Liz Kendall and DWP’s First Opposition Question Session in Parliament 7 October 2024

Thank you @MW123 this will be interesting

Thank you @MW123 I hope you don't mind but I thought I'd repost your link to make it clickable for members that are unable to copy and paste your link.

https://whatson.parliament.uk/event/cal48639

You're very welcome, I was hoping you would be ok with that. Posting links can be frustrating at times when it doesn't appear as a clickable link. It took me a few attempts this time, as you see by the edit in my comment.

Thank you for such lovely kind and thoughtful words, it really does mean a lot to me. We are both very excited this morning. I can't wait to relax by that pool and not do a single thing for 11 nights.

We've hardly had a summer this year so the hot sun is definitely needed and my pain levels will be considerably reduced and that's a huge bonus. I will be sure to bring some sun home with me.

no questions regarding pip yet from what I can see

firstly I don’t think that the gov is being totally honest on why more people are leaving the workplace and/or going on the welfare system and that getting claimant levels back to pre 2010 levels is both impossible and potentially ethically wrong

It’s a fact that even though many disabled ppl died during the pandemic, covid also worsened some ppls pre-existing disablities but also disabled many from long covid and/or damage done internally from catching covid (which may of been a lesser number if the gov at the time protected the country better)

Also the pandemic (and lockdown) triggered in many (probably millions) their first experiences of anxiety/depression/mental health illnesses ——————————————— more on that in a moment

The cost of living crisis almost overlapped the “end” of the pandemic and I don’t think mps ever acknowledged that this forced many peoples hand in claiming welfare that on paper they are very much entitled to (most disabled know not to claim anything from the dwp unless they have no other options……………and those with more ‘minor’/‘time limited’ condition have had no choice but to roll the dice with filling in the pip application paperwork - totally understandable to want to keep head above water or give yourself a little more breathing space.

I disagree and find in insulting when politicians describe mental health conditions such as depression & anxiety (which worst case is life destroying and/or potentially life ending) as being a ‘bit bluesy’ and ‘too lazy to get out of bed’

but mental health conditions like depression and anxiety (I personally wouldn’t class either as full blown disabilities even though both affect me daily - though as both are clearly debilitating I understand their official classification as disabilities) probably has the largest scale range of minor to severe conditions

There are many other ‘commonly occurring’ disabilities of this vein experienced by a sizeable number

i guess the first question is that when our politicians first conceived incapacity welfare such as esa, uc, dla, pip………. did the dwp intend to be the safety net for everyone experiencing a disability (under the governments official definition of disability - which happens to be a very inclusive definition) - and if not where should the ‘cut off point’ be

it’s the ultimate can of worms question (and one I think many scope members will be upset with me questioning)

and I know many of you will be wanting this labour gov to target other social groups such as the ‘wealthy’ (well, middle classes as we know politicians never target multimillionaires potential donors - reeves has already ruled out unites proposal of a wealth tax that actually sounded quite fair) and migrants

but even if labour targeted other social groups that would do zero in reducing the number of incapacity benefit claimants nor stop or slow this rapid increase in numbers predicted in the coming years

any Responsible government government would need to address the current situation sooner or later and we can’t be angry that labour want to reduce number of claimants and the benefit bill

However the disabled have more than every right to get angry of how labour go about this (I’m currently cautiously calm with timms/mcgovern appointment but Kendall/reeves are Tory levels of poor in terms of empathy imo)

(Part 2)