‘I feel like an expensive pet’: Independent readers open up on the human cost of disability cuts – UK Times

As Labour faces mounting backlash over plans to cut disability benefits, dozens of Independent readers have voiced fear, anger and despair over what they see as a betrayal of society’s most vulnerable.

Their comments reveal the human cost behind the headlines: carers facing destitution, disabled people fearing the loss of their last shred of financial independence, and a pervasive feeling that the reforms are not about support, but punishment.

Several readers spoke of lifelong conditions that make work impossible, and how benefit cuts would not help them back into employment, only into poverty.

Others warned that the reforms are economically short-sighted, creating more strain on the NHS, social services and unpaid carers.

Beyond practical concerns, many touched on the emotional toll of feeling vilified, dismissed or forgotten by politicians and the general public.

Here’s what you had to say:

It’s not just PIP cuts!

It’s not just PIP cuts! It’s the cuts to the Universal Credit Health Element and Carer’s Element too that many will lose. Those who work part-time and do not claim PIP will lose out, and those who have paid in, getting contribution-based benefits, will be thrown under the bus by unemployment insurance, limited to six or 12 months, because they may have a partner, when normally they would claim in their own right.

These issues are not being talked about. Disabled people in all these situations will lose massively and Labour have learnt nothing from the deaths of claimants under the Tories. They know and have heard the evidence, criticised the Tories for being cruel, yet they think this is acceptable.

This is not about helping people into work; it is punishing them for being unable to do so!

The Force

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Grinding existence of poverty

I have fibromyalgia and many other chronic long-term conditions, and those 14 years under the Tories forced unnecessary austerity and cruel, draconian DWP cuts to the most vulnerable people in society, many with lifelong chronic health conditions, making work impossible, and no employer would give us a second look.

Those years of horrific treatment by the DWP, constant demonisation and vilification in the media and press, being made to feel like a criminal for just being alive, although it is more like a grinding existence of poverty and constant scapegoating – which feels like a form of abuse via proxy, designed to wear us down until we are broken and prone to taking our own lives… I’ve been there!

That this isn’t a national scandal on the level of the Infected Blood, Post Office Horizon, Windrush etc., is utterly shameful. But for decades, the disabled and chronically long-term sick amongst us have been treated as a drain on society – thus our plight is swept under the carpet and our lives deemed of no value.

The Tories were ‘stealth culling’ us for years, but I never thought I’d see the day that Labour would carry through their callous policies.

RedRocket68

Insulting assessments

Simply cutting benefits across the board isn’t the way to deal with this. There is undoubtedly misuse in the system, like in all systems, and that’s why there needs to be a workable structure in place to address this. Nothing here can or ever will be foolproof!

The severely disabled and their carers need support, and not to be living in fear that they won’t be able to survive. Anyone who’s cared for someone knows what a hard, unrelenting job it is – often 24/7. Some of those making these assessments seem to be oblivious as to what disability means for those who can never get away from it. Insulting questions, which lead to people saying they can manage things they can’t, are just a small example of what people are faced with in these so-called ‘assessments’.

Often disabled people face more challenges than most can imagine or are even interested in. Those who do get jobs face the daily challenge of getting there – especially if they’re dependent on a wheelchair.

There’s no quick fix for this, and slashing vital payments certainly isn’t one!

Ambigirls

These cuts will break people

None of the arguments the government is using stand up to scrutiny; there’s no evidence which supports the cuts.

The majority of the impact of disability is hidden outside people’s close circle, especially intimate, embarrassing, and financial issues.

People do not realise how bad things are, or how a lack of support can destroy you.

These cuts will BREAK people.

Cuts will also negatively impact the economy and cause higher dependency and increased costs to the NHS and local services in the medium to long term.

KittyKat

They’ve already cut mine by 36%

Not badly so, but I’m disabled and have lived with not only the endless threat of losing my benefits – I have had them slashed (36%) and halted altogether.

