Disability Benefits – Scapegoat for Tory Failings

Living in the UK as a minority is becoming more and more hellish as the days go on.

The UK Media recently decided to use Disability Claimants as a scapegoat for the government’s overspending issues.

A mass of people are blaming PIP (Personal Independence Payments) and other benefits for the gross misuse of public funds over the past five years. And the Telegraph is playing into this with their new “How much of your tax is spent on benefits?” calculator.

It’s angered many people – especially when they find out their money is going towards “lazy” people who “sit at home on the dowl”.

And while the taxpayer does support disabled individuals – that’s not where most of your money goes.

It’s estimated that 20% of the UK’s budget is “Benefits” or “Welfare”. These exclude the state pension but include everything from Employment Support Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payments, and Jobseekers Allowance. 

Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit can assist anyone who is unemployed, zero-hour contract workers, disabled individuals, and part-time employed individuals. They’re designed to cover the bare essentials, and I mean bare.

If you’re disabled and unemployed, ESA will give you £129 a week (£516 a month) to pay your rent, electric, gas, and food. 

Last time I checked, in this current cost of living crisis, £516 isn’t going to cover… half of the essentials.

If you’re employed but need assistance, you’ll receive £85 a week. 

Jobseekers and Universal Credit help unemployed individuals who are looking for work – you’ll receive a maximum of £85 a week.

Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payments are to help those struggling with a disability. You don’t have to have a diagnosis, but you must be able to provide medical evidence of your struggles. You can still work while receiving DLA or PIP as they’re designed to assist people with support needs – such as needing a carer, specific equipment, or needing to spend more on essentials so that food is accessible to them.

The maximum weekly payment for these is £173 a week – if you receive full marks for daily living and mobility. 

While 65% of disabled individuals are currently employed, and only 3.8% of the population is currently unemployed. So, while Welfare is expensive in the UK, it is still just 20% of the government’s spending.

So, why are people worried about disabled people taking taxpayers’ money?

Because we’re the scapegoat, the Tory government has failed this country; in the years they’ve been in office, they’ve doubled the national debt – from £1 TRILLION in 2011 to £2.55 TRILLION in 2023. 

Our current debt as a nation is 109% of the Gross Domestic Product, compared to 38% in 2005.[1]

And this is without us looking at their failings during the pandemic – including £4 BILLION spent on PPE that didn’t meet the basic PPE requirements [2] and the £35 million spent on a Test and Trace system that didn’t work in the slightest…

So, I suppose what I’m saying is, instead of trying to harm the poorest people in our country who require benefits to live, thanks to the government not putting caps on living costs or rent – let’s focus on starting with where billions of pounds went during the past three years when Tory members and their friends created companies to profiteer on PPE demand.

Let’s look at the companies operating in the UK who’ve continuously dodged taxes…[3]

Oh, wait, we might not be able to do that since it’ll eliminate the Tory Party… [4]

References:

National Debt – Total and GDP: https://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

£4 Billion of Unusable PPE: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/171306/4-billion-of-unusable-ppe-bought-in-first-year-of-pandemic-will-be-burnt-to-generate-power/

Tax Avoidance – Companies: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/named-tax-avoidance-schemes-promoters-enablers-and-suppliers/current-list-of-named-tax-avoidance-schemes-promoters-enablers-and-suppliers

Another Tory caught committing Tax Fraud: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nadhim-zahawi-tax-hmrc-investigation-b2262565.html