Cost of Living crisis Archives - Page 24 of 65 - ... on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Disabled people on PIP ‘will not cope’ if support is cut, charity warns

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/disabled-people-on-pip-will-not-cope-if-support-cut-charity-warns

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall arrives in Downing Street, London, for a Cabinet meeting, March 11, 2025

ALMOST two-thirds of disabled people on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) “will not cope” without it, a charity has warned, amid reports that the government will reduce the benefit.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is expected to unveil reforms aimed at reducing welfare costs that ministers have described as “unsustainable.”

Reports suggest that PIP, the main benefit for working-age adults both in and out of work, could be frozen rather than increased in line with inflation, delivering a real-terms cut for 3.6 million claimants.

A new analysis from Sense has found that 38 per cent of PIP recipients with complex needs are already behind on energy bills.
Almost half — 46 per cent — are struggling to afford essential costs such as council tax and water, while 41 per cent are living in debt due to benefits failing to cover the cost of essentials like food.

Fifty-eight per cent of those polled reported significant ongoing extra costs due to disability and 53 per cent said their PIP payments were insufficient to cover those expenses.

Sense chief executive James Watson-O’Neill said PIP “exists because living with a disability means facing higher costs, from increased energy bills to specialised equipment and specific diets.”

“These additional expenses won’t disappear if eligibility is tightened. It will only plunge more disabled people into poverty.

“Making it harder to access benefits won’t help disabled people find jobs either. It will only deepen the struggle.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/disabled-people-on-pip-will-not-cope-if-support-cut-charity-warns

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.

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.

These cuts betray Labour’s basic principles

Post author:dizzy
Post published:17 March 2025
Post category:austerity Austerity 2 benefits Cost of Living crisis crap pretend Labour Keir Starmer Labour Party Liz Kendall Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism Rachel Reeves
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The cuts agenda: disabled people in Labour’s sights

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cuts-agenda-disabled-people-labour’s-sights

HARMFUL RHETORIC: Keir Starmer and Liz Kendall

Far from addressing the causes of ill-health and disability, Starmer, Reeves and Kendall are committed to unleashing more misery for disabled people, argues Dr DYLAN MURPHY

In 2016 the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities conducted an investigation into the treatment of disabled people in Britain.

It produced a damning report, which concluded that disabled people in this country faced systematic discrimination on multiple levels.

In 2024, following the submission of evidence by Disabled People Against Cuts and other disability rights groups, the UN investigated Britain for a second time.

In late April the UN committee for disabled people issued a 14-page report which concluded that Britain “has failed to take all appropriate measures to address grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities and has failed to eliminate the root causes of inequality and discrimination.”

It also called on Britain to take measures to prevent disabled people on benefits from killing themselves. At the UN committee hearing in March 2024 it noted how hundreds of disabled people had killed themselves due to sanctions and other repressive measures of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which really should be called the Department for War on the Poor.

Since this UN report Labour has been elected with a landslide majority. Yet in the many Bills announced for the new parliament not one addresses the serious issues raised by the United Nations.

Sadly, both Liz Kendall, new boss of the DWP, and Rachel Reeves the Chancellor, between them have made it clear that people on sickness benefits are a burden on our society and that the money spent on sick people claiming universal credit, employment support allowance (ESA) and personal independence payments (PIP) could be better spent on more “important things” in our society. They have repeated reactionary Tory propaganda which the UN cites as a reason for a spike in disability hate crime which is massively under reported and rarely investigated by the police.

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Original article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/cuts-agenda-disabled-people-labour’s-sights

Post author:dizzy
Post published:11 March 2025
Post category:austerity Austerity 2 benefits Cost of Living crisis crap pretend Labour human rights violations Keir Starmer Labour Party Liz Kendall Neo-liberalism Rachel Reeves
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Starmer says benefit system unfair and indefensible

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kgpyz3mmpo

Sir Keir Starmer has called the current benefits system unsustainable, indefensible and unfair, and said the government could not “shrug its shoulders and look away”.

Addressing Labour MPs on Monday evening, the prime minister said the current welfare system was “the worst of all worlds”, discouraging people from working while producing a “spiralling bill”.

The comments come as Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall prepares to set out changes to the welfare system and cut the benefits bill in the coming weeks.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has earmarked several billion pounds in draft spending cuts to welfare and other government departments ahead of the Spring Statement.

There is unease over the plans within the party, with Labour MP Rachael Maskell warning against “draconian cuts” that risk “pushing disabled people into poverty”.

Maskell told the BBC she had picked up “deep, deep concern” among Labour MPs.

