By Declan Carey
THE CONSERVATIVE Party will show its disdain towards disabled people in Britain when the end of a £20-a-week benefit uplift comes into force next month.
Universal Credit (UC) – a payment to help with living costs – will be reduced to save money on public spending, putting disabled people in line for another hit.
In Britain today, having a disability means you are much more likely to live in a low income household with additional spending needed to get by.
Disabled people spend more on lots of things including medical equipment, attending healthcare appointments, and living costs such as heating and water bills.
Take away another £1,000-a-year from people already on the breadline, which is what the UC cut will do, and some of the country’s disabled will have little to nothing left.
The Government surely knows the impact the cut will have, but is pressing on anyway.
It has acknowledged that there are fewer disabled people in employment compared to last year, and that a growing number of people are applying for and claiming disability related-benefits each year.
This suggests Britain is a place where being disabled means enduring financial hardship and discrimination as standard.
It is also well established that the pandemic made life much harder for disabled people with many feeling excluded from the emergency laws brought in to support people.
So with the £20 cut in UC as well as an increase in national insurance contributions, it is clear to see that disabled people are at best an afterthought in Government policy, and at worse a target.
DR UK’s Fazilet Hadi said: “These cuts will hit Disabled people hard. Around 800,000 Disabled people are on Universal Credit.
“This money is the difference between people eating and going hungry. The loss of it is a mighty thunderclap in a perfect storm of fast rising property and rental prices, increased fuel prices, and increased food prices.
“And yet still the Government won’t listen, instead showing callous disregard for those who live near or beneath the poverty line.”
Landlords, internet giants, or firms utilising off-shire tax havens could have paid more to cover the cost of propping up millions of people around the country.
Closing the £4.6 billion tax evasion gap for example, would have created vital funds for social care and benefits claimants to continue receiving the support they need.
But why would the Government bother to do all that when it is far easier to punch down?
The Tories looked at what the lowest earners had, and axed it without consideration. All this does is send another clear sign that disabled people are once again being left behind.
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