Conference confusion as Tories undermine new disability minister on benefit cuts
The Conservative party has undermined its new minister for disabled people just days after her appointment, by refusing to back her promise that disability benefits will be uprated next year by the full rate of inflation.
Claire Coutinho was making her first public appearance as the new minister at a fringe meeting at the party conference in Birmingham on Sunday when she made the promise.
She had been asked by Disability News Service (DNS) if she could guarantee that disabled people would not pay through real terms cuts to their benefits for the chancellor’s decision to cut taxes for the most well-off.
Coutinho said – correctly (PDF) – that the government was obliged by law to raise some benefits, including personal independence payment (PIP), disability living allowance (DLA) and carer’s allowance, by the rate of inflation*, as part of the annual uprating process.
She also said that increases in other benefits – such universal credit and employment and support allowance – “will be looked at” as part of the “normal process” of uprating, with April’s increases to be announced next month.
When DNS asked her to confirm that benefits such as PIP and DLA would be increased by the September rate of inflation, she said: “Yes.”
And when asked if that was guaranteed, she replied: “Yes, I’ve checked with the department [for work and pensions].”
Although the government has a legal duty to raise benefits such as PIP, DLA and carer’s allowance by the rate of inflation, there is nothing to stop it trying to change the law so that that would no longer be the case.
DNS contacted the Conservative party press office several times this week to try to confirm that what Coutinho said was correct.
The party had refused to comment on Coutinho’s promise by noon today (Thursday), despite being warned that its failure to do so could undermine the new minister.
Instead, a party press officer eventually referred the question to the Department for Work and Pensions, which confirmed – because the conference was a party political event – that it could not comment on the minister’s words.
It came as new research showed 335,000 deaths in Britain between 2012 and 2019 can be linked to austerity era cuts to public services and social security.
The refusal to back Coutinho came during a chaotic party conference in which – following an early U-turn on plans to scrap the 45p income tax rate – a series of leading Conservative figures then called on the new prime minister, Liz Truss, to dismiss suggestions from people close to her that benefits would not be increased by the full rate of inflation next April.
Among those calling for the full increase was former work and pensions secretary Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who said that if the government wanted to grow the economy, the best way of doing so was to support people at the lower end of the income scale through the benefits system.
He told a ConservativeHome and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) fringe meeting: “I would like the government to think of it as a positive. Support the people who need it the most.”
Katie Schmuecker, JRF’s principal policy advisor, had earlier told the meeting that the basic rate of benefits was now “at its lowest in real terms for 40 years” and was close to “destitution” level for single adults without children.
Another former minister to speak out on benefits was John Glen, a Treasury minister for more than four years until July this year.
He told a Centre for Social Justice fringe meeting: “We need to be a united country that recognises that for the poorest, this is going to be an incredibly challenging time, and therefore we need to support people, as the new chancellor set out in the energy support package, through these difficult times.
“We mustn’t revert to a narrative that says there are people who are relying on benefits and they shouldn’t be uprated properly.”
Glen also appeared to criticise Truss for comments she made about the cost-of-living crisis earlier this year, during the Conservative leadership contest, when she told the Financial Times: “Of course I will look at what more can be done.
“But the way I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts.”
Glen, who supported Rishi Sunak in the leadership election, said: “What is really clear to me was that there was some talk over the summer about the need to end handouts.
“No there isn’t, there can’t be. There are some people who are in such a vulnerable state there isn’t a growth imperative or outcome that is going to resolve the situation… this coming autumn or winter.”
Meanwhile, the new work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith – until recently the minister for disabled people – avoided making a set-piece conference speech, choosing instead to be interviewed by entrepreneur Eleanor Howie, who set up her business Valiant Lingerie after opting for a preventative mastectomy because of a family history of breast cancer.
Smith, who herself has recovered from breast cancer, told the conference that “work is very good for one’s health”.
Many disabled people and others have said repeatedly that that is not always true, and even Public Health England has said only that being “in good work is better for your health than being out of work”.
Although she made no new policy announcements, Smith suggested that she would order a fresh bid to force those on out-of-work disability benefits into the workplace, echoing the comments of her predecessor Therese Coffey at last year’s conference.
Smith told a half-empty venue on Monday: “We do see rising inactivity driven by increasing numbers of people leaving the workforce to health problems and also some different choices being taken by the over-50s. We of course want to retain that talent.”
Her plans are likely to emerge in a new health and disability white paper, which is expected soon.
She also told the conference: “We need as Conservatives to focus on what people can do, not what they can’t.”