I wonder how far this has gone toward the destruction of my health, and yet there are many far worse off than myself.

TomSnout

We are where we are

Unfortunately, the government does not have a time machine to go back and change decisions that some people may not like. We are where we are now. And where we are now is even higher taxes than the current record, to pay for even higher benefits spending, which, again, is already at a record (all in real terms).

Mark

Constant cycle of torture

It’s not about ‘people who can work, should’. Realistically, no employer will jump at the chance to employ a disabled person – and if they do, it’ll be a constant cycle of torture for the worst affected, who will be forced – and it is forced—into work they cannot do. In six months or less, they’ll have worsened in health and require the services of occupational health. And what is occupational health going to tell them? Quit! Resign! You can’t work after all!

This welfare reform needs total scrapping.

VIMS2022

Universal Credit won’t help carers

There will be many carers left destitute because the benefit system doesn’t allow them to claim any other benefits. Universal Credit doesn’t cover someone who’s unable to work due to caring responsibilities. They will get nothing!

Everlasting

I’ve been waiting five years

I would love nothing more than to walk again. But this is my fifth year of waiting. In case you’re thinking I can’t be so bad, I have severe end-stage arthritis. What bone I have left is twisting. I’m pretty darn sure I’m not the only one.

Cynicalme

A vendetta against the most vulnerable

Having attended the consultations into the green paper, I witnessed so many who were terrified of how the cuts would rob them of their hard-fought careers.

A warning for those calling for an end to disability support: these measures only save a pittance, so expect more cuts. If they can stoop low enough to give the most vulnerable a good kicking, then nothing will stop them going after pensioners next, who are the biggest slice, by over half, of the welfare bill after all.

TalkingSense

Easy targets

PIP isn’t awarded because of your ability to work or not. Why cut PIP? To save money and pretend that those who have disabilities don’t have them anymore. And we are the easiest ones to target. Starmer has calculated that the ‘grey vote’ will be useful in the next general election, and voters will be upset if their granny and grandad die from cold. Children have voting parents and will grow up to be voters. But the disabled? Nah. Sub-humans without a voice. As I said, easy targets.

News for him: disabled people also have loved ones who are voters, and we are voters too. I am about to be a grey voter, and I have a disability. Labour won’t be getting my vote ever again.

LizzieM

I feel like an expensive pet

I’m disabled. My partner works. I can’t claim any benefits due to her income. PIP is therefore my only source of income and independence. It allows me to get to my own appointments, and it pays for my prescriptions, eye tests, and dental care (not that it covers this—I haven’t seen a dentist in years due to the cost).

PIP also makes me marginally less of a burden on my partner, as I can pay for my own prescriptions and even pick them up or get them delivered. To remove this money will drive me into poverty, make me rely more on my partner, and cost her more money. This will put pressure on our already strained relationship, as I will feel like an expensive pet, rather than a valued human being. It is cruel, vindictive and callous. I would have expected this from the Conservatives after the minefield they created throughout austerity, but for a Labour government to penalise disabled people in such a manner is bordering on political insanity – and the very definition of cruelty.

Silvafox

Why do they always pick on us?

My husband is disabled, paralysed, uses a wheelchair – only one side of his body works. Due to other health issues, he can’t have a motorised wheelchair, so we have a manual one. I take him where he has to go. He is so stressed by all of this that his condition is worse. Why does the government always pick on people who cannot defend themselves? It happens all the time.

Bonniebell

Employers won’t take the risk

The problem with DWP trying to engage disabled individuals in finding suitable work leaves a lot to be desired. Employers are more reluctant to take on disabled people on the grounds that they have to look after them. They consider disabled people as cheap labour, and the cost of employing them far outweighs the benefits. There is a pool of people who have no skills, and that is disadvantageous, not to mention that disabled people have no history or record of having worked for a considerable time.

Kingdaniel

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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