… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Austerity 2

  • Sunak launches ‘full-on assault’ on disabled people

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sunak-launches-full-on-assault-against-disabled-people

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak giving his speech in central London on welfare reform, April 19, 2024

    PM announces major plans to impose curbs on benefits

    RISHI SUNAK was accused of launching a “full-on assault” on disabled people today after he announced major plans to impose fresh curbs on benefits.

    The Prime Minister said an expected rise in benefits spending is “not sustainable” and vowed to “significantly reform” the system.

    He announced a new consultation on personal independent payment (PIP), a non means-tested benefit that helps with extra costs caused by long-term disability or ill health.

    Citing an increasing number of people are claiming PIP for anxiety and depression, Mr Sunak said a more “rigorous” approach will be introduced, and that “greater medical evidence” will be required to substantiate a claim.

    …

    He pledged to “tighten” the work capability assessment so that “hundreds of thousands of benefit recipients with less severe conditions will now be expected to engage in the world of work.”

    James Taylor of disability charity Scope said the plan “feels like a full-on assault on disabled people.”

    He said: “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.”

    Disability Rights UK’s head of policy Fazilet Hadi accused the government of “targeting disabled people for a failing economy.”

    She said: “The Prime Minister’s approach to systemic inequalities caused by government policies and underfunding of public services, is to further penalise, punish and threaten disabled people living on inadequate benefits.”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sunak-launches-full-on-assault-against-disabled-people

    Charities blast Rishi Sunak’s ‘dangerous’ and heartless clamp down on disability welfare

    …

    Dr Sarah Hughes, CEO of Mind, said: “We are deeply disappointed that the Prime Minister’s speech today continues a trend in recent rhetoric which conjures up the image of a “mental health culture” that has “gone too far”.

    “This is harmful, inaccurate and contrary to the reality for people up and down the country. The truth is that mental health services are at breaking point following years of under investment with many people getting increasingly unwell while they wait to receive support.”

    She added: “To imply that it is easy both to be signed-off work and then to access benefits is deeply damaging. It is insulting to the 1.9 million people on a waiting list to get mental health support, and to the GPs whose expert judgement is being called into question.”

    Labour MP John Trickett offered an alternative solution: “Sunak would stop doctors from issuing ‘sick notes’ in effort to force ill people back to work. I have a 3-part proposal: 1) fully finance the NHS & cut waiting lists 2) an all-out drive to end poverty which is at the root of so much ill health 3) force bosses to pay living wage”.

    Charities blast Rishi Sunak’s ‘dangerous’ and heartless clamp down on disability welfare

  • Greens respond to Sunak plans to end ‘sick-note culture’

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    Image of the Green Party's Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
    Image of the Green Party’s Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.

    Responding to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans to stop GPs issuing sick notes to people too ill to work, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

    “How cold hearted do you have to be, and how lacking in empathy, to see this crisis of ill health as anything other than caused by decades of austerity and lack of investment in the NHS?

    “The PM should be fixing the NHS so that people can get well, not blaming people who are ill.

    “We would invest in mending the health and social care system, not denying people the right to see a GP when they need it.”

  • Children ‘forgotten’ as figures show record poverty with top earners only ones better off

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/children-forgotten-figures-show-record-poverty-top-earners-only-ones

    A preschool age child playing with plastic building blocks, January 24, 2016

    CHILD poverty hit a record high as only the top earners were better off last year, official figures revealed today.

    Campaigners said youngsters were being forgotten as the statistics showed food insecurity soared by 53 per cent, 100,000 more working households fell below the poverty line and more pensioners were unable to afford basic goods such as food and heating.

    The Department for Work and Pensions estimated 4.33 million children in households in relative low income – below 60 per cent of median income after housing costs — in the year to March 2023.

    This is up from 4.22 million the previous year and the highest since comparable records for Britain began in 2002/03.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/children-forgotten-figures-show-record-poverty-top-earners-only-ones

  • NHS needs £8.5bn yearly cash boost – more than three times that promised in Budget, experts reveal

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nhs-needs-ps85bn-yearly-cash-boost-more-three-times-budget-experts-reveal

    Medical equipment on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London, January 18, 2023

    THE NHS needs a cash injection of around £8.5 billion a year over the next four years to improve the service, experts have said.

    The figure is more than three times the £2.5bn promised in the Spring Budget.

    A BMJ Commission on the Future of the NHS report said that amount, even alongside a £3.4bn investment over three years to improve productivity through digital transformation “certainly will not make up the significant shortfall that the NHS now faces.”

    Nuffield Trust senior associate John Appleby and two colleagues warned annual spending on the NHS rose by just 1.2 per cent between 2010-20, compared to 6.2 per cent from 2000-10.

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/nhs-needs-ps85bn-yearly-cash-boost-more-three-times-budget-experts-reveal

  • The Labour Party must not follow Tory economic policies

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    Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
    Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/the-labour-party-must-not-follow-tory-economic-policies/

    Labour is counting on the unpopularity of the Conservative Party to catapult it into power but in the absence of specific policies and failure to improve quality of life, electoral goodwill will quickly evaporate.

    …

    Labour and Conservatives have become slaves to arbitrary fiscal rules even though they have failed to deliver almost every target relating to economic growth, inflation, public debt, investment and more. Labour emphasises that it wants to reduce the government debt to GDP ratio in five years’ time. However, no rationale is presented for such a straitjacket. No assessment is made of the consequences of removing billions of pounds from the economy. No rationale as to why low debt to GDP ratio is an indicator of the prosperity of a nation and why this should take priority over investment or redistribution. Analogies with household budgets or maxed out credit cards are misleading as governments, especially those with global currencies such as the Pound Sterling, can create money to achieve desired social objectives and levy selective taxation to eliminate inflationary effects. But Labour is no student of the modern monetary theory.

    …

    Debt can be used to rebuild the economy even if Labour and Conservatives are hostile to it. The Post-Second World War boom was built upon direct public investment in new industries and social infrastructure. In 1946, public debt stood at over 270% of its GDP. This provided jobs and fuelled demand. It fuelled corporate investment as the state bought goods and services from the private sector. It laid foundations of emerging industries, such as biotechnology, information technology, aerospace and more specially as the private sector showed little appetite for long-term investment and risks. Within a generation, the public debt came down to 49% of GDP and I can’t recall our parents and grandparents fretting about the public debt.

    Instead of a dynamic state, both Labour and Conservatives support further cuts in public spending even though that will reduce investment, slow economic growth, and inflict long-term damage. Too many public buildings and schools are crumbling away. The government response is that college spending per student aged 16–18 in 2024 will be 10% below 2010 levels, and about 23% below them for school sixth forms. Since 2010 local council funding has been cut by 23.3% in real terms, leading to degradation of public services and higher council tax on hard-pressed households. Hospitals in England have a waiting list of 7.6m appointments. None of this can be addressed by adherence to arbitrary fiscal rules.

    There is a strong case for redistribution of income and wealth, but Hunt and Reeves ignore it even though higher disposable income for the less well-off has a greater multiplier effect. No amount of economic growth can be sustained unless people have good purchasing power to buy goods and services. Both parties reaffirm their faith in trickle-down economics which has seen wealth sucked upwards and prevent economic recovery. The UK has 171 billionaires with combined wealth of £684bn. The richest 1% of the population has more wealth than 70% of the population combined. The richest 10% of households hold 43% of all wealth, and the poorest 50% own just 9%.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/the-labour-party-must-not-follow-tory-economic-policies/