Rishi Sunak's speech

System

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Rosie_Scope

Today, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a consultation on reforming the welfare system.

You can find more information on these proposals on the government's website.

In response, James Taylor, Director of Strategy at Scope said:

"This feels like a full-on assault on disabled people. These proposals are dangerous and risk leaving disabled people destitute.

"In a cost of living crisis, looking to slash disabled people’s income by hitting PIP is a horrific proposal."

What are your thoughts and how are you feeling following the Prime Minister's speech? 

Read Scope's full response. 

miggins

Hej, yes .. totally with you at how much of an attack this is..
 I'm an independent integrative practitioner & the range of my work includes a lot of advocacy re benefits for folk i work alongside.. am also disabled with cptsd/M.E./endocrine dysfunction & am only just ,at 57, being recognised by GP/nhs as needing support..so am also feeling very vulnerable at the moment in that regard..  and now This..  right now it feels very threatening.. I do Trust that if communities , GPs , support organisations, local councillors/MPs   pull together, & that we share & support each  other on here , the ignorance of this attempt will be exposed & disarmed.. 
To me it feels like yet more of the Emperors New Clothes culture that seems to be The Way of UK & beyond politics for some years now..  so scrapping med certs will Look Like the UK isn't experiencing an increasingly ailing population..   

Ray212

There was an awful lot of "if the conservatives get in again". They won't so most of the rubbish he said was just that

ricky1040

Well luckily he's not gonna be around much longer. Labour will be winning the next election before he gets his way

rebel11

In some ways it's electioneering, things are going so badly for him, that they are going back to type, blaming others for their total failure as a Government. The bench mark is 'growth' of the economy. They've done nothing to do that. All they give are excuses.    

ricky1040

I have say tho probably there are people. Actually no there definitely are people who abuse the system. But the things rishi is saying seems like an attack on all not just thos3 abusing the system

JasonRA

Does his speech rest on "If the conservatives win again" or are they implementing this straight away?

Terrible gaslighting and I was reading many people are phoning into charities because of this.

ricky1040

I'd imagine it would take a bit of time to implement these changes. So if he didn't get back in. Then I'd imagine they go away too. However labour may well have something similar in mind. Be good to hear from them on the issue

ricky1040

Yea I had a nightmare initially with it also. Don't think many people get it without a fight. 

rebel11

LIVEDANDLEARNED said:

@JasonRA I think he means if they get in again, but I don’t know for sure. I just feel that his arrow is heading our way and though I’m a Labour voter, I’m not sure Rachel Reeves isn’t gunning for us too. 

That's going to be difficult with a 'total wipe out', less then 80 seats. 

miggins

I heard PM say about 'not medicalising' (everyday stresses etc).. in addition to the diminishment of peoples' experiences in that dismissal,   there is the fact that the Government  has CREATED the medicalisatiin problem in the first place..   or rather tot amplified the entrenched centuries' old cultural  belief that symptoms = Illness...and in modern age, this powers the engine of Big Pharma..  so in order to access the space & support we need to look after health/wellbeing,  we have to be recognised as being ill.. which requires a Label/diagnosis
And the Label will have a sort of Medication attached ..  and if we don't comply with the medical model,  we are not permitted to take the time & space we need to attend to ourselves
..  as many of us know from the criteria dwp/PIP use to decline applications..  and in society generally,  if it hasn't got a Label & you're not on medication , you're 'making it up'..  

So the Pressure to medicalise symptoms/disabling experiences  comes primarily  from the Government .. 


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Remina

Sadly there's many within the Labour party who share the same ideals as the current Tory government. As I mentioned in another thread that I highly doubt Labour would throw out the plans, key figures within Labour have made their stance clear on welfare reform such as Labour's shadow secretary of state for works and pensions Liz Kendall, quoted as saying ''Life on benefits will not be an option under Labour'', and then there's Labour's very own Jonathan Ashworth quoted as saying ''MPs must back the welfare reform plans to get Britain back to work''.

