Austerity 2

Labour’s disability benefit cuts will force nearly half a million people to turn to food banks

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https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/disability-benefit-cuts-food-banks-trussell/

A volunteer at a food bank packaging supplies. Credit: IFAN Mary Turner The Welcome Centre

Food banks are already overwhelmed by demand for help. Disability benefit cuts will make it worse, the government has been warned

Hundreds of thousands of people living in disabled households will be at risk of needing to use a food bank if the government goes ahead with its plans for benefit cuts, new research has found.

Experts at Trussell and WPI economics have estimated that 440,000 people who are disabled or living with a disabled person would have to use a food bank by the end of the decade.
he decade.

As MPs prepare to vote on legislation to introduce the cuts, charities and disability campaigners are urging the government to rethink its plans.

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Labour’s proposals include tightening the eligibility criteria for the personal independence payment (PIP), with the government estimating that around 800,000 people would see their support reduced by 2028/2029.

It also plans to freeze the health element of universal credit for current claimants, slash it in half for new claimants and cut it entirely for people under the age of 22.

Helen Barnard, director of policy at Trussell, said: “This UK government was elected on a promise of change, and with a commitment to end the need for food banks. If the government goes ahead with these ill-considered and cruel cuts to social security, this promise will not be kept – and instead, they will risk leaving behind a legacy of rising poverty and hunger.

“Tackling fiscal challenges should not be done at the expense of people already facing hunger and hardship. These cuts will force 440,000 people in disabled households into severe hardship and leave them at risk of needing a food bank. We urge the government not to continue down this damaging path.”

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Article continues at https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/disability-benefit-cuts-food-banks-trussell/

Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Continue ReadingLabour’s disability benefit cuts will force nearly half a million people to turn to food banks

Thousands expected at anti-austerity demonstration

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/thousands-expected-anti-austerity-demonstration

 People take part in the People’s Assembly Britain is Broken national demonstration in central London, November 5, 2022

AHUGE demonstration is being held in central London tomorrow to “send a message” to the government over spending cuts and welfare reform.

The People’s Assembly said it expected thousands of trade unionists, campaigners and activists to attend the protest.

The campaign group accused the government of making spending cuts that target the poorest in society.

A spokesperson said: “The adherence to ‘fiscal rules’ traps us in a public service funding crisis, increasing poverty, worsening mental health and freezing public-sector pay.

“Scrapping winter fuel payments, keeping the Tory two-child benefit cap, abandoning Waspi women, cutting £5 billion of welfare by limiting PIP [personal independence payments] and universal credit eligibility and slashing UK foreign aid from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent of GDP, while increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, are presented as ‘tough choices.’

“Real tough choices would be for a Labour government to tax the rich and their hidden wealth to fund public services, fair pay, investment in communities and the NHS.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/thousands-expected-anti-austerity-demonstration

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Continue ReadingThousands expected at anti-austerity demonstration

John McDonnell: Labour alienated its core and failed to attract Reform voters. Now will Starmer change tack?

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/03/labour-reform-voters-keir-starmer-local-elections

Keir Starmer visiting the defence contractor Leonardo in Luton, 2 May 2025. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/PA

The local elections showed that voters feel betrayed. But in a party that brooks no dissent, that message isn’t getting through

The response from Labour spokespeople so far to the loss of Runcorn and Helsby – and to the election results as a whole – has been especially tin-eared. There doesn’t seem to be any understanding of the deep-seated emotion in the reaction of Labour supporters to the party’s behaviour in government over the past 10 months. There used to be talk of the need for emotional literacy in politics. What we are witnessing is a staggering level of emotional illiteracy.

Labour supporters feel deeply that their party has turned its back on them. It’s not just that they feel they are not being listened to. It’s that the Starmer and Reeves government is doing things that they believe no Labour government should ever do.

After 14 years of enduring year after year of austerity under the Conservatives, there was such a collective sigh of relief in getting rid of the incompetent, corrupt and brutal Tories. There might not have been much in the way of inspiring politics from Keir Starmer in the run-up to the election last July, but at least we had a Labour government.

The problem now is that, at times, the government is unrecognisable as a Labour government. This isn’t the traditional argument about whether the Starmer administration is behaving like old Labour or New Labour. It’s whether it’s Labour at all in the eyes of people who have supported us or would want to support us.

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Guardian article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/03/labour-reform-voters-keir-starmer-local-elections

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
UK Labour Party government Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are participants and complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide providing Israel with army and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are participants and complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide providing Israel with army and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.

Continue ReadingJohn McDonnell: Labour alienated its core and failed to attract Reform voters. Now will Starmer change tack?

NHS outsourcing fuels inequality and longer waits, study shows

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nhs-outsourcing-fuels-inequality-and-longer-waits-study-shows

 A general view of medical equipment on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London

NHS outsourcing is fuelling inequality and lengthening waiting times, with wealthier patients receiving faster treatment than poorer ones, a study revealed today. 

Researchers found that expanding private providers into NHS-funded care has reduced surgical admissions at NHS hospitals and driven up waiting times across the board. 

Private hospitals are disproportionately located in wealthier areas and poorer patients, who are often sicker, are less likely to be admitted.With NHS capacity under pressure, the study warned that those on lower incomes are now waiting longer for care, receiving less support at home and facing greater barriers in travelling to private hospitals. On average, patients treated by private providers via the NHS waited only half as long as those treated in NHS hospitals.The poorest 20 per cent of patients are significantly less likely to be treated in the private sector and face longer waiting times than the wealthiest 20 per cent.Between 2003 and 2008, when private involvement in NHS treatment was minimal, surgical admissions rose and waiting times more than halved. But from 2008 onwards, as private sector provision expanded, NHS capacity fell and waiting times increased.Study co-author Professor Allyson Pollock of Newcastle University said: “The private sector is now substituting for, not adding to, NHS capacity. 

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nhs-outsourcing-fuels-inequality-and-longer-waits-study-shows

Continue ReadingNHS outsourcing fuels inequality and longer waits, study shows

Ministers privately ruling out scrapping two-child benefits cap

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/22/ministers-privately-ruling-out-scrapping-two-child-benefits-cap

In a letter to Keir Starmer, Child Poverty Action Group estimated that the number of children in poverty would rise to 4.8 million by 2029 unless action was taken. Photograph: Adam Angelides/Getty Images

Sources says government is ‘not going to find a way’ to ditch cap despite predictions that child poverty levels will soar

Ministers are privately ruling out scrapping the two-child benefit cap despite warnings from charities that a failure to do so could result in the highest levels of child poverty since records began.

Government sources said charities and Labour MPs who were concerned that wider benefit cuts would push more families into poverty should “read the tea leaves” over Labour’s plans.

“If they still think we’re going to scrap the cap then they’re listening to the wrong people. We’re simply not going to find a way to do that. The cap is popular with key voters, who see it as a matter of fairness,” one source said.

In a letter to Keir Starmer on Tuesday, groups including Barnardo’s, Save the Children UK and Citizens Advice said scrapping the two-child benefit limit would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty.

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In their letter to Starmer, they said: “Scrapping the two-child limit is by far the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. It would lift 350,000 children out of poverty overnight and result in 700,000 children living in less deep poverty.

“If it is not scrapped, the stark reality is that child poverty will be significantly higher at the end of this parliament than when the government took office, making this the first time a Labour government would leave such a legacy.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/22/ministers-privately-ruling-out-scrapping-two-child-benefits-cap

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.
Continue ReadingMinisters privately ruling out scrapping two-child benefits cap