Independent MP slams latest damaging Tory budget measures and assault on poor, sick and disabled
Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe has accused the Tory government of using Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement to fatten business at the expense of the poor, of ‘snatching the assessment of illness out of the hands of doctors’ to punish the long-term sick and of doing the exact opposite of what the UK economy needs – and says that Keir Starmer’s Labour is little better in enthusiastically promoting the discredited austerity narrative.
In a statement issued today, Ms Webbe said:
Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement boasted of giving corporations the biggest tax handout in modern British political history, doling out billions to companies – many of whom are already making obscene profits in a cost of greed emergency of soaring bills and food costs.
And he is doing this on the backs of the poor, sick and disabled, with horrendous measures to whip those who are unfit to work into taking jobs their medical experts have said they cannot do – and to do it they will snatch the assessment of illness out of the hands of doctors and have it decided by the government’s agents instead.
The past decade has seen a steep rise in poverty, with fourteen million people below the poverty line, including well over four million children. In Leicester East, four in every ten children were already living in absolute poverty – now the Chancellor says if people do not submit to his new regime to get them back into work, he will cut them off completely from support after six months. The effect of this on my constituents and the poor and sick across the country will be horrific.
This country, since 2010, has seen an appalling rise in the misery imposed on those who were already struggling to get by. More than four in ten disability benefit claimants have attempted suicide under the government’s brutal regime. Suicide has become the leading cause of death in men under fifty. Poor mental health abounds, yet the government has today shown it remains determined to punish and persecute those who cannot work – and indeed that it is determined to deny the reality of life in this country for so many.
In my constituency of Leicester East, we have seen endemic exploitation and poverty wages in our garment industry. I told the Chancellor in response to his Autumn Statement that the unionised manufacturing base of Leicester East has long been diminished – not replaced by technology, innovation and good modern jobs with decent pay, but by fast fashion, sweatshops and unscrupulous employers paying illegally-low wages. All this has been exploited by brands and retailers who are in a race to the bottom for ever-increasing profits while their supply chains fail to pay the minimum wage.
I asked him what action the government will take to regulate and ensure that brands and retailers are held to account for the sustainable outcomes of their products in their supply chains and wage justice for the people that make their goods, and to tackle those British brands and retailers who threaten to seek cheaper labour overseas so they can avoid paying the new minimum wage that the he had just announced. There was no meaningful response.
The government is using tweaks to the minimum wage – which it misnames the living wage – as cover for its handouts to business, but its increases are still very far below the level at which a person working one job could live on. The government claims work is the way out of poverty, but millions who are working are among the poorest.
Mr Hunt claims the government is going for growth, when in fact they are doing the exact opposite of what our economy needs – and hurting millions to do it. Economists recognise that the best way to boost economic growth is to give more money to the poor, because they have to spend it. But yet again the Conservatives are giving more to the rich and to corporations who will put much of it into offshore bank accounts where it does no good. As it is, despite his claims of growth he has had to acknowledge that the Office for Budget Responsibility is downgrading growth forecasts for the next three years.
And it has to be said that the Labour party is largely in agreement with the government it is supposed to oppose. This country needs politicians with the courage to speak the truth that the punishment of the poor to enrich the wealthy is a political choice and not a necessity or even productive. Sadly such politicians are at the moment in very short supply at the moment.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
[T]hey will snatch the assessment of illness out of the hands of doctors and have it decided by the government’s agents instead.
It’s been happening since New Labour enthusiastically introduced the appalling Work Capability Assessment under Atos. I had to undergo that lunacy myself for a temporary condition and was ‘awarded’ zero points — with the decision then being overturned after 2 tribunals!
Frightening stuff and no opposition.
[T]hey will snatch the assessment of illness out of the hands of doctors and have it decided by the government’s agents instead.
A question for those who have posted on here praising serwotka.
The (unionised) JCP
caposstaff who will be “assessing” those (previously) considered unfit to work belong to his union (PCS).Have you heard anything from that union in opposition to this proposal?
No?
No. You haven’t.
And nor will you. Once again they will accept their m&s voucher bribes for forcing people into jobs they can’t do, pushing those people into further despair, penury, and quite probably, suicide.
Murderous policy-enabling capos. Nothing more, nothing less
And it’s something the toerags needn’t have done – for another reason.
They could’ve sat on their hands; waited until the election, and forced the same policy out of smarmer (Because – and be in NO doubt about it – he supports this and would’ve done exactly the same), and then the rags could’ve pointed the finger at him.
Whether you’re poorly, or just plain poor – there’s nothing down for you either way. 😕
Here’s what the pcs website has to say about the plans. Dated 21/11 it’s about a pre autumn statement…
https://www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/news/autumn-statement-what-we-expect-what-we-demand
“Harsher benefit sanctions could be set out, with “fit notes” being taken away from doctors and instead being issued by the DWP, which is already massively under resourced. Even worse, claimants could lose access to free prescriptions and dental treatments.”
The DWP is massively under-resourced.
…Which I take to mean that they can’t bully enough sick people into work quickly enough.
Poor them. 😕 But really, they should look on the bright side – less staff means more vouchers to go around between fewer people.
You think that’s too much, do ya?
Tough shit. I don’t see a fookin dicky-bird about them not being qualified to judge who’s sick and who isn’t. I see even less about the plight these of people who the JCP staff are gonna assess.
Oh no. What we plainly see is: “but we’re understaffed”. Well, my heart fookin BLEEDS for them.
…Oh, and that’s all there is about it on the pcs website. There’s been nothing since.
So AFAIC, they can get it RIGHT round the bastard lot of them.
Nowadays doctors no longer need the special ‘bedside manner’ they need degrees in IT. Won’t be long before MDs are replaced by these tech clowns armed with an apple mac and Mimms.
The reality is 2/3rds are overturned when claimants are represented
The best advice is to get help with the application, never try and fill it in yourself
Leaving doubts about the 1/3 deemed to be for for work, represented or not.
The amount of money spunked on WCA tribunals alone – Nevermind the multitudes of (mainly frivolous) appeals by the DWP for cases that have gone against them – is in the £££ hundreds of millions.
And it never stopped atos, crapita and the rest from being barred from their moneygrubbing malpractices.
And partially bringing it back in-house isn’t gonna reduce that amount. Not while there are
bribes‘incentives’ on offer for those only too willing to commit that unforgivable, abject shithousery at the rags’ behest.Represented by who?
When I approached Citizen’s Advice with my case, they said they didn’t think it was strong enough for them to represent me at Tribunal (zero points). Yet the Tribunal felt it was perfectly strong enough for them to overturn it.
The reason there were 2 tribunals was because, as a result of CAB’s lack of support, I didn’t bother to go the first time — I thought it would be a waste of time and the condition was starting to heal anyway. Instead, the Tribunal asked me for more medical information, which I duly supplied, and they then overturned the DWP’s decision at the second one.
Forgot to add that the only effective representation I got was from the Tribunal itself insofar as they obviously thought I had a good case and just needed some further medical evidence from the hospital consultant to confirm it.
Doug, true enough but the amount of people with the time to gen up and then act as reps is getting smaller daily. In our area the reps are getting on and can manage less cases. Advice centres are shutting down and the few charities that used to act are closing because of decreased funding. Anyone would think that these things happening around the same time was odd maybe coincidental.
Come on, Claudia!
Announce your candidacy for the next general election.