Here is the second response we have had to our questions to Labour’s Leader and Deputy Leader election candidates.
Angela Rayner is a Deputy Leader candidate and here are her responses. You can see the full set of questions here
Angela Rayner – Q&A for Disabled People Against Cuts
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) are asking all leader and deputy leader candidates about their attitude and beliefs around a few specific issues and we will be posting your responses, or alternatively lack of them if that is the case, on our website for our supporters information and to help inform their voting preferences for the forthcoming election.
Could we ask you your position on the following issues –
Do you agree that Universal Credit should be stopped and scrapped?
Yes. A Labour government should stop the UC roll out and build a different system, fit for purpose, that treats people with dignity and respect.
Do you agree that there needs to be a total reform of welfare including scrapping PIP and ESA both of which have been shown to fail and cause harm to disabled people.
Social security is meant to help disabled people cope with the additional costs and disadvantages they face, not dehumanise them. I would support instantly raising the level at which ESA is paid by £30 a week, and then changing the system in consultation with those it affects, as well as scrapping and replacing PIP.
Would you end all sanctions on claimants?
Employment support is supposed to be positive in helping people secure work, not punitive and punishing for being unable to work. I would end the Tories’ sanctions regime and ensure that everyone has access to a decent standard of living.
Would you support ending contracts to discredited private firms for carrying out disability assessments and making GPs responsible for deciding who is and isn’t fit to work again?
Yes, for years I fought against privatisation of public services as a trade unionist with Unison; as a Labour front bencher I don’t just want to resist it but reverse it.
Would you make a commitment to provide greater support through Access to Work funding to reduce the disability employment gap at the same time as committing to work not being a health outcome for those disabled people who feel unable to work.
Access to Work Funding is not enough to help those who feel able to work into employment. We need so many of those precious resources and lifelines, cut by the Tory Government, back again to make the transition back into work for those who can work easier and to allow people to stay in work if their health deteriorates. A Labour Government will not punish those who cannot work and will instead treat everyone with dignity and respect.
Would you support a truly independent Claimant deaths inquiry and possible prosecutions of previous ministers if found to be culpable.
I have supported Labour colleagues’ calls for an independent inquiry to ensure justice for the victims of a failing system. No one is above the law, even – or especially – government ministers. No one has the right to risk other’s lives for misplaced political ideology, and a benefits system that treats all with respect and dignity should be a key plank of a civilised country.
Would you support a legal right to Independent Living and DPAC’s National Independent Living Strategy co-produced with disabled people. https://dpac.uk.net/2019/04/a-national-independent-living-support-service/nilss-easy-read/ easy read
https://dpac.uk.net/2019/04/a-national-independent-living-support-service/
It is imperative that we look at new solutions for independent living, and those can only come from disabled people themselves. We don’t need a system imposed on those that already know what they need, we in Westminster need to listen and encourage the less listened to, to offer their experiences. This is about wellbeing as well as health, and if we don’t value independence, mobility and the rights of disabled people we are failing as a society.
Within London alone 66% of Personal Assistants (Care Workers) employed by disabled people come from the EU. Unless the government remove the ridiculously high earnings levels and widen out their policies on who can work in the UK after Brexit this will create a national crisis. How would you be willing to prevent this happening?
As a former home carer for older and disabled people myself, I know how important the role of care workers is. The loss of highly skilled, but sadly low paid, Personal Assistants threatens to be a disaster for thousands who rely on their support to live independently.
The government assesses care as not “skilled” work because it is undervalued and underpaid; but low paid does not mean low skilled. Their immigration policy is fundamentally flawed and needs to be challenged along with so much of the Tories’ Brexit policy. We will need to work alongside trade unions representing carers and Labour councils delivering care, both to call for different policies and to mitigate the damage this will cause.
Would you support legal status for BSL?
As someone who uses BSL myself to communicate with loved ones and in previous voluntary roles I know how vital BSL is for some people to be able to be both independent and participate in society more widely. As Shadow Education Secretary I wanted to promote the teaching and learning of BSL in the same way that I benefited from learning it for free at my local further education college before the Tory cuts.