The use of that phrase dates back through various Conservative ministers over the last decade and then even further, at least as far as the Labour work and pensions secretary Peter Hain in 2007, who used it to explain the need to introduce the new employment and support allowance and the work capability assessment.
As some had predicted when the legislation was passing through parliament earlier this year, Smith tried to use the passing of the new British Sign Language Act – a private members’ bill she had supported – as a sign that her government was committed to addressing disabled people’s exclusion from society.
She said: “I believe there is much more we can do to help people get the chances that they deserve because of course as Conservatives that is what we believe, and everyone needs the chance of a good job.
“When I was the minister for disabled people, I saw as an example how Deaf people were too often left out, too often excluded from work or in education or in wider society and that was why I was so proud to help lead the changes represented by the BSL Act.”
In fact, although the act recognised BSL as a language in England, Scotland and Wales, British Sign Language-users were warned that it provided them with no new rights and offered no new funding.
*In line with the consumer prices index (CPI) rate of inflation in September 2022
6 October 2022
Government accessible transport adviser quits over rail staffing ‘discrimination’
A leading expert on accessible transport has quit his role as a government adviser after accusing ministers of backing policies on de-staffing the rail network that discriminate against disabled rail passengers, and ignoring his committee’s advice.
Matthew Smith, a key member of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC), told new accessibility minister Kevin Foster that the government’s already discriminatory staffing policies look set to get “drastically worse” if it goes ahead with secret plans for mass ticket office closures.
He told the minister, in a resignation letter he delivered yesterday (Wednesday), that DPTAC had repeatedly warned the Department for Transport (DfT) about the “toxic combination of driver-only trains and unstaffed stations” and urged it to secure legal advice.
His letter says DfT failed to share its plans for closing ticket offices and cutting staff on the railways with DPTAC, despite the committee’s legal duty to advise ministers on the impact of their rail policies on disabled people.
Smith says that ministers repeatedly ignored DPTAC’s advice that they should adopt a “new methodology” of assessing the benefits of current rail staffing levels and using that as a comparison with their plans for the rail network.
He says in the letter: “In the absence of any evidence based analysis, it can only be assumed that the government lacks an economic case for these plans.”
And he speaks of his “profound disappointment about rail staffing policies that are currently discriminating against disabled people”.
In the letter, he urges Foster and his ministerial colleagues “to address the problems I have described and create an inclusive staffing model that permits travel on a ‘turn up and go’ basis across the rail network, and supports disabled people’s full participation in society”.
Smith says in the letter that he was the author of the Rail Workforce Reform report that concluded that staffing levels on part of the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) network in London were “completely inadequate to deliver an accessible railway”.
But he tells Foster that these impacts “apply wherever the combination of driver-only trains and unstaffed stations is in use”, including services run by several train operators in south-east England.
Smith’s letter is the latest warning shot delivered to the government from disabled people, accessibility experts and campaigners about the “escalating human rights crisis” for disabled passengers caused by staffing issues across the rail network.
Last month, reports suggested that the government’s rail reforms were likely to see about four-fifths of ticket offices closing, while campaigners led by the Association of British Commuters have called on the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to take “urgent action” on railway staffing.
Matthews’ letter was copied to EHRC’s chair, Baroness Falkner.
GTR has admitted, in a document leaked last month, that it had been breaching access laws for more than 10 years across large parts of its rail network because of insufficient staffing levels across its Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern rail franchise in England.
Ann Bates, DPTAC’s former chair and vice-chair, said she was “greatly saddened and disappointed to hear that Matthew Smith had, after much soul-searching, decided to resign from DPTAC”.
She said: “As a past chair and vice-chair, also chair of the rail group, acting as statutory advisors to ministers on the needs of disabled passengers, and interpretation of the various laws and codes of guidance, was one of the honours of my career.
“We worked under the Nolan principles as a bridge between the industry and passengers’ needs, and we were often included in negotiations to spread corporate memory and value for money with great success.
“That Matthew doesn’t believe that DPTAC now has a listening audience for their excellent advice (some of which I have been privileged to see) is an enormous disappointment and a waste of real talent in the partnership working that is so necessary in transport (especially with the new railway reforms) for success in the future.”
Keith Richards, DPTAC’s current chair, said: “Matthew’s resignation from DPTAC will be deeply felt.
“He has been an incredibly valuable member of the committee, bringing not only his extensive knowledge and experience of the rail industry but a deep understanding of accessibility and of what is needed in practice to deliver real change for disabled people.
“He has played a key part in DPTAC’s regular open and honest discussions with the Department for Transport, helping us to present our advice in a clear and robust way, and also developing tools to help the department assess the impact of its decisions on accessibility.
