Campaigners and MPs call for the Labour government to scrap punitive WCA reforms. Credit: Big Issue
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More than 11,000 people have called on the Labour government and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to drop “dangerous” disability benefit reforms that could plunge nearly half a million disabled people into poverty.
Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government planned sweeping changes to the work capability assessment (WCA) – the eligibility test for receiving certain benefits – reducing payments and increasing sanctions.
The punitive reforms would have meant lower benefits or higher work-search conditions for around 457,000 people by 2028/29.
Today (11 September), anti-poverty charity Z2K called for the Labour government – which the charity say has been “worryingly silent” on its plans for the WCA – to drop these Tory-era plans.
“We’re very concerned that the new government has yet to rule out bringing forward these dangerous and poorly thought-out plans,” said Anela Anwar, Z2K chief executive. “We’re calling on the government to do the right thing and scrap these half-baked, deeply harmful plans.’
More than 11,000 people have signed a petition calling for the WCA reforms to be dropped.
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Speaking at the petition hand-in outside the DWP, Miracle Maduforo called on the government to “inject compassion and understanding” into policy. Maduforo has multiple disabilities including a visual impairment.
“Disabled people have ambitions and hopes. We want stability so we can live the lives we wish to live,” he said. “People are unique. Everybody has different needs… if the assessor is not aware about the issues that disabled people face, how are they going to make the right decisions for that person?”
Another claimant Carl described his experience with the WCA as “traumatic.” A DWP assessor ruled that he was ineligible for the higher rate of benefit – a decision that a magistrate overturned 18 months later.
But for more than a year, he had to survive on the lowest rate of universal credit, just £91 per week.
“For those whole 18 months, I was sort of questioning myself. They’re telling me there’s nothing wrong with me – you start thinking, is this all in my head? Or, you know, am I? Am I actually just being lazy and can’t be bothered to work?” he recalled.
“But the magistrate said no, you have got disability, you’re entitled to these things. But it felt like a bit of a hollow victory, because the stress of everything probably made me more sick.”
The current benefits system is set up to look at all claimants “with suspicion”, Karl added.
“They assume everybody’s attempting to commit fraud. And it’s just not true… I’d like to see the government trying to build up a good welfare system that’s able to support people, rather than trying to keep on dismantling it or privatising certain aspects of it.”
The previous government claimed that WCA changes would encourage people to enter the workforce. But the Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that just 3% of those affected by the proposals will move into work in the subsequent four years.
Nor would they generate significant savings for the government; The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the plans will ‘at most deliver a short-run saving before becoming irrelevant’.
Speaking at the hand-in this morning, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said she was “hopeful” that the Labour government would make the “compassionate” decision.
“If this government goes ahead with the previous government’s proposed changes, it will push hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty, when we need to make sure that the safety net protects everyone,” she said.
