Liz Kendall

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

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.
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.
Continue ReadingThe cuts agenda: disabled people in Labour’s sights

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

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.
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.
Continue ReadingStarmer says benefit system unfair and indefensible

Labour continues the Tory war on the poor, sick and disabled

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-continues-tory-war-poor-sick-and-disabled

DWP chief Liz Kendall

DR DYLAN MURPHY challenges the idea that social security places an economic burden on the public

THE current Labour government of red Tories has doubled down recently on its propaganda against those people claiming benefits in the UK.

These reactionary comments range from Starmer’s pledge in the Sun to be ruthless in his cuts to benefits, to Reeves making inflated claims in the same paper that spending on benefits has “spiralled out of control.”

In the same interview with the Sun Reeves bragged that Labour is “introducing the biggest welfare fraud and error package in recent history.”

The implication is clear: those claiming benefits, including those workers on low wages claiming elements of universal credit, are an undeserving burden on the British economy.

In the “golden days” of the Victorian era they at least maintained a distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor. Under Starmer’s Labour all people who claim benefits are clearly in the undeserving poor category and should be made to suffer ever greater poverty all to help “turbo charge” economic growth.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-continues-tory-war-poor-sick-and-disabled

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 continues the Tory war on the poor, sick and disabled

Bill would force banks to carry out ‘mass surveillance’ of millions of innocent disabled people, MPs are told

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https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/bill-would-force-banks-to-carry-out-mass-surveillance-of-millions-of-innocent-disabled-people-mps-are-told/

A new government bill would force banks to carry out “mass surveillance” of millions of innocent disabled people and other benefit claimants, MPs have been warned.

The measures in the bill would force banks to examine individuals’ accounts for potential breaches of benefit eligibility rules, and then pass that information to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

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Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall told MPs on Monday that the measures would force banks to provide data to “help identify incorrect benefit payments people might be getting, including fraudulently, such as if someone has too much in savings, making them ineligible for a benefit, or if they are fraudulently claiming benefits abroad when they should be living in the UK”.

But independent MP Zarah Sultana said the “algorithm-driven financial surveillance” allowed by the bill would lead to errors that would disproportionately affect disabled and older people and “those already struggling to make ends meet”, and create “a two-tier justice system”.

She said: “Even a one per cent error rate in the AI system used by banks could lead to thousands of benefit recipients being wrongly flagged, unfairly investigated and forced into lengthy appeals.”

She said the bill would allow “mass surveillance” and was “deeply unjust” and would “subject millions of innocent people – disabled individuals, carers, jobseekers, pensioners and parents – to unwarranted financial surveillance, treating them as suspects by default, simply because they receive state support”.

It would, she said, turn banks into “agents of the state”.

Another independent MP, John McDonnell, the former Labour shadow chancellor, said the government was seeking powers for a “mass surveillance exercise”.

He said: “The reason why people will feel that it is unfair is that it specifically targets people who are often in desperate need.

“If there was a group of people whose accounts we would want to monitor because there has been a history of fraud, and who have had to pay money back – some have gone to prison – it would be MPs; I was here during the expenses scandal.”

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https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/bill-would-force-banks-to-carry-out-mass-surveillance-of-millions-of-innocent-disabled-people-mps-are-told/

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 ReadingBill would force banks to carry out ‘mass surveillance’ of millions of innocent disabled people, MPs are told

DWP hides updated figures on life-threatening errors, just as Kendall prepares to announce cuts and reforms

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https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-hides-updated-figures-on-life-threatening-errors-just-as-kendall-prepares-to-announce-cuts-and-reforms/

The government is hiding figures that would show how often its civil servants are making life-threatening errors when dealing with the benefit claims of disabled people, just as media reports suggest it is planning sweeping cuts and reforms.

Last Friday, The Times reported that everyone on out-of-work disability benefits could be forced to carry out work-related activity, while hundreds of thousands of disabled people could see their support cut.

The article stressed that no decisions had yet been made, but The Times is known to have highly-placed contacts within both the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Treasury, which is said to be pushing for significant spending cuts.

But just as reports suggest the government is planning major changes that could impose significant safeguarding risks for disabled claimants, and increase pressure on DWP work coaches and jobcentres, DWP has blocked the publication of updated figures that would show the number of potentially fatal errors being made by its staff.

Last month, Disability News Service (DNS) reported on the long-delayed release of figures from last April, which showed how DWP staff were making thousands of potentially fatal errors every month when dealing with the benefit claims of disabled people, particularly in relation to universal credit claims and the department’s fraud and “compliance” work.

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Article continues at https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-hides-updated-figures-on-life-threatening-errors-just-as-kendall-prepares-to-announce-cuts-and-reforms/

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 ReadingDWP hides updated figures on life-threatening errors, just as Kendall prepares to announce cuts and reforms