personal independence payments (PIP)

Morning Star Editorial: What is the point of Labour? The key question

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/what-point-labour-key-question

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a reception to celebrate St Patrick’s Day at 10 Downing Street, London, March 19, 2025

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[T]he Starmer-Reeves agenda is entirely dictated by the needs of finance capital, mediated through the Treasury and the military.

There is no question, of course, of arms spending being affected by this renewed austerity — on the contrary it is slated to carry on rising for the next decade. Critics of the welfare cuts should not be reticent about making this connection.

Trying to protect spending on services without challenging this renewed militarism hands the Starmerites a free pass by allowing a key argument to go unchallenged.

Starmer’s priorities have a mounting number of victims. Again in Commons questions, Northern Ireland social democrat Colum Eastwood identified one, a deeply disabled constituent able to access benefits under the Tories but now facing destitution as her personal independence payments are withdrawn.

Eastwood then asked the key question. Given all that — what is the point of Labour?

It is a question millions across the country, including many who voted Labour last July, are now asking. This is governance in the interests of capital, not labour by any stretch.

The left in Labour must transition from protest to action against the government if there is to be any positive answer to Eastwood’s question. Issuing statements is not enough if Starmer and Reeves can continue to count on votes in Parliament and canvassers in the country for their anti-worker programme.

Absent that fighting approach, the logical conclusion must be that something new, articulating the values of socialism, is needed.

Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/what-point-labour-key-question

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 commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the "hard times".
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: What is the point of Labour? The key question

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.
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

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

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