“DPTAC’s views on the importance of staffing to an accessible railway are well known and in the public domain.
“DPTAC will continue to work closely with the department, delivering constructive challenge, providing evidence-based advice, and never being afraid to tell it like it is.”
An EHRC spokesperson said: “We are aware of the concerns Mr Smith raises in his resignation letter to the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, and we are carefully considering the most appropriate regulatory response.
“The Equality and Human Rights Commission is committed to upholding disabled people’s right to equal travel.
“We know that many disabled or older passengers rely on station staff and ticket offices to access rail services.
“Under the Equality Act, all service providers must make reasonable adjustments to ensure disabled people are not unfairly disadvantaged”.
DfT said Foster would reply formally to the letter in due course.
It said it was ensuring the industry and all train operators carry out analysis of the impact of any proposed changes to ticket offices on different groups protected under the Equality Act, and that it would consider such analysis.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the new transport secretary, told the Conservative party conference in Birmingham this week that she was “asking industry to launch consultations on reforming our ticket office provision across the country”.
She said: “There will be some stations where the ticket office will be important to the running of the station.
“In other areas rail employees may be better in front of the glass helping passengers in other ways.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “We would like to thank Matthew Smith for his five years of service as a member of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee.
“We’re committed to transforming accessibility across the UK rail network, and have dedicated £383 million for such improvements at rail stations which will deliver more than 100 accessible step free routes and smaller scale access enhancements at 124 stations.”
The £383 million refers to spending on the government’s long-standing Access for All programme and covers the five years from 2019 to 2024.
6 October 2022
Anger over lockdown comments of former minister for disabled people
Former minister for disabled people Esther McVey has angered campaigners after an “ill-informed and offensive” demand that the government must never order another lockdown, despite the measure probably saving tens of thousands of disabled people’s lives during the pandemic.
McVey, who is also a former work and pensions secretary, described the COVID-19 lockdowns as “one of the most idiotic policies ever to have occurred and something we must never ever do again”.
The Office for National Statistics repeatedly found that nearly 60 per cent of those who died Covid-related deaths during the pandemic were disabled people, and most academic studies have found that lockdowns were successful in reducing the spread of the virus and the number of deaths.
Disabled people’s organisations this week expressed their alarm at the comments, which were made at this week’s Conservative party conference in Birmingham.
McVey, who is still an MP but also works as a presenter for the right-wing news channel GB News, was speaking at a fringe meeting organised by the Centre for Social Justice.
She told the meeting: “Who on earth thought that closing the economy and the country down for two years, pay people to stay at home, and print money at will, and think that we could get away with it?
“Who thought that could be damage-free? It couldn’t be and it wasn’t.”
She added: “Some of us tried to warn continuous lockdowns would have consequences but no-one at the time really wanted to listen.”
She said later in the meeting that the lockdowns were “awful” but that a Labour government would have “done it worse”.
Disability News Service (DNS) emailed McVey’s office after the meeting to ask if she believed that the lives of many disabled people would in the future have to be sacrificed for the sake of economic growth if there was another life-threatening pandemic.
She had not responded by noon today (Thursday).
But Fazilet Hadi, head of policy for Disability Rights UK, told DNS: “These comments are ill-informed, unfeeling and offensive.
“Lockdowns prevented people dying and arguably the first one should have started earlier in March 2020.
“There are many valid criticisms that could have been made of the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, including reducing the Care Act rights of disabled people, discharging people with Covid into care homes, delays in providing care workers with personal protective equipment and testing, insufficient regard to reasonable adjustments, and a failure to communicate vital healthcare messages in British Sign Language and other alternative formats.
“Yet, as a former minister for disabled people, none of these criticisms were made.
“The Covid inquiry started to look at the government’s pre-pandemic planning earlier this week and whilst I’m sure it will find much to criticise, I doubt the proposed use of lockdowns will be challenged.”
Another disabled people’s organisation, Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS), which has played a key role in highlighting the continuing seriousness of the Covid pandemic and its impact on disabled people, was also critical of McVey’s comments.
In a statement, BuDS said: “Ideology must not take priority over facts.
“The lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 saved hundreds of thousands of lives by reducing the spread of a deadly virus for which [before the end of 2020] there was no effective vaccine.
“Lockdowns do have negative impacts, but they don’t kill people or cause long-term illness and disability.
“We completely reject Ester McVey’s view that lockdowns can never be repeated.
“If Covid mutates into an even more deadly form, we could not sit idly and watch it kill hundreds of thousands of people.”
BuDS said it also rejected the way that some politicians describe all public health precautions against Covid as “lockdowns”, adding: “Requiring people to wear face masks in high-risk places, or requiring buildings to have air filtering or purification, is not a ‘lockdown’.
