The government response to the WoW petition is irrational, incoherent nonsense on stilts

This lengthy article extensively critiques the Tory’s welfare policy. It is, of course, a revival of the old Victorian doctrine that people are poor because they’re lazy, or feckless, rather than because the economy is unfair.

And the article also critiques the Tories’ use of the word ‘fair’, to show how their manipulation of the term is allowing them to carry on most unfairly. The Labour government introduced legislation to make sure that certain vulnerable groups did not suffer more than others from the impact of particular legislation. Hence the requirement for Cumulative Impact Assessments for studying the effect on any changes on groups like the disabled.

But as this article shows, David Cameron and Theresa May have quietly altered the legislation demanding these, and so are loudly shouting that they can’t do a cumulative assessment for the disabled, because it’s too difficult. This is despite other organisations having done so.

It’s a lie, of course, because the Tories well know how damaging their welfare changes have been to the disabled. Just as they know that despite IDS’ denials, forty people have taken their lives in despair due to benefit cuts.

But the thrust of their legislation remains the same – tax cuts for the rich, mass poverty and misery for the rest of us.

Politics and Insights

Preamble

The Government has persistently ignored calls for a full assessment of the impact of Welfare, Social Care and NHS reform on disabled people and their families. The number of households with a disabled family member living in “absolute poverty” increased by 10% between 2013 and 14. Absolute poverty isn’t the same as relative deprivation – our usual measure of poverty – absolute poverty means that people can’t meet their basic needs, such as access to food, fuel or shelter.

Since the WoW petition collected 104,000 signatures, the Government has claimed the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) have said it was too difficult to do a Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA), the IFS subsequently contradicted the claim and said it could be done. EHRC and the Social Security Advisory Committee have also called for a CIA of how cuts have affected disabled people and their families. A CIA undertaken by Landman…

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