Above is an estimate on how much someone with a disability who is having to seek help from the welfare system could lose if the reforms go ahead. To put the figure into context, my car, which may not be on the driveway very soon, is worth less than a quarter of the nearly five thousand pounds which could be lost.
The figure equates to nearly half of the government’s own definition of the poverty line. That is just over twelve grand a year. So it’s a huge figure that could be disappearing, and considering the employment rate, which only this week I saw autism was one of the lowest groups in work, the amount of cuts overall could equate to millions.
It certainly sounds that austerity is still here, and like Groundhog Day, it’s disability in the firing line. (Yes, I know other parts of society have been targeted, but there is nearly a decade where disability has seen this all before.)
And to add even more uncertainty, the social care crisis is still not resolved. Like I said to a reporter last week, even if SEND provision was made perfect tomorrow, the fruits of this wouldn’t be fully known for at least ten years further into the future.
Yes, we are in a black hole. Well, I do know a bit about black holes, and the most important lesson is you don’t go further into one. You cannot see this as a collection of numbers. The evidence is overwhelming in regard to if you take support away, then the chances of someone’s life becoming better go up in smoke.
Under the current housing crisis, five thousand pounds could well mean the difference between keeping a roof over your head or not. There is already a chronic housing issue in our cities as it stands today, and there is a shortage in terms of options for housing catering for disability. (And the current way Cornwall is dealing with the homeless crisis is also causing community unease, as people’s needs are not being met.)
Making homelessness more likely would wipe out any savings (and that’s just with housing; the cost towards our NHS could also rise if people weren’t able to keep healthy). Cornwall is a place that tells you what happens when people go off radar and become isolated. It can cost them their lives, and knowing that you could become part of a statistic isn’t an enjoyable experience.
The notion that people would deliberately do it is nonsense, and it’s incredibly dangerous and derisive nonsense. The most stupid aspect of all of this is it doesn’t help in getting people back into work. Could you rebuild your life if the insufficient support you are getting was cut even more?
Chris Burns writes for the APLE Collective
