benefits

Plans to spy on Disabled people’s bank accounts show Labour isn’t for change

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Original article by Mikey Erhardt republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

The prime minister may have changed, but the welfare policies are the same | Anthony Devlin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Disabled people are once again living under a government pursuing ever more surveillance of our lives

The Labour government is barely 100 days into office and even its supporters have been reduced to half-hearted attempts at optimism. But this ‘it’s not all doom and gloom’ narrative rings hollow to many Disabled people.

Yet again, we are living under a government pursuing ever more surveillance of our lives. Another prime minister is happy to subject us to increased benefit sanctions and reduced rights.

So much for the party of change. Keir Starmer used his first Labour Party Conference in power last month to make clear that when it comes to Disabled people, his government’s priorities are the same as its predecessors – namely “getting the welfare bill down”.

To this end, the prime minister will continue plans set out by the previous Conservative government to monitor the bank accounts of the 6.3 million people claiming disability benefits without their knowledge. The proposals are expected to be included in the Fraud, Error and Debt Bill, which was announced by the government last month.

Kieran Lewis, rights and migration policy officer at National Survivor User Network (NSUN), told openDemocracy that he is “disappointed at Keir Starmer’s repackaging of invasive bank-spying powers that we and so many other groups pushed back against under the last government”.

The NSUN – which works with people who have lived experience of mental ill-health, distress, and trauma – was a core part of the coalition opposing these powers when the Tory government proposed them mere months ago.

Lewis continued: “Surveillance of this kind is a threat to everyone, and those of us who live with mental ill-health, distress and trauma will feel its effects particularly sharply.

“The harsh rhetoric espoused by Keir Starmer, a continuation of previous governments’ negative messaging, has had considerable impact on Disabled people and other groups of marginalised people.”

Starmer’s conference pledge to “legislate to stop benefit fraud” may be a familiar rhetoric – but it’s one built on shaky foundations. Some 75% of Universal Credit overpayments recorded by the Department for Work and Pension’s debt manager system in 2021 were due to an ‘official error’ – meaning the government miscalculated the amount to be paid – according to new research from the Public Law Project.

The research also found that the subsequent deductions that the DWP inflicts following such ‘overpayments’ led 26% of people to report resorting to food banks. Almost one in ten said they had slept rough due to a deduction.

Elsewhere in his conference speech, Starmer vowed to be “a great reforming government”. Disabled people have already lost an average of £1,200 a year thanks to the ‘reforms’ of the past 15 years, including the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance, the Work Capability Assessment, Personal Independence Payment, the bedroom tax, the benefit cap, the two-child limit, and Universal Credit.

All of these measures have combined to leave the UK with one of Western Europe’s least generous welfare systems. Staff at the Greater Manchester Disabled People’s Panel, which runs regular peer-support group sessions for those navigating the social security system, told openDemocracy there is a serious risk that Starmer’s plans will lead to welfare payments for Disabled and working-class people being wrongfully suspended, forcing them to deal with burdensome appeals processes.

It is important to recognise that ‘benefits fraud’, which the Labour Party appears likely to dedicate so much time to, is a non-issue. The fraud rate for disability benefits is 0.2%. That’s far lower than the percentage of Labour ministers who took free Taylor Swift concert tickets this summer. When will there be a crackdown on that?

Ironically, Starmer closed his conference speech by saying that “every community” should have “the breathing space, the calm, the control to focus on the little things they love in life, not the anxiety and insecurity we have now.”

This is at odds with the experiences of the Greater Manchester Coalition, whose staff told openDemocracy: “We see Disabled people struggling to obtain much-needed benefits, and if obtained, struggling to keep those benefits.

“Having to already prove and then re-prove they’re not fraudsters, being assessed, reassessed and reviewed is a relentless often degrading, soul-destroying experience that leads many to abandon the process.”

This dire situation will only be worsened by the Fraud, Error and Debt Bill, which will massively increase financial surveillance and create yet another punitive, disabling barrier for Disabled people to contend with.

It will put many of us under tremendous stress and, as the Greater Manchester Coalition noted, could leave even more of us “isolated and particularly vulnerable. For some, especially those in mental health crisis, this places them in great harm.”

