Words by Joel Rothery
The past couple weeks have been particularly distressing for disabled people in the UK. First, we were hit with the news of catastrophic cuts of between £5-6 billion to disability benefits, then the news that NHS England will be disbanding, and, perhaps most distressing of all, the decision from the committee considering the assisted dying bill to axe the need for a High Court judge to approve euthanasia applications.
In response to the proposed cuts to disability welfare, Scope (a disability rights charity) have stated that the decision could push 700,000 more disabled households into poverty. Perhaps most concerningly, when questioned by Ed Davey (Leader of Lib Dems) at PMQs Keir Starmer could not give his assurance that disability benefits would not be cut for disabled people who cannot work.
Labour is utilising two lines of argument to justify the proposed cuts. First is the benefit fraud argument, a favourite of the previous Tory government. Liz Kendall, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has previously stated that there are people on benefits who shouldn’t be and, rather insultingly, that benefit claimants are “taking the mickey”. The issue with this reasoning is according to official DWP figures 0.4% of PIP (the main form of disability benefit for working age disabled people) claims are fraudulent.
Labour’s second argument is that the current benefit system discourages people from working. Not only has cutting benefits been proven to not fix employment rates, many disabled people who are able to work use PIP to offset the additional costs of being disabled (a figure SCOPE places at £1,010 a month) in order to stay in work. By cutting benefits Starmer may very well end up further exasperating unemployment figures.
Instead of scapegoating disabled people for the financial crisis Starmer should heed the words of Labour MP for Leeds East, Richard Burgon who, in a recent PMQs, suggested that Starmer should “make a real tough choice and introduce a wealth tax on the very wealthiest people in our society”.
The announcement to disband NHS England may initially seem to be part of the Labour government’s wider aim to cut quangos, but the decision is potentially disastrous for disabled people. Of course, it’s unclear what the disbanding of NHS England will entail specifically, however with Wes Streeting’s statement that it will cut 10,000 jobs it can be assumed that the most socially vulnerable will suffer from this decision.
Even in the best case scenario where the 10,000 jobs are only administrative roles and not healthcare roles the decision to implement such a drastic policy will make it significantly more difficult for disabled people to access healthcare. There is concern that the disbanding of NHS England may represent a future of privatised healthcare.
What you may not have seen in the news over the last few weeks, however, was the decision regarding the assisted dying bill. The committee considering the bill, led by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, dropped the requirement for a High Court judge to approve applications. Many of its supporters argued that this was a key safeguard in preventing the abuse of the bill, making it one of the strictest of its kind. By reducing such robust safeguards euthanasia becomes easier to access and cases of coerced decisions to access euthanasia become more prevalent. Despite the bill currently being considered under the guise of allowing those in considerable pain to end their lives with dignity, the removal of crucial safeguards does little to sway the fears of the bill’s critics that this bill will be extended to all disabilities. This was announced on the same day the disbanding of NHS England was announced (13th March) allowing it to pass through relatively unnoticed.
It’s clear to disabled people and anti-ableist allies where this is heading. With such detrimental decisions Labour is attempting to create a society so unlivable for disabled people that assisted dying becomes a particularly appealing, and perhaps the only, option.
Although, it is difficult to consider euthanasia a true choice in a future where the ratified bill is particularly lax and a disabled existence becomes increasingly difficult through worsening policies of austerity. There is a clear chain of events, increasing financial and societal insecurity for disabled people will leave many unable to escape poverty, struggling to survive, and looking for a way out. If there is an easy, legal, almost encouraged, way out available in the form of legislated assisted dying, many disabled people will take it.
But these must not be viewed in isolation, each piece of legislation or rhetoric from Labour is focused on creating the elimination of disabled people from society. Alva Gotby offers an explanation as to why Labour would want to eliminate disabled people in this way in her book Feeling at Home: “The role of the state, then, is to ensure that the ‘deserving’ workers have what they need to be able to keep going to work, and that the undeserving surplus can’t access the resources they would need to have a decent standard of life”. Due to many disabled people’s inability to work, this categorises them as a surplus population in the eyes of the Labour government as they are unable to provide labour that a capitalistic society deems useful.
Uncertainty surrounding how fully the benefit cuts will be implemented due to pressure applied by disability rights campaigners, MPs from opposition parties, and even internal pressure from Labour MPs provides hope. But Labour, through the proposition and eventual implementation of such oppressive policies, have proved how little they value disabled lives.
This devaluation is not accidental – there is clear malicious intent behind this devaluation. Through hostile policies targeting disabled people, Labour will be committing social murder (unnatural death caused by systemic social, political, or economical oppression) on a scale greater than that of the Tories.
