Defend disability rights - defend welfare rights
Simon Deville and Susan Moore
The Labour leadership are concerned about their policy on disabilities. For Blair and co the problem is that New Labour isn't getting it's message across clearly enough. For the 6.5 million disabled people in Britain the problem is a different one, for them the message has come across all too clearly. The Labour leadership are planning to force through massive benefit cuts to some of the most vulnerable members of society.
Whilst feigning astonishment that anyone could believe that New Labour will attack the poorest sections of society (65 per cent of disabled people currently live on or below the poverty line), Blair has at the same time made it perfectly clear that is precisely what he does aim to do.
As if the prejudice and exclusion disabled people already face in society wasn't bad enough, Blair and Harman have consistently stated that they aim to introduce further means testing for disabled people who receive benefits. Disabled people will have to face even more rigorous testing to prove that they are disabled.
Even the most generous reading of what Blair has said so far would suggest that New Labour will only avoid attacking the poor and those with disabilities by re-defining what they mean by poor or disabled.
For many people with disabilities the benefits they receive enable them to achieve a modicum of independence and dignity. Running a car for example may be a `luxury’ for someone who could use public transport. Given that most public transport is completely inaccessible a car can be a life-line for someone in a wheelchair.
For others their disability may mean that they need to spend extra money on heating for example or to pay for forms of treatment such as massage or acupuncture that are rarely available on the NHS. Others may need to pay someone to assist with personal tasks that other people take for granted.
Disabled people need benefits to pay for the extra costs of their disability - whether those costs are inevitable or as a result of the inaccessible way our society is organised. Disabled people need those benefits - and should be entitled to them - whether or not they are in paid work.
In 1995 the Tories introduced Incapacity Benefit to replace the previous Invalidity Benefit. The new benefit was subject to tax and counted as income - which means that those receiving it get less income support.
At the same time the government introduced the hated "All Works Test" through which the Benefits Agency attempts to show that disabled people are able to work, and therefore, not entitled to Incapacity Benefit.
Through this 1,700 people have lost their benefit entitlement, many of whom are judged not sufficiently disabled for these benefit rules, but are not able to work. In many cases people with a condition that fluctuates may lose benefits because their condition was not sufficiently bad on the day of their All Works Test.
Even the application for Incapacity Benefit asks a staggering 96 questions about what the claimant is or is not able to do (including a question halfway through the booklet that asks if you are able to turn a page!)
In opposition Labour officially opposed these attacks. Now they are in government they have changed their tune. Their document leaked in November of last year reveals plans to cut 2.5 billion of disability benefits by the year 2000, from Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance.
At the same time they plan to privatise BAMS, the hated Benefit Agency that runs the All Work Test. As if it wasn't demeaning enough to be seen by a doctor from the DHSS now disabled people will be examined and quizzed by a doctor employed by a private agency.
They also plan an assault on Industrial Injuries Compensation. For worker’s who are injured at work this compensation may prove a vital life-line. The fact that claims can be made for 3 years after an accident takes place is especially crucial when many, especially in less organised workplaces may not think to put in a claim when the injuries seem slight. Problems like back complaints - not to mention industrial diseases often surface long after the incident. Nor is this only an issue for workers in manual jobs - the growth of complaints such as Repetitive Strain Injury makes that clear.
Of course the attacks on disability benefits are not planned in isolation from the overall assault on the Welfare State. They are part of Labours overall plans to defend profits for big business by slashing the social security bill and the welfare state overall. This will obviously impact on people with disabilities even further as cuts hit other benefits, as the crisis in health care deepens and so on.
Whilst we must organise to reject any plans by the government that aim to cut disability benefits, such a fight must be linked up with a struggle to defend and extend welfare services and provision overall, that involves an alliance of disabled people with all sections of the labour movement.
The Labour leadership are masters of political spin and any such attacks are likely to be couched in terms of cutting down on fraud, directing limited resources to those most in need and so on.
We must be absolutely clear that no attacks on welfare are acceptable. The millions spent on harassing the poorest and most vulnerable in society should be diverted into chasing up the far more lucrative tax evasion of the rich and of big business. To say the money isn't there is simply ludicrous in the country that charges the lowest level of corporation tax of any advanced capitalist country.
We say the problem isn't that Labour has failed to get its message across - the problem is what the message is in the first place.