Labour doubles down on slashing billions from DWP's disability benefits bill

I think it will come down to 2 things

• the level of public backlash (reading newspaper comments and social media it’s at best 50:50 and worst 70:30 in favour of team ‘everyone on welfare is a scrounger’ however I have no clue what side the mostly silent majority is leaning towards
• We need to learn from migrants after Rwanda was announced and keep the dwp tied up and delayed with several (human rights) lawsuits……..even if Clifford herself launches another challenge it’s not enough alone

Reading around I do think that reeves fate (and also Kendall’s) is tied to our own - reading between the lines of several recent articles, city bosses are pretty upset with her and it sounds like she’s promised that she can get all the money the treasury needs via the welfare department……..if she raise any more taxes that effect the bankers and co and I think starmer will have no choice but to fire her in order to save his government

(Question - the welfare bill is currently about £68bil right? - how much of that is spent on disability elements/awards?………..can’t be more than £20bil a yr? - even if the dwp erased disability payments altogether would £20bil a year be enough to get themselves out of this current hole (a lot being the mess the tories left behind but Labour have made a lot of financial mistakes too) I’m not sure - I really think a second referendum may need to start being considered at this point to recoup funds)

Keeping my head above water is my priority but my pettiness see contributing to reeves and Kendall getting fired as a ‘sweetener’

starmer is being very stubborn about brexit even though it is sinking our country

Yes the eu need to review their own demands as they need us as much as we need them to get out of respective messes

But only 30% of the pop still support brexit

But starmer is so terrified of losing voters to reform/tories that he will not see common sense nor that those voters are probably already lost

I fear in panic the uk will be sold out to trumps America at huge cost to the uk present and future

Starmers belief that he needs to court the far right in order to retain power will throw more ppl under the bus, not just the disabled (we are just the first and others population could be sacrificed at any point - it is in the publics interest to help ‘stop the buck’ and help the disabled community succeed for their own sakes as well as ours)

i think the words were if you can work stop fretting over it does not help having all these posts popping up everywhere with he said she said blah blah its all trash talk

Can't people see or recognize if Labour can go after disability benefits they'll go after the State Pension, Pension Credit and the Triple Lock?

It boggles my mind how any Pensioner who supports Reform/Tories and Labour going after disabled people will give them carte blanche to go after their benefits. The State Pension is classified as a benefit by the way.

Sorry Catherine, my previous comment to you was referring to something else. No I mean by "new regulations" the altered medical assessment form they're planning to bring in with the green paper this spring. It won't come into force at once of course. But the talk is they're going to scrap some of the qualifiers, such as some of the mobility elements, to make it harder for people to qualify as disabled under UC.

Welfare spending from the horses (Gov) mouth:

Total £303 billion

Pensioners £166 billion

Kids + Working age, UC and all the rest £137.4 billion

Which includes disabled £90 billion

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-information-and-guidance/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-information-and-guidance

What bothers me is the mixed messages, one minute they're saying not to bash people with mental illness, then they use the media to bash people with mental illness, we won't be bad and we'll help people into work if they want to, then it's "lose benefits and forced into work", one minute one article says "will", then the next says "could".

I and many here have presumably been in abusive relationships, Labour's messaging, the media's messaging resembles something from an abusive relationship, the gaslighting, the manipulation. The abuse I got was from my father, he used to do the same things within a different context and that's why I'm picking up on this.

Labour should be honest about their plans instead of this dangerous nonsense because it's doing so much damn harm to people's mental health, I feel anger and resentment over this situation.

You're right Jason, both Labour and the Tories have been doing this for years / decades. They say they understand how hard it is for the disabled to get jobs and how they'll help them, when what they mean is they plan to cut benefits to try to force desperate people into work. They don't have our interests at heart, anymore than an abusive family member would (PS sorry about your past…)

That's what they're trying to push through in the spring Catherine, but not yet ; )