In short, Disabled people know this bill is not the way forward. If only our community had more music festivals and football games to invite ministers to – imagine how our social security system could look then.

Original article by Mikey Erhardt republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he's proud to be a red Tory.
Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he’s proud to be a red Tory.
Continue ReadingPlans to spy on Disabled people’s bank accounts show Labour isn’t for change

Scientists, Experts Demand ‘Immediate End’ to EU Fossil Fuel Subsidies

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Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Oil storage tanks and a container terminal are seen in the Port of Le Harve, northern France on June 12, 2023. (Photo: Peter Titmuss/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“E.U. leaders must make a choice: Stand with the people and the planet, or continue propping up an economy that’s driving us towards climate catastrophe,” said one advocate.

Warning that policymakers in the European Union are undermining the bloc’s own climate goals by continuing to subsidize fossil fuel extraction, climate scientists and other experts from across Europe were among the signatories of an open letter released Wednesday, demanding that officials redirect hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to “turbocharge climate solutions.”

The coalition United for Climate Justice spearheaded the letter, which comes ahead of a planned march in Brussels on Saturday, October 5.

“These subsidies go against Europe’s plans for a sustainable and just transition and fuel the devastating heatwaves we have seen this past summer in our continent,” reads the letter. “Europe is now the fastest warming continent; we have reached a turning point and cannot afford to delay any further.”

Groups including Extinction Rebellion, 350.org, and Greenpeace E.U. pointed to goals the bloc has set in recent years, including the 8th Environmental Action Program, which entered into force in 2022 and included a commitment to “phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.”

The subsidies, which were estimated at more than €400 billion ($441 billion) in 2023, also stand in the way of meeting climate targets put forward in the European Green Deal, said the signatories. The plan aims to make Europe “the first climate-neutral continent,” with no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and “interim targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and by 90% by 2040,” notes the letter.

“This will not happen without an immediate phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies,” said the groups bluntly, “as a step towards a fossil-free Europe.”

By continuing to subsidize fossil fuel projects, they added, the E.U. is also flouting its own Parliament’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2019.

To act in line with the declaration and its climate commitments, said the groups, the E.U. must:

  • Set a timeline for the phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, providing technical and financial assistance to member states
    facing challenges in meeting phaseout deadlines and offer incentives for achieving milestones ahead of schedule;
  • Adopt comprehensive methodological guidance for member states that accurately and transparently accounts for both explicit and implicit subsidies associated with fossil fuels; and
  • Develop a binding framework to monitor and report on member states’ progress towards phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, with noncomplying members facing consequences such as financial penalties and reduced access to E.U. funding.

The bloc’s fossil fuel subsidies “distort energy demand, perpetuate dependence on polluting energy sources, and undermine European energy security, while subsidizing industries that contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions,” said the groups.

Phasing out the subsidies would “future-proof the European economy, reducing climate-related financial risks,” they added.

The letter comes weeks after Storm Boris dumped record-breaking rains on European countries including Romania, Austria, and Poland, leading to deadly flooding.

“The E.U. cannot claim leadership on climate action while continuing to support polluting industries with billions,” said Angela Huston Gold, spokesperson for United for Climate Justice. “E.U. leaders must make a choice: Stand with the people and the planet, or continue propping up an economy that’s driving us towards climate catastrophe. The recent disastrous floods in Central and Eastern Europe are yet another wake-up call. We must end our fossil fuel dependency and therefore eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies.”

Also last month, the Portuguese government declared a “state of calamity” over wildfires that killed at least seven people. Last year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the E.U.’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) determined the Europe is the fastest-warming continent.

“Year after year, commitments have been made and left unfulfilled, and we can no longer accept inaction,” said the signatories of Wednesday’s letter, who also included Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society, and Paul Stubbs of the Institute of Economics in Croatia. “Until these necessary changes occur, people will continue to take to the streets to make our voices heard and hold you accountable.”

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingScientists, Experts Demand ‘Immediate End’ to EU Fossil Fuel Subsidies

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Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
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Getting shorter and going hungrier: how children in the UK live today

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Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives. The child poverty and neglect discussed in this article occurred previously to Keir Starmer and the Labour Party being in office. They polices are however certainly continuing and reproducing child poverty and destitution.

