Hatred against people on disability benefits getting ramped up again

[scifisam]

Shame you haven’t been able to declare yourself a non-dom or setup another company offshore.

I always find it incredible that a. people can brag about how they are doing their best to reduce their contribution to the overall good. And b. How complete wrong’uns whether landlords or those setting up companies to reduce their tax burden are so widely accepted as part of a community.

OTOH I do try to remind people about the working from home expenses you can claim even if you're an employee, and pay less tax due to that, and have helped a couple of self-employed friends with their tax returns because they couldn't afford an accountant but their accounts were actually extremely simple. They had been paying more tax before. It's not wrong to legally minimise your tax liabilities.

Also to be fair to MickiQ the 0.1% he was talking about was unemployment benefits, not sickness benefits.

But back to the more important topic... Often when major newspapers start ramping up the hate it's in advance of a change that will ,assively disadvantage disabled people or people on low incomes. The one that's in the works now is combining PIP into universal credit, which will create massive problems for people who need social care, and people who can work but have extra costs due to their disability. It'd probably mean, for example, that I wouldn't be able to afford to work, or would be working full time and not able to pay the most basic bills, because my disability makes certain outgoings much higher.

That's the sort of thing the Telegraph etc are softening people up to accept as OK. Collateral damage because "we" can't afford to support all the other disabled people, who are surely cheats.

 

[pbsmooth]

FFS.

View attachment 377937

Dr Frances Ryan on twitter

Storm Huntley is the presenter. But Vine seems fine with having his name attached to this crap.

eta In hindsight I'd avoid looking at the comments on the original tweet.

this is just another example of how twitter and these chat shows now work - you have to be controversial and fan the flames to get the clicks,views, calls... all good engagement!
just don't go on twitter or watch these shows is the answer. (and ideally don't share them...)

 

[Dystopiary]

this is just another example of how twitter and these chat shows now work - you have to be controversial and fan the flames to get the clicks,views, calls... all good engagement!
just don't go on twitter or watch these shows is the answer. (and ideally don't share them...)

That won't take away the fact that loads of other people do listen to these shows, and read the Telegraph etc, which are used by the government to test the water and push the lie that "benefit scroungers" are partly to blame for the country's economic problems. And all this has a material impact on people who rely on benefits to survive. None of that will magically disappear by me not looking at twitter.

 

[pbsmooth]

I was referring to the jeremy vine tweet you shared.

 

[Dystopiary]

I was referring to the jeremy vine tweet you shared.

Right, and I agree about how twitter thrives off engagement. But I didn't respond on twitter, I shared it here because I believed it was part of a pattern, and I think it's important to keep track of this stuff and if possible try and counter it. There are a lot of people who are adversely affected by this rhetoric and the policies that always accompany it, many of them some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

 

[Shechemite]

[

Even on right-wing cunts’ own terms, it doesn’t make sense to cut down on government spending on the various forms of social welfare. There are countless studies showing how this kind of spending ultimately produces much greater returns through reductions in the need for government spending on things like health, crime and future welfare, and increases in fiscal revenue due to things like higher educational standards. So even if you don’t give a shit about your fellow man and only care about Team UK Government (go team!), the rhetoric is counterproductive. But, I suppose, since when did right-wing frothers actually give a monkey’s about research and evidence?

Problem is there’s a lot of money to make out of social breakdown, hence the explosion of the for profit health and care sector (and private security firms too)

When disabled people kick off (I mean properly disabled, not professionals ‘with lived experience’) they get slapped with a MHAA or DOLS. And that kicking off and that coercive response has been rising and rising for the past 15 years, which yes is a direct consequence of austerity, but it’s also a growing market.

 

[Shechemite]

Go Frances Ryan!

She unwittingly assisted Dimensions (and Mencrap too) with their PR campaigns to distract from their killing of disabled people, but that wasn’t really her fault and she’s great advocate and is prepared to stand up to the conspiracy grifters (I remember when the Canary mob went after her, vicious little turds that they are)

 

[Shechemite]

Ah, but there would be loads of posters on here posting how the rioters were rioting wrong...

If they riot only on behalf of those who are able/at liberty to riot then they will be rioting wrong.

 

[Orang Utan]

[


Problem is there’s a lot of money to make out of social breakdown, hence the explosion of the for profit health and care sector (and private security firms too)

When disabled people kick off (I mean properly disabled, not professionals ‘with lived experience’) they get slapped with a MHAA or DOLS. And that kicking off and that coercive response has been rising and rising for the past 15 years, which yes is a direct consequence of austerity, but it’s also a growing market.