“They are sensible public health precautions used by numerous other European nations whose economy has not been damaged by them.
“Allowing Covid to run riot now is the surest way of making it necessary for lockdowns in the future.”
Andrew Clark, chair of BuDS, added: “This idea that lockdowns – particularly the short lockdowns we had in England – are deeply damaging to people and worse than catching the virus is simply a fatuous excuse.”
But one disabled Conservative councillor at the conference told DNS that she supported McVey’s position.
Cllr Joanne Howey, a member of the Conservative group on Durham County Council, said she was clinically vulnerable to Covid herself – and had caught the virus despite two injections – but still argued against any future lockdowns.
She said: “I have seen the mental impact of lockdown on children. A full lockdown is the worst place we could go.”
She said the government should “give people that choice”.
She said: “We give them that choice if they want to stay at home. I am with Esther on that one.
“I just think we should be able to make our own choices.
“I have had calls from people who are really, really mentally ill now because they don’t know how to mix in society anymore.
“It’s not because I want to go out and kill people, it’s because I worry about mental health.”
6 October 2022
Mother ‘cries tears of joy’ after winning second chance to challenge DWP inquest ruling
The mother of a disabled woman who took her own life when her benefits were wrongly stopped has described how she cried “tears of joy” after being told she had won another chance to seek a second inquest into her daughter’s death.
Joy Dove believes the first inquest in May 2017 – which lasted just 37 minutes – was not a “thorough investigation” into the role played by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the death of her daughter, Jodey Whiting.
The high court refused in September 2021 to quash the result of the first inquest and to order a second one, and then refused her permission to appeal that decision.
But now the Court of Appeal has granted Dove permission to appeal the high court ruling.
If she is successful at the Court of Appeal, a second inquest could investigate DWP’s failings in depth.
Dove, who is disabled herself, waited nearly a year to hear if she would be granted permission to appeal.
She said the ruling showed DWP that the fight for justice for her daughter was not yet over.
She said: “I can see Jodey with a big smile on her face.
“I didn’t mind waiting because no news is good news. I kept saying that to myself.”
It came as her book, which describes her years of campaigning to expose the role DWP played in Jodey’s death, is due to be published on Thursday (13 October).
She said she cried “tears of joy” when she received the news that their legal bid had been successful from her solicitor, Leigh Day’s Merry Varney.
She told Disability News Service that her emotions had been “up and down” over the last year but that she had been distracted by the imminent publication of her book, A Mother’s Job.
She said she would keep fighting until she had won “justice for Jodey”.
She said: “The DWP thought it was finished with, but this has given me a new lease of life.”
Dove has been granted permission to appeal on both the grounds that her legal team had put forward on her behalf.
They had argued that the high court was wrong to find that it was not necessary to hold a new inquest in the interests of justice, based on the new evidence that was now available; and that it was wrong to dismiss the need for a new inquest to examine possible breaches of article two of the Human Rights Act, which covers the right to life.
Dove thanked Varney and the rest of her legal team, and the judge who granted her permission to appeal and “has taken on all the evidence”, as well as the many supporters of her campaign.
Varney said: “The Court of Appeal’s decision to grant Joy permission to appeal is a very welcome and significant step forward.
“Joy’s fight for a full and fearless inquest to investigate Jodey’s death continues.
“We look forward to presenting Joy’s case for a new inquest to the Court of Appeal in the coming months.”
The high court ruled last year that DWP’s errors in dealing with Jodey Whiting’s claim “amounted to individual failings attributable to mistakes or bad judgment” and were not “systemic or structural in nature”.
The court reached the ruling even though scores of deaths have been linked to DWP’s systemic failings, including its refusal to act on reports by coroners following inquests in 2010 and 2014 and a report in March 2014 by the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland.
In July, a draft version of the Deaths by Welfare timeline* brought together more than 30 years of evidence linking DWP’s systemic failings with the deaths of claimants, including Jodey Whiting’s.
The timeline shows DWP was alerted more than 40 times to life-threatening systemic flaws in DWP’s disability benefits systems over the past 30 years.
Jodey Whiting took her own life in February 2017, 15 days after she had her employment and support allowance (ESA) wrongly stopped for missing a work capability assessment.
She had been a long-time claimant of incapacity benefit, and then ESA, and DWP and its assessors had previously noted the severity of her mental distress, and the risk that would be posed if she was found fit for work.
They were also aware of her long history of suicidal ideation.
At the time of the assessment, she was unable to leave her house because she had pneumonia, had been in hospital, and had found out that she had a cyst on her brain.
