The damage done by 13 years of Conservative welfare cuts

Good morning.

After a decade of austerity, the Conservative party’s track record on providing an adequate safety net for those who need it has been heavily criticised. A growing body of research indicates that a reduction in health and social care spending in real terms has led to tens of thousands of excess deaths.

And it’s not just cuts. Work capability assessments, the system that is used to assess a person’s eligibility for sickness benefits, have long been criticised as demeaning, arbitrary and cruel. There is a general consensus – even within the Conservative party – that the system needs deep reform.

It is in that context that the Department for Work and Pensions announced plans to “tighten” work capability assessments in a drive to get more people with longterm health conditions or disabilities into work. The reforms would lower the threshold for a person to be considered fit to work. The government has insisted that these changes are positive, stressing that the plans give people with disabilities more support to work from home, but charities and campaign groups have said that the proposals could force people to work when they are not well enough.

For today’s First Edition, I spoke to Frances Ryan, a Guardian columnist and author of Crippled, a book about cuts to disability benefits, about this proposal and what it could mean for those claiming benefits.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘Disabled poverty is not inevitable – it’s a direct result of government choices’

The government’s plans are an effort to both rehabilitate its image by appearing “tough on scroungers” and save money ahead of the next election. Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, has said that with the advent of flexible working and work from home arrangements there are more opportunities for people currently claiming disability benefits to join the workforce.

The announcement comes after chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget, where he pledged to scrap the work capability assessments altogether by 2028 as part of the “biggest change to [the] welfare system in a decade”. The proposals however have alarmed many charities who are stressing that it will likely result in more people being unfairly penalised if they do not move into employment.

The new rules

The government’s proposals include updating the categories in the work capability assessment that are linked to mobility and social interaction so that people can be assessed to see if they are fit to work from home or with some other kind of additional flexibility. Other changes include giving “tailored support” to people who are considered capable of work. The government will run a consultation period about the assessment process more broadly until the end of October – these changes could not come into effect until 2025 anyway because of the scale of the reforms, so there will not be any change until after the next general election.

However, there’s no guarantee a Labour government would roll back the policy immediately. The new shadow work and pensions secretary is Liz Kendall, who stood for leader in 2015 arguing the party should not vote against Tory welfare cuts. Kendall said that these new proposals are “tinkering at the edges of a failing system” and that “Britain deserves better” – but notably did not pledge to reverse any changes.

13 years of welfare policy

A decade of austerity has meant a “dramatic reduction in support for disabled people across the board,” Frances says, pointing to lower benefit rates, increased conditionality and sanctions for claimants, faulty assessments and high appeal rates. “At the same time [there is this] relentlessly hostile rhetoric which has caused great distress, and even an increase in hate crime against disabled people.”

Disabled people are already more likely to be in poverty despite having higher living costs, and the increasingly punitive nature of the benefits system has meant that even more have been pushed under the poverty line. Frances says that she has spoken to many disabled people over the years who have had to use food banks after their disability benefits were incorrectly stopped. “Disabled poverty in one of the richest nations on earth is not inevitable, it’s a direct result of the government’s choices,” Frances says.

Impact on disabled people

Despite the government’s best attempts to spin these changes as great news for disabled people and for those living with health conditions, charities have warned that these reforms will likely result in people “losing vital income, and being forced to look for work they can’t do or [face being] sanctioned”.

Instead of responding to criticism of the work capability assessment by removing some of the most stringent barriers, the government’s decision to make it stricter will negatively impact many people’s quality of life, says Frances. “We know from the last decade what happens when the government uses faulty fit for work rules: disabled people fall into poverty and their mental and physical health declines.” The impacts are acute and life threatening if a person is wrongly found fit for work: “It means skipping meals and not being able to afford electricity to charge your wheelchair,” Frances adds.

Why now?

Hunt has been very open about the fact that addressing the number of economically inactive people due to long term sickness is high up on his agenda. There has been a rise since the pandemic of people who are unable to work due to long term health issues, particularly around mental health. Hunt and Stride have said that this is worsening the labour shortage and putting more pressure on the welfare system, so, from the government’s perspective, getting economically inactive people back in the workforce is a win-win: it cuts down the benefits bill and stimulates the economy by increasing employment.