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Original article continues at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kgpyz3mmpo

Post author:dizzy
Post published:11 March 2025
Post category:austerity Austerity 2 benefits Cost of Living crisis crap pretend Labour Keir Starmer Labour Party Liz Kendall Neo-liberalism Rachel Reeves
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UN tells Starmer: scrap 2-child benefit cap and increase benefits

Post author:dizzy
Post published:9 March 2025
Post category:austerity Austerity 2 Cost of Living crisis crap pretend Labour Keir Starmer Labour Party Neo-liberalism politics Rachel Reeves
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Jeremy Corbyn: Keir Starmer says there’s no money – I don’t believe him

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https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/05/jeremy-corbyn-keir-starmer-says-no-money-dont-believe-22673792/

I said that I would praise Keir Starmer when I thought he was performing well (Picture: Getty Images)

‘There’s no money’.

That always seems to be the current government’s response when asked to tackle the enormous crises affecting the UK.

But as Keir Starmer announces he will ramp up military spending, and as Rachel Reeves plans to slash welfare budgets, we must never forget what impact government funding choices have on the most vulnerable people in society.

As we speak, 4.3 million children in the UK are living in relative poverty. Over 350,000 people are homeless in England.

Millions are worried about the cost of heating their home, braced for yet another hike in energy bills. Meanwhile, billionaires are richer than ever.

So what is the government doing?

They could lift children out of poverty, if they wanted to, by scrapping the two-child benefit cap.

STEADFAST DART 25 (STDT25), the principal NATO exercise for 2025, will be the first large-scale deployment of NATO?s Allied Reaction Force (ARF) exercise conducted across various geographical locations within SACEUR?s area of responsibility. It is the largest NATO exercise in 2025, with approximately 10.000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines from 9 Allies, and it will be based on NATO?s new defence plans. NARRATIVE In response to an evolving and unpredictable security environment, NATO has implemented the biggest increase in collective defence since the Cold War. NATO has a new generation of defence plans, and is integrated with national military planning like never before. These defence plans make the Alliance stronger and better able to deter and, if necessary, defend against any potential adversary in any domain, and at any time. A critical component of NATO?s plans, which are designed to safeguard the Euro-Atlantic?s one billion inhabitants, is having high-readiness forces across all domains able to rapidly respond to any emerging or known threat. NATO?s new robust and agile Allied Reaction Force is central to this. Throughout January and February 2025, NATO will conduct Exercise Steadfast Dart in order to test and train the operational deployment of the Allied Reaction Force and rapid reinforcement of NATO assets located along its eastern flank. Steadfast Dart 25 is an alert and deployment exercise, and the first time the Allied Reaction Force will exercise an operational deployment since the Force?s establishment on July 1, 2024. The exercise will demonstrate NATO?s ability to activate the Allied Reaction Force, and coordinate its swift transit to where it can deliver strategic deterrence effects by bolstering forces already situated in location. Steadfast Dart 25 will showcase the Allied Reaction Force as a strategic, high-readiness, multi-domain and multinational capability that can be deployed and employed rapidly to strengthen deterrence in peacetime and crisis, and support the Alliance?s defence in conflict. NATO exercises such as this are defensive, transparent and proportionate, and conducted in full respect of our international obligations. Exercise aim: Exercise Steadfast Dart 2025 is the first large-scale deployment of NATO?s Allied Reaction Force (ARF). The aim is to test the deployable capabilities and procedures as well as the interoperability among the troop contributors and host nations. The NATO Allied Reaction Force (ARF) is a strategic, high-readiness, multi-domain capable force. It provides multi-domain forces from across the Alliance to produce effects at shorter notice than has previously been possible. STDT25 will demonstrate NATO's ability to rapidly deploy forces to reinforce NATO assets located along its eastern flank. This reinforcement will occur during a simulated emerging conflict scenario with a near-peer adversary. It will show that NATO Allied Reaction Force (ARF) can conduct and sustain complex operations across thousands of kilometers in the Eastern Europe, and in any condition. STDT25 will be a clear demonstration of NATO?s unity, strength and determination to continue to do all that is necessary to protect each other, our common values and the rules-based international order. NATO exercises are defensive, transparent, proportionate, and conducted in full respect of our international obligations. — Keir Starmer says that a changing world means we have to increase defence spending (Picture: Ministry of Defence)

They could help pensioners with energy bills, if they wanted to, by restoring universal winter fuel allowance.

They could ensure nobody had to sleep rough on the streets, if they wanted to, by launching a massive council-house-building programme.

Instead, they have signed off on a 13.4 billion increase in military spending. With that money, the government could scrap the two-child benefit cap 10 times over.

Now, today, we’re told the government is preparing to cut billions from welfare budgets.

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