A DWP spokesperson said: “This is an incredibly tragic case and our condolences remain with Ms Whiting’s family.
“We cannot comment on active legal proceedings.”
*DNS editor John Pring is co-creator of the timeline
6 October 2022
New minister for disabled people on the social model, cost-of-living and jobs
For someone who still claims to be “backing Boris” on her own website, it may not be surprising that the new minister for disabled people, Claire Coutinho, is not yet up to speed on important aspects of her new post.
Coutinho’s role has still not been confirmed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), with its website still describing her as a junior minister this morning (Thursday), but giving no clue as to her portfolio.
But Coutinho made two appearances as the minister for disabled people at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham this week.
In her second appearance, at a Scope fringe event that focused on its campaign for more accessible playgrounds, Coutinho admitted to Disability News Service (DNS) that she was “not aware” of the social model of disability, and so was unable to say how it would impact her work as the minister for disabled people.
DWP’s failure to brief her on the social model meant she repeatedly referred to “people with disabilities” rather than “disabled people” throughout her speeches.
She declined an interview with DNS, explaining that it was too soon to be questioned about her new role, although a DWP spokesperson separately said that she “does not have time for an interview while she is at conference this week”.
Most of her two speeches, at the Scope fringe event, and an earlier meeting organised by the Conservative Disability Group (CDG), were uncontroversial.
She said the disability portfolio was “one of the ones I would have picked” if she had had a choice, and she highlighted the importance of increasing the number of disabled people in work, mirroring comments made to the conference by work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith, her predecessor in the post.
Coutinho told the CDG fringe event: “We can see the number of people, who I know I am very worried about, who become economically inactive because of health conditions.”
Although it was not entirely clear what employment-related policy she was referring to, she also told the meeting: “We will have to [have] very close joint working between our department, the DWP, and the health department to make sure that we are not holding people back because of treatment that they need.”
She mentioned the “huge challenge” of the cost-of-living crisis, including for disabled people with their “higher costs”, and she detailed the government’s package of financial support, including the £150 payment for those on disability benefits.
In the CDG event, she said that accessibility was something she was “passionate” about, and she linked this with her belief in the importance of “community” and “having that sense of neighbourhood”, a theme she repeated in the Scope event when she also spoke – briefly – of the importance of accessible transport.
She also made it clear that she was aware of the problems within the disability benefits system, and how important it was that “people have a good experience”.
She said: “The first time that people interact with a system they should try and get a right decision as soon as possible.”
She also referenced the delays in the “brilliant” Access to Work scheme and said: “I know people have had long waits, but I think the potential for that scheme is enormous.”
She talked briefly about her career and her family, telling the Scope meeting: “Everyone in my family works for the NHS, we have a lot of GPs.
“I am the black sheep of the family. I am a Conservative politician and everyone else works for the NHS.”
Coutinho has worked as a special adviser to the Treasury and 10 Downing Street, and she was appointed as a parliamentary private secretary to the Treasury in March 2020 following her election as an MP in December 2019.
She is also one of two new DWP ministers – Alex Burghart, the new pensions minister, is a former director of policy – with connections to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the centre-right thinktank co-founded by former work and pensions secretary Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
She spent two years writing a report on access to financial services for low-income families, which was published by CSJ in 2015.
Although it does discuss the impact of debt on mental health, the barriers faced by vulnerable customers, and how those with mental distress often find it difficult to access financial services, there is no mention across the 113-page report of disabled people generally and their problems accessing financial services.
Coutinho began her career at investment banking giant Merrill Lynch in July 2008, just after it reported huge losses as part of the US sub-prime lending crisis that caused the worldwide recession.
She worked at Merrill Lynch for nearly four years, through the worst of the global recession.
6 October 2022
Conservative conference: Leading disabled Tories raise concerns over cuts threat
Leading disabled members of the Conservative party have raised concerns over possible government plans to make further cuts to benefits and public spending.
Speaking at the party conference in Birmingham, they expressed alarm at the possibility of further cuts to support for disabled people so soon after the decade of austerity that led up to the pandemic.
Although most disabled members appeared to welcome the chancellor’s decision to scrap his plans to abolish the 45p top rate of income tax, there have been growing concerns this week over reports that Kwasi Kwarteng and prime minister Liz Truss do not want to uprate benefits by the full rate of inflation next April.
It came as new research showed 335,000 deaths in Britain between 2012 and 2019 can be linked to austerity era cuts to public services and social security.
But some disabled party members insisted that the chancellor was on the right track, and one blamed opponents within the party for sabotaging last week’s mini-budget.