But Frances believes this is more about the government’s “cost-cutting agenda”. “You only have to look at some of the toxic anti-sickness benefit coverage in the rightwing press over the last few months to see how the idea some people ‘don’t really need out of work sickness benefits’ is being propagated again.”

It is also no shock the Conservatives are trying to bring down spending ahead of a general election where they are trailing Labour in the polls.

As is evidenced by the last decade, the impact of these changes will be predictable and dire for claimants if they come to fruition. “Any moves to reduce the financial support for people too ill or disabled to work will inevitably push more people into hardship, people who were already finding it impossible enough to keep their head above water,” Frances says.

What else we’ve been reading

In this harrowing new Guardian podcast mini-series Rosie Swash and Thaslima Begum investigate an international adoption scandal in Bangladesh, speaking to people who were babies given up for adoption in the 1970s. Nazia Parveen, acting deputy editor, newsletters

Despite posing significant risk to our health, ultra-processed foods make up most a person’s diet. Rachel Dixon’s helpful guide lays out the tell tale signs of UPFs and some alternatives that will help you ditch them. Nimo

Beautiful micro-stories caught on camera in the very best from the LensCulture street photography awards from church gatherings in Togo to sleek city cats - moments that might otherwise vanish in the blink of an eye. Nazia

A study found that chain restaurants are the best place to find people from different socioeconomic classes – Coco Khan examines why, and asks what lessons we can learn as a society from this unexpected phenomenon. Nimo

The New York Times looks at the latest trend in the wellness industry, the menopause retreat. Is it a chance to bond with others going through a time of immense change, or yet another fad? Nazia

Sport

US Open | With the No 1 ranking from next week secured, Aryna Sabalenka, pictured, marched into the semi-finals for the third consecutive year as she overpowered Zheng Qinwen of China 6-1 6-4. Daniil Medvedev won the all-Russian clash at the US Open against his friend Andrey Rublev 6-4 6-3 6-4 and, despite not being on his best form, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 after a two and a half hour match, leading him to the semi-finals.

Football | Manchester United’s hopes of challenging for the Women’s Super League title have been bolstered by the arrival of the World Cup golden boot winner Hinata Miyazawa. The midfielder scored five goals in four games for Japan during this summer’s tournament, and has now swapped Japan’s Mynavi Sendai for United.

Cricket | Sri Lanka made history in Derby on Wednesday evening, winning the final T20 by seven wickets with three overs to spare, to go 2-1 up and secure their first ever series win against England.

The front pages

Today’s Guardian splash is an exclusive: “Undercover police officer deceived woman into 19-year relationship”. The Financial Times has “Bailey’s ‘top of the cycle’ signal casts doubt on more rate rises”. “Mortgage relief on way, hints Bank chief” – that’s the i’s version, while the Daily Express has “PM: I’ll make UK best place in world to do business”. “Terror suspect escapes jail under lorry” reports the Daily Telegraph, “Terror suspect escapes prison” says the Times, and “Terrorist suspect flees jail strapped under delivery van” is the Daily Mail’s take. The Sun calls it a “Total farce” and manages to get its old staple “lags” into the page furniture. The Metro leads on “Sara’s death ‘an incident’” after Sara Sharif’s parents released a video from on the run in Pakistan saying they are ready to cooperate with British police.

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Steve Bell

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

After a mastectomy to treat breast cancer, Florence Moon declined reconstruction and wore a prosthesis, removing it before bed. “Each night when I faced my one-breasted chest in the mirror,” she recounts in the series A moment that changed me, “I thought I looked horrible. It was like living two lives, having two selves.” She came to see that the prosthesis, though, was the problem, and that she “hadn’t yet realised that I didn’t have to pretend to have two breasts”.

Then she came across the term “half flat” and decided to do away with the prosthesis and embrace life as what she describes as a “uniboober”. Moon has gone on to design a bra for those with one breast and is campaigning to make them available to hospitals. “Not wearing my prosthesis makes me feel powerful,” she says. “Something important happened to me when I put it away: I started to look at my body through my own eyes, not other people’s.”

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