I believe there is much we can learn from countries like Finland and New Zealand in ensuring that sign language is afforded official status, and would happily follow their lead, guided by the wishes of those who rely on it to communicate.
Would you adopt the UNCRPD into domestic legislation?
As shadow education secretary I ensured that Labour committed to enshrining the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law, and in this spirit I believe it would be right for the UK to write the UNCRPD recommendations into legislation to ensure we are respecting and valuing the contributions of everyone.
Do you support Assisted Suicide?
I am hugely aware of the deeply held beliefs on both sides of this issue, and absolutely sympathetic to those wishing to legalise Assisted Suicide, but I would want to be sure that appropriate safeguards are in place especially for the most vulnerable and those with complex or expensive care needs. I would judge any proposal on its merit and listen to all those affected, including the wider disability community.
Do you support Universal Basic Income?
I believe in a cradle to grave welfare system under which those in need are supported, and I support our manifesto commitment to trial UBI. I recently committed to work with Labour colleagues in Sheffield who wish to trial it in the city, and ensure that remains party policy. I was also proud to lead the way on defining education as a Universal Basic Service.
And would you actively work to bring those about if elected as leader/deputy leader.
As Deputy Leader of the Labour Party I will not get the final say on policy but it will be my role to facilitate the debate and to ensure that our whole movement is involved. The manifesto sets out clearly that Tory cuts to services were a political choice; it makes the case for real action and I wholly support Labour implementing those commitments when we get into government and I commit to loudly championing them whilst in opposition.
Could you say briefly why and how you being leader/deputy leader of the Labour Party would benefit DPAC as a human rights campaign group and our disabled members?
As Deputy Leader, part of my job is to represent our members around the Shadow Cabinet table. I also want people to know that I’m committed to making sure our expert members, those people who live the lives we make policy to change, are involved.
I have direct experience of disability. I was the daughter and full time carer for a disabled mother, and am myself the mother of one son who is partially sighted and another with hidden disabilities.
For years, I worked as a home help on poverty pay and an insecure contract to care for disabled and older people in their homes, seeing at first hand the consequences when society neglects the most vulnerable. My journey into politics began as a trade unionist representing the home care workforce, and my first political victories were in defeating privatisation and achieving better standards of care for the disabled people we worked for. It’s an issue that I’ve always been passionate and outspoken about.
Access and representation of disabed people within the Labour party and in wider public life is incredibly important to me. That is why I have launched a consultation which asks Labour party members who identify as disabled to tell me about what the party needs to do to encourage more disabled people to get involved in the party and take up leadership roles and elected office. This is a wide consultation of party members and I would really appreciate DPAC members who are also party members feeding into my consultations. They can either submit their comments online or join my zoom call on Tuesday 10th March. Members can find details here: https://angelaraynerfordeputy.com/disability-manifesto/
Could you give us a couple of examples of when and how you’ve supported DPAC in the last 9 years or since you became an MP if that is a shorter time.
As an MP since 2015 and as a trade unionist and care worker before that I have always stood side by side with disabled people ignored and undervalued by the Tory government. As an MP I spoke out against the Welfare benefit cap and voted against it, and when a Tory candidate during the last election said people with learning disabilities should be paid less because they don’t understand money” I was disgusted. My own son Charlie is registered blind and something that I have found frustrating is that people often see Charlie’s disability before they see him; see the disability before they see the ability. We need to turn that around — that’s why I am really passionate about inclusion. The lack of funding for children with special educational needs means that society is almost setting them up to fail, a fair education system would recognise the needs and meet them, not offer the bare minimum. I fought to ensure that our last manifesto had a commitment to ring-fenced, specific funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and capital funding to ensure that our entire educational estate was made fully accessible.
In my own constituency, I have stood alongside Charlotte Hughes and other campaigners including DPAC, to fight against the roll-out of Universal Credit when our community was targeted for the first wave.
Can you also say why today had a severly disabled who in the support group who had to go on universal credit who’s got a deteriorating condition and tribunal ruled support group and had 3 tribunals, first was 2009 stating by secretary of state I’m unfit for work, and won gets a journal message saying a telephone interview will be this month at a precise time and if it’s not answered I can lose my money ??????