Barry Ginley, chair of the Conservative Disability Group (CDG), told Disability News Service (DNS) that he was concerned at reports of further cuts to benefits and other public services that affect disabled people.
Ginley wrote in August to Truss, and her opponent Rishi Sunak, when they were fighting to win the party leadership, asking them to focus on issues including the need to “make it a priority to help disabled people with low incomes receive assistance with rising bills”.
He said this week: “The CDG will continue to press government to ensure no benefits are cut and disabled people receive the support required.”
He pointed to a pledge to DNS this week from the new minister for disabled people, Claire Coutinho (see separate story), that disability benefits such as personal independence payment, disability living allowance and attendance allowance would continue to be uprated next April by the full rate of inflation*.
He said he hoped that guarantee would be kept.
Ginley said he had not believed a mini-budget had been necessary. “I do believe in tax cuts to put more money into people’s pockets, especially for people on low income, but this isn’t the time to do so.
“I would have felt more comfortable for any tax cuts when the Office for Budget Responsibility would have had time to assess the economic impacts and how the economy can be balanced.”
He added: “As a disability-led organisation with a breadth of lived experience of disability, the CDG has a wide demographic in our membership, and we are not all from the wealthy side of the party.
“I would ask the government to prioritise disabled people, as often we are the people who are most affected in any cuts or can often be forgotten when policy decisions are being made.
“I would urge the government to engage with disability organisations, to hear what disabled people need to get them through such difficult times.
“The CDG will be looking to meet with ministers to ensure that we are not forgotten, and we receive the necessary support.”
Cllr Charles Fifield, a CDG executive member, and a member of Cheshire West and Chester Council, told the group’s fringe meeting that he agreed with calls for the government to do more for disabled people, which had been made by speakers from the disability charities Scope and Mencap.
Scope’s Louise Rubin had said that “a lot of disabled people have felt abandoned by this government, particularly during Covid, also now during this cost-of-living crisis”, that the current crisis was “hitting disabled people hard”, and that the benefits system “simply doesn’t provide enough money to live on”.
Mencap’s Ismail Kaji said the government had not done enough to help disabled people who were “already having to choose between food and heat”.
Fifield told the fringe meeting on Sunday after they had spoken: “What I’ve just heard from the two previous speakers, I agree with everything that they have said.”
He later confirmed to DNS that he agreed with the general concerns they had raised.
Other disabled party members were less concerned about the possibility of further cuts.
Political commentator and radio presenter Stephen Carlton-Woods said he had been happy with the idea of scrapping the 45p income tax rate, and he was critical of the decision to abandon that policy, blaming “toxic” elements in his own party.
He said: “This conference is about this party coming together and uniting. They have just thrown a spanner in the works. It’s not helping the party.”
He said he was “not at all” concerned about possible cuts to public spending, and with the possibility that means-tested benefits might rise by much less than the rate of inflation.
He said: “No-one is comfortable with austerity, but we do recognise that you have to pay your bills sometimes.
“The reasoning behind it, yes, I am on board with it. You have to be pragmatic.”
Carlton-Woods said it was “inevitable” that some of the cuts to public services would affect disabled people.
He said: “We have got to balance the books at some stage. I heavily sympathise with people in that situation and that’s why I do the charity work that I do.”
But he added: “The government have a duty to balance the books.”
Another disabled party member was also supportive of the chancellor.
Cllr Joanne Howey, a member of the Conservative group on Durham County Council, said that – other than the “mistake” of suggesting the 45p income tax rate should be scrapped – the mini-budget had been “quite good”.
Asked about reports that the chancellor will not give public services any further funding this year to make up for the steep rise in inflation, she said: “I still think there is a lot of money if people know where to go.”
Howey said Kwarteng had not been given enough time, despite the error with the 45p tax rate, and she wanted to see his full fiscal plan, now expected later this month.
She said: “I don’t think we have given him enough time. The 45 per cent [abolition] was a mistake. The one per cent off [the basic rate of income tax] is going to help; we will start growing again.
“We are still not back after Covid. It’s a really difficult situation.”
Asked if she would be comfortable with the government not increasing means-tested benefits such as universal credit (UC) and employment and support allowance by the full rate of inflation next April, she said she was most concerned about “the working poor”.
She said: “I know a lot of people working on that bread line on UC… they really are struggling at the moment. It’s the working poor that are really, really struggling.”
Asked if she was more concerned about the working poor than those not in work, she said: “At the minute, I am. I help in food banks. I see what’s going on.”
She said she would be “a little bit concerned” if UC did not rise by the full rate of inflation next April.
Another disabled party member, who asked not to be named, said: “I have faith that it will work but they do need to always keep disabled people in mind.
