In this powerful interview on Smooth radio North East, Claire Andrews, a Development Manager at Difference North East, sheds light on the devastating impact of proposed welfare reforms on disabled people in the North East. With firsthand experience working in the voluntary sector, Claire highlights how cuts to disability benefits, tightening eligibility criteria, and an inaccessible job market are pushing disabled individuals further into poverty. She calls for investment in the welfare system and collaboration with disabled people’s organisations to create a more equitable society. This is a must-read/listen for anyone concerned about social justice and the rights of disabled people.
Transcript is below
Introduction
My name is Claire Andrews, and I’m a development manager based in Teesside. I work for a charity called difference North East. We are a disabled people’s organisation that campaigns for equality, inclusion, and rights for disabled people living right across the North East.
Welfare reforms. What are your fears?
Reducing disabled people’s benefits won’t make us any less sick or any less disabled. It’ll instead push disabled people living in the North East further into poverty. Research shows that disabled households need over £1000 a month to have the exact same standard of living as non-disabled households. We know that more than half of Food Bank users are disabled people or those with a long term health condition. These reforms have been suggested against a backdrop of NHS waiting lists. Where many people already can’t get access to essential treatment. Ands against a backdrop of social care cuts where they cannot get the care and support they require and Access to Work delays. So disabled people are waiting for months for the support they need to start employment when they’re offered jobs. The whole system requires investment. It does not need cuts.
There’s been talk about tightening up the eligibility criteria for disability benefits, but I would say, How much more can this really be tightened? The process is already really, really difficult. It involves you completing pages and pages of forms, attaching reams of medical evidence, and then attending an in person assessment, where you have to tell a stranger the ins and outs of your care.
You’re even expected to talk about things like your toilet habits. It’s designed to have as little dignity as possible, and our members tell us that going through the process significantly impacts their mental health. How much harder can we make this for people?
Experiences of people’s affected—The Impact of Welfare Reforms on Disabled People
Disabled people are scared. Social Security enables people to meet the extra costs of disability and to ensure that they can live, for some it pays for care that helps them to wash and dress. Some people use the funds they receive to pay for essential aids to help them stay in employment.
The irony of this is the government message is that these reforms are designed to support people to gain or retain employment, but actually Personal Independence Payment PIP is actually an in work benefit. If you remove it or change who’s eligible, it might actually mean some disabled people need to leave employment.
There are trickle-down effects from this. We know that what happened last time significant welfare cuts were made. Disabled people inevitably find themselves having to go without the essentials. Whether that’s reducing their essential care, reducing their essential medication, reducing their essential Gas and Electric. I’m very worried about people’s ability to look after themselves when their safety NET is taken away.
Message for Government?
I think we must invest in the employment and welfare system. Instead of targeting and vilifying those who need it most. I personally don’t believe these proposals are about getting disabled people back into work. Furthermore, I think these are just cuts:in the current job market, It’s just not access. Accessible for disabled people. We have inaccessible job sites.
They aren’t compatible with assistive technology. We have bias recruitment practices, a disability confident employer scheme that’s not meaningfully implemented. Evidence says that one in five employers say they won’t hire a disabled person. And our members in the North East tell us that the jobs just aren’t there for them to apply for.
We recently discovered that on the DWP. On the job searching website, over a 30-day period, there were only 23 remote jobs with a disability confident employer in the whole of the UK. And this is the reality for disabled people in the North East. This is what we should be focusing on, changing and improving cuts. Won’t do that.
Anything else…
You know, I’ve worked in the voluntary sector across Teesside my whole adult life. I worked in mental health services when the last austerity measures were introduced. And there were huge cuts then to welfare budgets, and I saw on the front line the devastating impact those cuts had. And it really feels like we’re about to repeat that. It feels like austerity 2.0 now the current Labour government have said that this isn’t to return to austerity, but when we’re using some of the most vulnerable in society to balance the books. I don’t really know what else to call it, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
We want the government to work with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations to create a more accessible job market and create an equitable job market. But to do that, we have to guarantee a decent standard of living for disabled people. Whether they are in or out of work, so that everyone can live a decent life.
