdraw the DWP Welfare Bill. Demand Liz Kendall’s resignation. Hold Stephen Timms to account. Learn from people like my daughter. My 7 year old who fights to live another day, every day, how to be brave.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.