“They do need to make life more accessible. They need to make sure that disabled people can pay for heating and carers.”
Asked if he would be concerned at further spending cuts, he declined to comment further.
Another disabled party member, a borough councillor, was also reluctant to be interviewed, twice giving excuses for not answering questions from DNS.
*In line with the consumer price index (CPI) rate of inflation in September 2022
6 October 2022
Disabled protesters’ anger at Conservatives over spending cuts
Disabled people from Birmingham who attended a protest near the Conservative party conference this week described their anger at the government’s tax-cutting announcements and fears of further spending cuts.
They were among those who gathered in the centre of Birmingham to “protest the Tory conference”, in a demonstration organised by the TUC and the People’s Assembly.
The protest took place before the announcement that Tory chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng would not after all abolish the 45 per cent top rate of income tax, which would have helped those with incomes over £150,000.
But the government also announced that it was scrapping the cap on bankers’ bonuses, and there have been mounting reports of plans for further real terms cuts to public services, including social security, following soon after the decade of austerity that led up to the pandemic.
It came as new research showed 335,000 deaths in Britain between 2012 and 2019 can be linked to austerity era cuts to public services and social security.
Jo Winter, one of the disabled people from Birmingham who attended the protest, told Disability News Service (DNS): “There aren’t even words to describe what they could have done.
“What they did was just give tax cuts to rich people and lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses.
“There are so many things that they could have done. They could have reinstated the uplift to universal credit.
“People are freezing and unable to eat. People are just going to die, and they seem completely untouched by that.
“During the last 12 years of Tory government, the gap between rich and poor has just got wider and wider.
“There is no way forward unless there is a change of government because the level of poverty in this country and the stripping back of public services is so entrenched.”
Another disabled protester, Rebecca Jukes, said the government was clearly “not listening” and had even ignored the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund.
She said: “Some of the stories that are coming through [from disabled people] are horrific.”
She said that those disabled people who need electricity the most are those who will pay the most, such as people who have to use medical equipment 24-hours-a-day.
Jukes said the future of the NHS was a “major worry” for her, particularly as she has type one diabetes and has heard of people in the US dying because they are having to ration their insulin.
She said: “The thought of an American-style system terrifies me.
“I think if I was struggling, I cannot imagine how terrified I would be.”
Jae Robinson, who spoke on the stage about the lethal impact of the social care crisis and government spending cuts, said that Kwarteng’s mini-budget was “totally obscene”.
She told DNS: “How many people are going to die, because that’s what it has come down to?”
She said she would protest by refusing to pay any more than she is at present for her utilities.
She said: “I will just continue to pay what I am paying for my bills, because I can’t afford to pay any more.
“Benefit levels are so low – how can people afford to pay their bills? How can they pay for fuel; how can they pay for food?”
6 October 2022
CHOICE to mark 30 years of disabled-led success, despite austerity ‘struggle’
By Tom McDonough
A disabled people’s organisation is to mark its success in reaching its 30th birthday as a user-led organisation, despite facing a decade of funding challenges and austerity, and the recent challenges posed by the pandemic.
CHOICE IN HACKNEY, based in east London, was founded in 1992 and has grown since then from a staff of two providing a single service from a small office in a hospital into a community hub with nine staff members and 90 volunteers.
Caroline Nelson, CHOICE’s chief executive, said: “Thirty years ago we started as a small advocacy project and now CHOICE has grown into a community resource with service-users who return to us again and again to dip into our broad range of services.”
She added: “Another key achievement is that we have continued to be run by and for disabled people, demonstrating that we are in tune with our client group at a grassroots level and can identify with their needs and aspirations in an empathetic way.”
CHOICE’s 30th anniversary celebrations have been put on hold until next year because of the cost-of-living crisis and an expected new wave of Covid infections.
Nelson said the organisation’s key achievements included its success in diversifying its funding sources and plugging into consortiums that enable it to link with other disabled people’s organisations.
She said: “Over the years, our funding sources have also grown from having our initial two small funders (the local and health authorities) to having a diverse range of funders that include trusts, banks, foundations and central government, allowing us to expand our services and also our service-users and geographic reach.
“CHOICE has also formed an integral part of many consortiums and works in partnership with other DDPOs*.
“This allows us to reach out to more disabled people and raise awareness of the service we provide.”
Funding difficulties had been the key challenge facing her organisation over the last three decades.
She said: “The ability to have a continuous, sustainable supply of funding remains the biggest challenge.
“Pre-pandemic it was a real struggle to be able to continue our services without dipping into our small reserves.
