Spring Statement Discussion (link to documents here)

100%

So starmer dressed in his high viz jacket looking like a plonker. Saying disabled people are only slightly fearful about the cuts. Is for real ,! Going on about putting money for support

There is a very, very disturbing article in the Guardian about what is going on in the US. I am not going to link it here because it contains some very upsetting content, but in context with that we are actually better off here right now. Although I have been saying for a long time that the disparity of attitude with regard to equality, diversity etc and disability is going to wind up with more disabled people being hurt.

For example, the BBC's website hides disability away behind several clicks. It is less important than what was on Strictly or some other TV show. It is currently less important than Pep Guardiola saying Manchester City don't deserve prize money from something they haven't even competed in yet, let alone won. This is where disabled people are in the public awareness hierarchy.

The article posted from DNS earlier about that poor guy in Barnet (?) is nowhere on national news. The subject of the cuts has been shoved aside (and while I agree the earthquake etc is worthy of proper news coverage, are all news stories as existentially important as coverage of what is actually happening to disabled people?)

Getting and keeping disability related stories in the media is hard, because most folk aren't interested. They're apathetic until it concerns them.

I used to post sometimes on an autism forum and the number of parents who would suddenly rock up all indignant that there was no service or support available and that they were dealing with discrimination and barriers…then as you go on they acknowledge they never even thought about it before their child was diagnosed. The lack of awareness that disability can hit anyone at any point of life is pivotal to this disinterest. :/

With regard to how points are awarded, my MR was dismissed because one of my disability support officers at university called me academically gifted. There were several further paragraphs on that same document detailing the support I had at university through her and another autism mentor from the NAS, but the MR guy stopped at 'academically gifted' and basically said that ruled out any need for support because I didn't have a learning disability.

For my tribunal I wrote a footnoted, referenced statement, cited and quoted with all the errors, inaccuracies, inconsistencies between different versions of the DWP's case for rejection, and I cited this individual (whose name I have not forgotten even after eight years), asking whether if I used a wheelchair, or needed a guide dog, the MR would have decided I didn't need them because I was capable of study? I was never going to claim PIP on false grounds, I wanted them to know I was academically capable, intelligent and STILL AUTISTIC, and no matter how many essays I wrote, it wasn't going to heal my executive dysfunction issues. The strategy worked, but the ignorance still grates at me. It was only too clear that I was put through an appeal because the DWP think autism is a learning disability, when of course it isn't.

The false numbers are another aspect. The numbers that really irk me the most are the ones that say "PIP will rise to x in x year", based on what grounds? What do they think is going to happen to double disability claim cases? Most of those people aren't born yet? Some of the people will no longer be there to claim in the future, whether through age, or, sadly, through the health conditions they require the support for. This isn't calculating inflation, it's calculating disability. WHY would we assume disability benefits would double again in the future? Even given potential inflation, it doesn't make sense. The only reason I can see (unless the figures are just meant to scaremonger) is that the government have no intention of improving living conditions and in fact expect them to get worse, forcing more people into poverty, creating barriers to treatment and ultimately causing a disability crisis far worse than even COVID managed to spark.

Papers keep reporting these figures without questioning why or how they came about. I want to know those things. Why do they think we will be more disabled in the future?

hmmm…. doesn't need a high viz jacket to look a plonker perhaps???

😂😂😂😂

Thank you sooo much for that. Made me laugh so much - I'm crying with laughing. x

Basically, the Labour Party ("Government") is condemning us, but we still retain our sense of humour.

Disability charities say a quarter of Brits are disabled. What the above article fails to mention is only a small proportion of the quarter actually claim any benefit. The number fails to take into consideration the number of elderly who obviously have health conditions. If they want true stats they should look at the number of working age Brits who are disabled as that figure is going to be much smaller. 3.6 million people claim PIP which is less than 5% of Brits.

The media either don't care to write truthful articles or are too lazy to actually check the true statistics.

"those who can work should work" Those that can claim freebies, SHOULDN'T claim freebies.

I'm sorry but that phrase really annoys me.

I didn't realise that people who never worked had paid national insurance.

Thats news to me but I agree that benefits should not discriminate against anyone regardless of whether or not they contributed to the system.

Yeah I used to be carer for my mum and it got me class 1 , so we all pay into the system whatever way people look at it.

This scares me for that reason,

When disabled people are rightly terrified along come reform promise them

everything being scared makes some people very receptive, Reform would love the NHS

to be insurance based something they dont get pushed enough in the endless TV interviews.

Eluned Morgan has finally come off the fence and not supporting her good friend Keir

it only took 2 weeks and non stop comments from Plaid about why the silence,

I still feel its the Unions hold the power in this, they donate millions to Labour

if they say drop this or we stop funding it becomes a full blown crisis for Starmer

the guy buckles under pressure, It only took 3 weeks of Daily negative headlines

and they dropped all the wealth tax plans apart from 2 minor ones.

the media should be pointing out VAT is a tax we all pay, even children buying console games

It generates around 368 million a year. We pay tax but we also put all the money back into the economy, food inflation alone is about to get worst with new brexit related charges in July,

Reeves has always wanted these cuts that's why she doubled down on the WFP axe