Danny Dorling, University of Oxford

Children’s lives in the UK are changing.

They are becoming shorter in height. More of them are going hungry than they were a few years ago. Recently, more have died each year than they did a few years ago. Increased poverty, more destitution and the effects of ongoing austerity are the clear culprits.

But why did this happen to our children? This rise in child poverty is a change that has not been found to have occurred to the same extent anywhere else in the world, among all the places that the United Nations measures in the same way.

Change in child poverty, 2012–14 to 2019–21

Bar chart
UNICEF Innocenti—Global Office of Research and Foresight (2023) ‘Innocenti Report Card 18: Child poverty in the midst of wealth’, CC BY-NC-ND


This graph tells a story of hope and success. In much of Eastern Europe, child poverty has fallen by between as much as a third – and often at least a quarter – in a mere seven years.

But it also shows that child poverty has risen the most in the UK. The poorest fifth of households in the UK are poorer than the poorest fifth in most of Eastern Europe. For many people in the UK, this will come as a surprise. Some will refuse to believe it can be this bad.

The evidence for this poverty is seen in the declining heights of five-year-olds since 2010.

Average height of five-year-old boys, 1985–2020

Line graph
Average height of 5-year-old boys, 1985–2020. Redrawn by the author from data in Press Association (2023) ‘British children shorter than other five-year-olds in Europe’, ITV News, 21 June., CC BY-NC-ND


A 5-year-old in 1990 would have been born in 1985 and their height influenced mostly by nutrition in the years 1985–1990. Those were hard years for the UK: mass poverty resulting from over three million people being out of work in the early 1980s. But the average height of children was still increasing.

It was not until 2010, for those children who had lived between 2005 and 2010, that we first saw heights plateau and then fall, coinciding with the post-2010 austerity years.

My forthcoming book attempts to make sense of what has happened to the UK: why, in 2024, it is not merely one of the countries in Europe with a high rate of child poverty, but the one country above all others that the UN has singled out as having had the greatest rises in child poverty among all those it surveyed.

Seven children

To try to understand more about children’s lives in the UK, I constructed seven typical children. I divided all 14 million children living in the UK into seven groups of 2 million, according to the income of their families in 2018 and 2019. I then chose the middle child of each 2 million. I next looked at what had happened to those families between 2018 and 2024.

The graph below shows the annual income of each of the seven households the children were drawn from.

Annual household incomes after tax, benefits and housing costs in the UK, families with children 2019/20

Annual household incomes after tax, benefits and housing costs in the UK, families with children 2019/20: seven typical children marked in colour. Danny Dorling, CC BY-NC-ND


The first thing to note is just how incredibly well-off the children are who are better-off than our seven typical children.

Some 6% of all children in the UK live in households richer than the best-off typical child in my analysis. Those 6% of children, the best-off children of all, live in families that each year receive and spend a third of all the income in the UK.

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These 6% are not typical, and neither are the 6% poorest: those most destitute, those whose families are most likely to use food banks. If you pick seven typical children, equally spaced out across the income scale, then these extremes are not part of what you see.

But four of our typical seven children now live lives that most better-off people would consider to be in poverty. The other three are hardly well-off.

The least well-off are in families struggling to pay bills and making sacrifices others do not have to think about. For instance, whether to save £10 a month, or have insurance against the effects of flood, fire or theft. Increasingly often they cannot afford both.

But even the most well-off of our seven children lives in a family that worries about paying for an annual holiday. That is rare among the most affluent two million families, but possible.

The UK in 2024 demonstrates to the world what living with high inequality means in a once affluent country. It means a few using up far more resources than the vast majority of other children, such as having access to many more school teachers – per child – as compared to the rest, better food, better shelter, more warmth, more toys, better material everything; often more than you might think any child needed.

In future, almost all our children will tell their stories of growing up in the UK of the 2020s and – hopefully – what changed to make things better. It is hard to imagine them becoming much worse.

Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Continue ReadingGetting shorter and going hungrier: how children in the UK live today