“Funding pots were shrinking and too many charities were scrambling for them.”
There are now more pots of funding available, but many offer only short-term support and require an intensive amount of work to bid for – with no guarantee of success – tying up staff who could be supporting the organisation’s other services.
Paul Salt, CHOICE’s community volunteer officer, said: “Funding is the main challenge, and it has become especially difficult under the last 12 years of austerity measures, which have seen charity grants slashed and the entire sector come under enormous stress.
“And pressure on the care system and NHS during austerity has passed on terrible burdens to our service-users, making it very hard to support them.
“However, the perseverance of the team ensures disabled people still have a voice to fight for their rights.”
The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns have given CHOICE some pointers as to what it should and can do next to remain in step with the needs of disabled people.
During the pandemic, disabled people became more isolated and their need for advocacy support grew stronger as vital services were suspended or reduced and fundamental safeguards were peeled back under the Coronavirus Act.
Nelson said: “This is another opportunity for us to introduce disabled people to services such as confidence-building because they have spent months locked indoors with little or no engagement while being denied their rights.”
She added: “For the future we’d like to extend our offer of independent advocacy and training services which we currently provide to other London boroughs even further.
“We know this is possible now as during the lockdown people joined our training courses online from all over the UK.”
CHOICE says it has taken its lead from disabled people in deciding which services to set up.
Its flagship advocacy service has grown to offer support to disabled people with a wide range of needs.
Salt said: “Our advocates help service-users to fight for what they are entitled to.
“For example, one service-user, who has physical disabilities and limited mobility, was assisted to move into suitable housing when the local authority was telling him to go to an inaccessible hostel.
“By arguing the point of law that disabled people must be given priority in social housing, the advocate was able to support the client to immediately move into a newly available flat on the ground floor of a new housing block. The paint was still wet!”
Other services offered by CHOICE include a programme to support disabled people into taking up regular gentle exercise; a befriending service; and support for survivors of hate crime.
The training programme originally focused on supporting disabled people to advocate for themselves, but it is now independently accredited and includes hate crime and domestic violence modules, supporting more than 40 people a year to improve their confidence and employment prospects.
One disabled person who completed the course said it had been an “eye-opener” on disability issues and the importance of the social model of disability.
He said: “I can’t believe CHOICE has been going for 30 years. It’s incredible to think of all those people they’ve helped. I hope they last another 30.”
*Deaf and disabled people’s organisations
This news story is part of an ongoing Disability News Service series that highlights the vital work of the UK’s disabled people’s organisations
6 October 2022
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Disabled people are going without essential medication because they cannot afford to pay for it amid the cost-of-living crisis. Charities have reported a rise in calls to their hotlines from members of the public who have stopped taking essential medication and have halted treatments to alleviate some their physical symptoms. One in 20 disabled people have stopped buying medicines or paying for health treatments they need while one in 12 have reduced the use of assistive technology such as hoists and electric wheelchairs to save energy, according to research by the disability charity Scope: https://inews.co.uk/news/health/cost-of-living-crisis-people-with-disabilities-and-chronic-illness-forced-to-go-without-vital-medication-1888551
An autistic man who has been held in a secure hospital for 21 years has been told he can finally go home. Tony Hickmott, 45, was sectioned after he had a mental health crisis in 2001, and despite a long fight by his family, he has not been released since. Last year, a judge criticised his detention, telling authorities to find a home near his parents, in Brighton. A care team for Mr Hickmott is now being assembled and he is expected in a new home in his home town next month: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62819017
Suella Braverman has claimed a “Benefits Street culture” still exists in the UK amid a row over whether benefit payments should rise in line with inflation. The home secretary was referring to the controversial Channel 4 documentary series aired in 2014 that was criticised for portraying social security claimants in a derogatory light. Braverman refused to be drawn on whether benefits should be uprated in line with inflation — currently running at 9.9 per cent — saying it was “under review”: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/suella-braverman-claims-benefits-street-culture-still-exists-in-britain-despite-cost-of-living-crisis_uk_633c3ccbe4b04cf8f366e35e
Campaigners have accused the government of “unforgivable” failings after previously unreleased figures suggested the majority of successful disability benefit appeals were because of errors by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). According to previously unpublished data held by DWP, 59 per cent of successful tribunal appeals by applicants for personal independence payment (PIP) since the start of 2021 were because the tribunal “reached a different conclusion on substantially the same facts”. This indicates that tribunals – which consistently uphold about 70 per cent of PIP appeals – concluded that the DWP had made the wrong decisions based on the information it already had: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/01/unforgivable-uk-government-errors-denied-thousands-disability-benefits
6 October 2022
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