I feel an impact may be made if enough of the sick/disabled people in society were to contact their MPs and explain the difficulties we face and how hard it is to cope already on a daily basis without the threat of strict welfare reforms and inevitably being forced into work programs.. Generally it's difficult for the sick/disabled to go out and mount protests due to the very nature of having a debilitating sickness/disability, but we seriously need some kind of major advocacy/resistance to these reforms otherwise I fear the government will just push on and pass these reforms.

For some of us it's difficult simply to survive on a daily basis with our sickness/disability, nevermind work.  

Sadly, I feel all these reforms are just one big cost-cutting exercise and the most vulnerable with the most complex needs are going to be the ones who 'fall through the cracks' and pay the ultimate price of these reforms.

miggins

The timing of this announcement feels to me  tactical, too.. distracting us from increasingly evident genocide in Gaza ... and whatever else this Govt is trying to force into Law in these last months before a Gen Election.. ? 

happyfella

Does anyone else feel sick about Rishi remarks and nervous about having their PIP re-application if he become PM again. There is no mention about the money that is being paid out for migrants each week, or the amount of houses they are buying for them and building them while leaving soldiers without homes and living on the streets, or there is no mention about awarding contracts to his father in law firm which his wife also owns, or to mention all the money that was wasted on contracts during covid.

This speach is going to cause loss of life of people who are struggling. This man needs to be stopped and it is disgusting.

JasonRA

I see things from this perspective, people are going to snap in the workplace, people are going to get hurt and more people are going to take their own lives.

You cannot force people with mild to severe mental health conditions into a place of work unless they do so on their own volition. 

This is a complete disaster in the making. 

I will stay up when the General Election comes, I want to see Mel Stride lose his seat first and foremost.

kimkenzie202

I heard that they want to strip PIP from people unless can prove they have extra expenses associated with their disabilities like adaptations etc, looks like a large percentage of the mentally ill claimants will be losing their money. I saw this coming when the DWP started focusing on the Severe Disability Group and I knew they would find reasons to prioritise them and downplay others. Unfortunately this is a government self fulfilling prophecy...by announcing the Disability White Paper and making health elements (extra cash) dependant on PIP (some even think it wont give them work requirements which is wrong) it has caused a flood of PIP claims resulting in them saying too many people are claiming disability benefits.

Rosie_Scope

While it's been a stressful day, I think it's important not to start assigning blame towards things that are being done for other vulnerable groups like migrants. I can totally understand the frustration, but it doesn't have to be a case of us versus them, or this versus that. 

It's much easier for the press and the politicians to rile us up and try to get us blaming other groups, rather than have us start challenging the people in charge and the political decisions they're making that are affecting us all. Just something to bear in mind, anyway

kimkenzie202

Interested in whether this will apply to all PIP claims or just new claims in the future if it goes ahead with the changes.

happyfella

What we should be asking like I have said is about the wasted money during Covid and how a PM can give his family contracts. In other countries a fraud investigation would take place. Also, i am not having a go at migrants as a whole, what I an saying is, we are spending all that money on migrants who have never put into the system and building them houses and buying them houses while leaving people on the street. Where is this money coming from. They are spending more on them that people on PIP. RIshi will be looking for a new job at the next general election but sadly I can see labour sticking with this to save money. There is no real control over the government over things like awarding contracts to friends. I would like to see someone oversee this where charges are made. The government hide things all the time, it does not matter if labour are in or the conservatives, they are all ad bad as each other

kimkenzie202

Labour won't change anything...they are just as bad as the Tories. My partner gets PIP but he's expecting it to get stopped eventually as he's got no medical evidence due to being paranoid of getting sectioned and knows his reviews will eventually stop his award. If people need medical evidence like the Tories want lots of people with paranoia related conditions will be kissing bye bye to their money, he is on antipsychotics but can't see how helpful that will be.