If anyone had “slashing benefits” and “beating up the disabled” on your What Do You Expect From A Labour Government bingo card, then well done you. You’ve earned bragging rights and the square root of bugger all change in the national conversation since 2010. No, 2008 and the financial crisis. No, no, the Thatcher government of 1979.
Oh, hang it, this has been the national policy since 1530 when Henry VIII passed a law for the whipping of ‘sturdy vagabonds’ who didn’t work, and completely overlooked the fact their vagrancy was caused by his moneygrabbing dissolution of the monasteries, which effectively tipped the contents of the community hospitals of their day onto the streets.
Five centuries have passed and still we have governments talking about people who are “economically inactive” and “over-diagnosed” with mental health conditions, which is largely responsible for the fact 2.8m people are claiming long-term sickness benefits. We’re told, often, it’s a “lifestyle choice” and they MUST be MADE to WORK.
Righto, lads, let’s take this one step at a time. “Economically inactive” is not a thing, it just means someone does not earn or pay taxes, but instead is claiming a benefit. This, in case you are unclear, applies to every pensioner in the land, and they still buy food, pay their council tax, babysit grandchildren, and otherwise contribute plenty to the economy.
Secondly, it is not possible to be “over-diagnosed”, although sociopathic politicians clearly don’t get diagnosed often enough. If you have a condition, diagnosis is the first step to fixing it. A mental problem that comes about because an earlier one hasn’t been fixed would more properly be called “under-treating”, or sometimes “killing”.
Last but not least, an incurable condition that blocks you from working is not a lifestyle anyone would choose. If you have a long-term issue that makes it difficult to wash your hair, prepare food, use the toilet, get dressed, make decisions about money, engage with others, or get around, you can qualify for disability benefits of between £124 and £800 a month. That money does not cover the care needed; it certainly doesn’t get you a skiing holiday. If you disagree, and think such people must have benefits slashed to force them to work: ask yourself how far they’ll get in the job interview, if they haven’t washed, eaten, or dressed in weeks.
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It is indisputable there are more people diagnosed with neurodivergent conditions like autism, Asperger’s and ADHD. There’s more people with cancer as well, and for the same reason: we’re better at spotting it. The pandemic left more than a million people with long Covid, and many of them are not back to full-speed and may never be. There is a burgeoning benefits bill which needs reducing, and has landed in the lap of a weak government in thrall to its civil servants, parroting lines fed to ministers for decades.
And not a one of them has spotted the problem, because not a one has experienced it. Nearly 1 in 4 people in Britain are disabled or have a long-term health condition, which in a reasonable world should mean that 162 MPs could say the same. According to the Disability Policy Centre, the last Parliament had 14 and this one has 9 MPs who have declared themselves disabled: 1.3%. There may be more, but MPs probably feel that telling all would render them unelectable. Would you tell the world you were seeing a shrink?
The same problem exists in every walk of life. In supermarkets, big tech, schools, hospitals, and in the civil service and think tanks which produce the policies on how to tackle the problems poor health causes. To those in power, the cost of looking after those without it is always the biggest pain in the neck, and they can never see past it to the root cause of the problem. It is not sickness that creates the need for benefits. It is the fact that the sick get pushed out, and pushed down.
There is not a paraplegic in the country who thinks “this is the life”. There is no-one in a wheelchair who tells their boss: “This is like winning the lottery, I quit!” And there’s no-one too anxious or cancerous or arthritic to leave the house who is relishing the lifestyle. The disabled and long-term sick are the one group in society who would LOVE the chance to pay taxes, who would do ANYTHING to stand on their own two feet, or crutches. It’s not benefits holding them back: it’s bosses.
If there are two people going for a job, the one without a disability will get it. Some firms have positive hiring practices, but for many the idea of having to obey legislative requirements to make “reasonable adjustments” in the workplace for someone with extra needs sounds like an expensive pain in the arse. Most disabilities develop later in life, and people know they’ll be judged for it. When I was first diagnosed with epilepsy and told people I couldn’t drive for a year, everyone assumed I was a drink-driver. I let them, because it was more socially-acceptable than the truth.
Many who develop a chronic condition enter the gig economy, go freelance, trade the security of a wage for the chance to take a day off if things get bad. We self-support, we’re resilient, but for some reason bosses prefer to employ those who have never needed to bounce back. Well, there’s an easy fix. One which will slash the benefits bill, get the long-term sick back to work, increase tax revenue, grow the economy, renew Labour’s reputation as the party of the people, and end the Tudor-era stigma of not being 100% perfect. And it’s an absolute piece of piss to do.
At the moment, the only upside to employers for recruiting the disabled is the chance to offset the wheelchair ramp against corporation tax. But why not set a lower rate of employer contributions to National Insurance for those with a chronic condition? Reward employers who offer flexible working? How about setting targets for recruiting from the long-term sick, and tax breaks in return for it? Ooh, ooh, why don’t we have a disabled cabinet minister?
In a stroke, you have moved thousands of people off benefits, put a rocket under the economy, and got people who paid zero tax into quite happily paying chunks. You have made the disabled more visible and more viable, and ended the fallacy of “sturdy beggars” that has poisoned the country for half a millennium.
It’s time it was done. If nothing else, publicly whipping every last one of them will hurt the arm and cost more in whips than anyone hopes to save. Henry VIII honestly believed that people opted to be beggars because it was so bloody wonderful., but then he was a murderous lunatic. We have moved on from that, Liz – haven’t we?
