Kate Adams, Incapacity Action
Now that vicious and extensive cuts to disability benefits are a key component of Labour's welfare reform, the media are reporting the effects this will have on people's lives.
Proposals to tax, means test or even abolish direct payments of Disability Living Allowance and time limit Incapacity Benefit to 13 weeks are mainstream news. Consequently, there is public awareness of disabled people's anger and of the growing resistance within the disabled people's movement. Four years ago, when Incapacity Action was set up to fight Tory-imposed cuts to Incapacity Benefit, the issue was almost invisible. The disability movement's focus on civil rights at that time was a valid goal but failure to link civil rights with rights to benefit left claimants in a vulnerable position.
To date, more than 160,000 claimants of Incapacity Benefit have been stripped of their income, falsely branded frauds and subjected to what in some cases amounts to physical and mental abuse, via the All Work Test. Incapacity Action's call for the repeal of the Incapacity Act has been consistently supported by campaigns defending the welfare state and, of course, the disabled people directly affected who have taken action.
Barry Shaufler was fined £500 and given a conditional discharge for throwing red dye at Richmond House, the Department of Health in Whitehall, in protest against the All Work Test. Sarah Chapman, whose arm was fractured during her All Work Test examination, spoke out to the media, faced a DSS internal inquiry and has pursued legal action at considerable cost to her health. Unbelievably, she has been called for further testing by the DSS, only managing to negotiate a six month stay of execution by involving her doctor and MP.
Keith Rushworth was recently on hunger strike for 40 days in protest against the continual testing for Incapacity Benefit by Benefits Agency doctors, in spite of evidence from his GP that he is clearly unfit for work.
Perhaps if the stance taken by Barry, Sarah and Keith had been validated by the disabled people's civil rights' movement, creating more media and public interest, it would have been less easy for Blair to continue to push for cuts, making the savage reduction of disability benefits his personal crusade.
The movement against cuts to Disability Benefit must be inclusive, demanding rights for all disabled claimants. This should be argued for within the context of the broader demand for civil rights and an improved, updated welfare state funded by progressive taxation.
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