Disability Rights UK response to the Chancellors Autumn statement

Today’s  announcement on future changes to the benefits system will push more Disabled people into deeper poverty, forcing people to accept unsuitable work or lower benefit levels. The Government continues to demonize Disabled people rather than tackling the root causes of poverty, discrimination and public service failures.   .

The message is clear, find a job or face a benefit cut.  This, to a community already feeling the very worst effects of the cost-of-living crisis, the impact of inadequate public services and the disastrous consequences of the Covid pandemic. We are being made scapegoats for a failing economy.

Instead of forcing people into unsuitable employment or lower benefits, the Government should be ensuring speedy mental health services, cutting NHS waiting lists, ensuring employment is accessible, investing in public transport and providing adequate levels of social care.  Social security needs to provide a genuine safety net, which allows those who can’t work to live in dignity and those who can to find the jobs that suit them. We need investment in social care and the NHS, and we need to finally be seen as equal citizens.