We’re often a forgotten community, yet I’d almost rather we would be forgotten again at the moment.
It’s clear to me that there’s been almost no communication or engagement with disabled people from the current government – and certainly none from the budget.
We’ve been hit hugely hard by first the cost of living and now the most recent budget, and too many conversations are framing us as layabouts, despite how challenging simply existing often is with a disability.
With a broken Access to Work system, a rejected Lib Dem motion (despite the amazing work by Tom Gordon!) on allowing disabled people to travel on their bus passes in commuting hours, and frozen tax brackets eating into an already more expensive life – the energy to find work is dwindling, when it disproportionately involves self-advocacy and challenges.
The Liberal Democrats have done great work, but could and must do more to lead the conversation around disability. We are being scapegoated as fraudulent claimants, when closing tax loopholes on large businesses would be both easier and cheaper and bring in far more income for the government. The £2 billion of fraud claims may sound a lot to an individual, but when it comes to the funding of a government is a drop in the ocean, and barely worth the admin time to deal with.
There are so many other ways to save costs – PIP is infamous for rejecting individuals only to accept around 70% of people who appeal. Simply giving people what they need the first time round would surely save hours of paid work. Instead, misinformation that has led to the widespread belief disabled people get “free care” and the ignorant response from Labour to this through the budget will likely cost many disabled people to the point of taking their freedom away.
Furthermore, it has never made sense to me that we put vulnerable people into poverty and expect this to motivate them to find employment and a better lifestyle. Asides from the “treat everyone with basic rights” argument that seems to be brushed aside these days thanks to the intense right wing media and its pandering to extreme views, we know the more stable people’s lives are the easier it is to improve and contribute to society.
The Liberal Democrats must do better, both in phrasing the conversations we have as candidates, councillors and activist, and in our policy and engagement of the community. I’m delighted at Marie Goldman’s engagement so far in her “hitting the ground running” work she’s done as our new Equalities spokesperson, and I’m hopeful for the future – but as we know, hope doesn’t mean we can stop working hard.
* Katharine Macy has been a Liberal Democrat since birth, with their grandparents and mother being councillors and activists. Katharine has a PhD in autism in human evolution and work for a law firm as an Inclusion and Wellbeing advisor. They are the Chair of the Liberal Democrat Disability Association.
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6 Comments
It’s great that Marie Goodman is taking well to the role. But I don’t yet feel fully comfortable proclaiming that the Lib Dems are the party that stands up for the disabled when our previous and very good equalities spokesperson was fired only months ago for doing exactly that!
I agree with @Katharine’s article. I don’t think that the party has much to say, clearly, on the issues raised. There are press releases when there is something big like a cut in benefits, and I am sure there are policy documents.
But I don’t see campaigns and much said otherwise.
I was at a meeting yesterday with a talk on the history of disability, and it was interesting to see the change in people’s views on disability, and how remnants of the horrors of the past are there in the back of some people’s minds.
It is the LDDA AGM next week and I hope we can talk about some positive ways forward, working with the parliamentary party and disability organisations.
PS sad to see so little comment on the article, which says something (or nothing).
Good article Katherine but if we are not to be forgotten or worse dismissed as an expensive burden to the country which we have heard from the Tories and now Labour .
We have got to raise our collective voice . We need to do what i have done in Rugby refresh and restart local disability forums in our own communities . Raise those questions on access and support living streets campaign on pavement parking particularly on dropped kerbs . Ensure public buildings are in fact accessable and kick off if they are not .
Two billion pounds of fraud not worth worrying about? Really? That’s the most annoying and depressing thing I’ve read in a long time.
@Ambighter
Yes, £2Bn would be the total if a million people cheated to the tune of £2,000 each.
Thinking of it another way, that £2Bn would allow 1 million of the lowest earning taxpayers to have their taxes reduced by £2,000 each.
Let’s get this into perspective. The total expenditure of the UK government is £1416 billion. To most people £2 billion is a lot of money, but it is just 0.14% of the government’s expenditure.
It might be highly desireable to recoup it, but in terms of government expenditure it really is a trivial sum. Tackling tax avoidance and evasion would yield significantly more money.
Surely the real question must be how much would it cost to recover the money and how much could actually be recovered?