In early 2005, Blair's New Labour government has again stated its plans to "reform" Incapacity Benefit. The details may have changed, but the gist of their plans seems eerily reminiscent of plans put forward back in 2001. Which is when the following article was written:
No Love For Darling
The New Labour government has launched a new attack on disabled people with its plans to attack incapacity benefit. Alastair Darling has put forward plans to test disabled people every 3 years, to check if they are fit for work - with the intention of striking many off incapacity benefit, and forcing them onto Job Seekers Allowance or Income Support.
The excuse is that many claimants are, allegedly, "scroungers" who are fit for work. Not only is this a horribly right-wing viewpoint, which we expected to see the end of when we routed the Tories in 1997. It is also a travesty of the truth.
Supporters of the measure point to the fact that, as jobs disappeared in the 1980s and 1990s (especially when the coal mines were closed en masse), many former workers started to claim disability benefits. A knee-jerk reaction, among some on the reformist left as well as among right-wing supporters of a clamp-down, is that the Tory government at the time was "massaging the unemployment figures". Admittedly, the move of people from unemployed to long-term disabled, was very convenient for the Tories.
But on the other hand, redundancy - especially being made redundant from a job which you have been doing for many years - can affect a person's mental health, leading to depression. Sometimes deep depression. It can lead to a nervous breakdown, which does sometimes cause physical as well as mental illnesses.
In addition, some people have become disabled through years of dangerous work. Ex-coal miners have been diagnosed with lung diseases, several workers have acquired Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), accidents causes by poor safety precautions or corporate negligence lead to many more cases of disability.
The danger is not only that people with disabilities may be forced back into work which may aggravate their conditions. It is also that the labelling of some disabled people as "bogus" may lead to more prejudice and harrassment of disabled people, just as the hype about "bogus asylum seekers" has led to an increase in racism - and racist attacks and harrassment.
Besides, the problem isn't that many people are unemployed because they want to be. The problem is that the jobs aren't there, a situation likely to get far worse as the economic recession is already leading to mass job losses.
This situation is even more acute for disabled people, even with mild disabilities. Prejudice and discrimination against disabled people is still rife among some employers. This problem was far from eradicated by the Disability Discrimination Act, which is riddled with exemptions for employers and has holes in it which one could pilot a battleship through ! If New Labour really cared about getting disabled people back to work, they would strengthen the Disability Discrimination Act and remove all exemptions.
Fat chance of that happening! New Labour's low priority of disabled people was shown when Tony Blair was the forst to defend General Guthrie's disabled-ist and patronizing comments in December 2000.
New Labour's real priority is to save money by reducing payments to claimants, erode the welfare state, then shovel more money into the pockets of the rich in the form of tax cuts.
To their credit, a number of Labour MPs - led by the left-wing Dennis Skinner - have threatened to revolt against Blair and vote against this Blairite measure in parliament. We support them, and wish them luck. But the rot in the Labour Party runs deep, with its track record in government including attacks on the right to asylum, tuition fees to deter young people from going to university, curfews on kids, their reluctance to abolish the homophobic Section 28, their failure to act while jobs were massacred at Motorola, Biwaters, Ericsson, Coates-Vyella, etc etc etc.
It's not good enough, New Labour! We didn't vote for this !!!
What we need is a party which will eradicate discrimination against disabled people by strengthening the Disability Discrimination Act and removing all exemptions.
What we need is a party which will create decently paid jobs for all - but with no compulsion to work - by taxing the rich and scrapping needless military expenditure.
What we need is a party which calls for, and works by, unity among all the working class - disabled and able-bodied, black and white, men and women, gay and straight, young and old.
next bit updated for 2005 ...
The Respect Coalition is that party !!!