As a Liverpudlian who moved to Middlesbrough to study during the Thatcher years, I was reminded last week about Yosser taking the same journey to seek work. Alan Bleasdale’s much acclaimed drama ‘boys from the Black Stuff’ may well get a repeat in light of Liz Kendall’s proposed welfare reforms.
The words ‘gizza job’ and ‘I can do that!’ from Jimmy ‘Yosser’ Hughes as he watches the demolition of a Tate and Lyle factory in 1980’s Liverpool has resonance today for people struggling with life and being workless. Like Yosser, many of us want to work but encounter barriers to opportunity, including sneering attitudes and systemic discrimination.
Instead of setting out proposals to support people into work from the outset, the government has woven a narrative about cutting benefits by £5bn and shifting resources to defence. They are indeed economic pressures that have to be addressed but not at the cost of disadvantaged people or through austerity plus.
Things were not helped in the days prior to the Welfare Statement with Wes Streeting taking to the airways to question the legitimacy of anxiety, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and poor mental health being experienced by many young people. The tone was reminiscent of Yosser being labelled a lazy ‘scrounger’ rather than his loss of self-worth due to the stigma of being jobless and having to deal with psychiatrists, social workers and creditors.
‘Reducing benefits doesn’t drive people into work but deeper into poverty’
Liz Kendall was somewhat late pitching in with claims about the value of work and respecting people’s dignity, but nonetheless a welcome change in tone. In her Commons Statement she rightly said: “disabled people and people with health conditions who can work should have the same rights, choices and chances to work as everybody else.”.
It wasn’t enough though as she laid out a set of proposals which leave most claimants with uncertainty about consequences for themselves. Delivered in the context of reducing budgets, the government has created an unnecessary maelstrom of fears. They would be wise to give some clarity on who will be protected.
Reducing benefits doesn’t drive people into work but deeper into poverty. The Department of Work and Pensions’ own figures claim that, by 2029/30, more than three million families who currently receive benefits or will be recipients in the future will suffer an average loss of £1,720 per year. The government’s welfare changes will also push 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, into relative poverty.
This is the worry with the cut to the means-tested health element of universal credit. People currently assessed as having “limited capability for work-related activity” (LCWRA) receive £4,992 a year in addition to the standard rate and are not expected to work. Even though the standard rate is set to increase, it won’t match what many will lose from the reduced health top up and nobody under 22 will qualify. The freeze in the health element of universal credit is also set to hit future claimants particularly hard, with 730,000 future recipients facing a staggering average loss of £3,000 per year.
Collapsing Work Capability Assessments (WCA) into Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessments will have a significant negative impact for a potential million claimants where new criteria excludes them from PIP and/or the health element of Universal Credit. Whatever lines are drawn the potential to move people closer or over the cliff edge is alarming.
Reforms include merging Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) and Employment Support Allowance (ESA) into a single contributory benefit. The new time limit proposal will be concerning to many long-term claimants. Whilst the ‘Right to Try’ Guarantee is encouraging, it isn’t applicable to some disabled people with long-term conditions that will not improve.
‘Despite talk about reasonable adjustments, people find themselves pushed out’
Conservative failure over the last 14 years to bring down NHS waiting lists means that too many people are unable to work. Tackling the backlog in appointments, diagnostics and treatment to significantly contribute to people’s fitness and wellbeing to work. Yet the uncertainties surrounding benefit reform could exacerbate people’s circumstances, resulting in additional public services being needed. All this re-assessment will add to people’s stress and bring GP’s more administrative burdens.
The announcement that tailored employment support will be funded with an additional £1bn is welcome. It will be important for the government to engage with disability organisations to shape this provision, alongside listening to their concerns about proposed changes to benefits. Access to Work provides a range of support to disabled people in employment but has a woeful track record in providing adequate support in a timely way, resulting in some people losing their job.
The range of jobs many of us could do are somewhat limited. Liz Kendall is unlikely to employ someone who is blind like me to cut her hair, rewire the family home or drive her around Job Centres that are apparently bulging with prospects.
Employment initiatives tend to focus on recruitment with little regard to retention. Acquiring a health condition or experiencing the onset of disability is common during working life. Despite much talk about reasonable adjustments, people find themselves pushed out. Employers lose experienced, skilled and committed workers because they fail to understand things can be done differently.
Many disabled people working in public services will be worried about the threat of redundancy following Sir Keir Starmer kickstarting ‘Project Chainsaw’ with NHS England and Pat McFadden signalling cuts to the wider Civil Service. There has been no indication from the government that disabled people will be protected in any way.
READ MORE: Spring Statement: Reeves under fire from Labour’s three biggest unions
‘Labour is in danger of reconstructing poverty, not breaking the link between disability and poverty’
Technological improvements frequently make job tasks more difficult for disabled people because adaptations do not keep pace with mainstream changes. I managed Access to Work contracts across the UK during the 1990’s when blind telephonists were being laid off by banks, public services and other employers due to switchboards being replaced by direct dialling and information points being merged into large customer call centres. Generally speaking, the new kit wasn’t accessible and new ways of working failed to be inclusive. Whilst some people learned new skills, many were made redundant and left to languish on benefits. We are always playing catch up epitomised by the government publishing the Green Paper last week, but still accessible versions are not available.
Work in the future is set to be even more transformational and widespread with artificial intelligence taking on routine administrative and data intensive roles. Improved productivity will help Britain’s competitiveness but there are serious risks for the employability of disabled people in this accelerating complex workforce.
The daily living component of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) covers 8 categories, from the ability to prepare food to making decisions about money. There are 2 categories for the mobility component. Under current rules, claimants are given the standard rate if they score between eight and 11 points across all categories on either component, while scores over 12 receive the enhanced rate. Changes to the Daily Living component means someone who scores 4 points in just 1 category will qualify whereas someone scoring consistently across most categories which accumulate a higher result would not. The spiralling PIP budget is unlikely to be brought under control without people with ‘less severe conditions’ not being eligible.
My overwhelming sense is that Labour ministers are driven by economic choices rather than bringing disabled people into the mission to breakdown barriers to opportunity. Labour is in danger of reconstructing poverty, not breaking the link between disability and poverty. The absence of a comprehensive Disability Strategy to improve the life chances of disabled people suggests the foundations of these reforms are weak. The overall costs of benefits will no doubt fall but whether securing positive outcomes for sick and disabled people are ambiguous. The devil will be in the detail to whether adequate protections are robust, support is effective and those of us calling to ‘gizza job’ works.
Read more of our Spring Statement news and analysis:
- ‘Ill thought out’ or ‘strong performance’? Reeves’ Spring Statement divides MPs
- Reeves under fire from Labour’s three biggest unions
- List of councillors quitting over welfare amid further cuts
- The four Labour achievements Reeves is trumpeting
- MPs: ‘Let’s soothe the nation, not kick it in the teeth’
- Reeves ‘confident’ civil service could cut 10,000 roles as Blunkett decries fiscal rules
And read more commentary on the Spring Statement:
- ‘Why not draft in Martin Lewis to fill the fiscal hole?’
- ‘Ministers must reject failed Tory orthodoxies of the past and put people before profit again’
- ‘The Chancellor must not make foreign aid cuts worse’
- ‘People want New Labour-style spending now. Here’s why it’s just not possible’
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