What do you mean by ‘properly disabled’? Makes it sound like you’re buying into Tory rhetoric

 

[Shechemite]

What do you mean by ‘properly disabled’? Makes it sound like you’re buying into Tory rhetoric

being disabled isn’t a singular category. Some are more disabled (whether conceived medically or socially) than others. Those who are more disabled get treated worse (by the tories and by everyone else as well). And whilst over the last 15 years I’ve been watching severely disabled people being wiped out, I’ve also had to put up with people who are actually pretty privileged doing everything they can to make everything about themselves, and exploiting their very mild disablement as a smokescreen for this. My bitterness about this may not be edifying, but I don’t think my position on that ‘standing up for the most marginalised’ should actually mean something makes me a Tory

 

[Shechemite]

Of course when the state attacks high functioning, living in the community disabled people, this doesn’t help those who are more disabled

 

[Cloo]

That's the sort of thing the Telegraph etc are softening people up to accept as OK. Collateral damage because "we" can't afford to support all the other disabled people, who are surely cheats.

iirc, the Nazis initial story was they were 'resettling the Jews in the East' because there just weren't enough resources for everyone in Germany. And one can just imagine an ordinary German family going 'Oh well, it's a bit sad about the Goldfarbs having to move east, but really, there's just not enough resources for everyone here'

 

[Dystopiary]

So this disabled writer was crossing a road with her hands full of shopping.

As it was an okay mobility day, I crossed slowly whilst my cane dangled from it’s wrist strap.


When I got to the other side my hips were sore so I stopped, rearranged my bags, held my cane properly, shook out my legs and carried on walking with my cane.

But because of the message being pushed by politicans and the media, things can turn nasty, often out of the blue.

It was then I was caught off guard by a man walking past "oh aye in case the fraud squad are watching ya" he laughed. I thought I’d misheard him or it wasn’t aimed at me so I went "you what?"


What followed next really threw me.


“Well you obviously don't really need that, I just saw you walking fine, you faking it now in case you get shopped?"

[snip]

In his narrow view, he’d just watched someone carry a stick and then remember they were supposed to use it. When what he actually witnessed was someone with a dynamic disability who can do short distances and doesn’t always need to use a cane, but does to make their life easier.

The writer goes onto talk about the media campaign being whipped up against disabled people again.

(She mentions the Jeremy Vine Show tweet in the OP, that when she pointed out to Vine that these were dangerous attitudes, he blocked her on twitter.)

I know some people think this media campaign isn't to do with the government, so I'll include this:

As I was writing this, the DWP and its minister Mel Stride shared on Twitter the success of their “fraud plan” and that it will help them to “deliver savings of over £9 billion by 2027/28”.


But [...] the DWP already saves £3.3 billion a year on underpayments and £19 billion a year from unclaimed benefits.

The writer said that the encounter shook her, but that one of her first thoughts was "it could’ve been a lot worse":

I could’ve been filmed and had it shared online, branding me as a disability faker. If the person had known who I was and had I been on certain benefits, I could’ve been reported to the DWP and had them stopped. I could’ve been screamed at or physically attacked in the street.


Charity Leonard Cheshire reported that disability hate crimes rose by 25 per cent in 2021, with violent crimes rising by 27 per cent.


I shouldn’t be reflecting on being accused of not being disabled as a lucky escape, none of us should have to deal with this just for trying to live our lives.


But as long as the media and government keep pushing this dangerous narrative that disabled people are faking it for benefits and turning the public against us, it will only get worse.

'Media's dangerous portrayal of disability fakers has real-life consequences'

 

[scifisam]

My evil ex blackmailed me into letting her continue to live with me by threatening to make a false report to the benefits agency. Even if I'd managed to prove she was lying, it would have been months without money. These policies enable abusers and the people who make them not only don't care, they probably think it's a plus.

 

[Dystopiary]

Disabled activists at the TUC conference have said that discriminatory articles in the Telegraph legitimise hate speech, and that the "distorted narratives" demonise disabled people who are unable to work. They have called for the press regulator to strengthen its code of practice, and for the TUC to support their campaign demanding action.

IPSO is supposed to regulate the Telegraph but it has made it clear that it cannot investigate such news stories because they attack a group of people rather than named individuals, despite receiving more than 600 complaints about one of the Telegraph stories.

But Natasha Hirst, the first disabled activist to become NUJ president, said this leaves disabled people “open to being targeted”.

The article also mentions the Jeremy Vine Show tweet in the OP.

Last week, the Telegraph ran another news story (paywall)* that accused the government of “wasting taxpayers’ money” on a “profligate” benefits system by funding people with mental distress to “claim £40,000 cars on benefits” through the Motability scheme.

Hirst told fellow delegates: “This sort of reporting is a dog whistle for the far-right.

“It is too easy for the owners of corporations like the Telegraph to get away with unethical journalism because we have a regulator [IPSO] that cannot grasp and doesn’t care how damaging this kind of reporting is.”

* Telegraph article paywall busted
(Plus sod giving those far-right hatemongers clicks.)

Nicky Fitzsimmons, from USDAW, seconding the NUJ motion, told delegates: “We know from bitter experience that the portrayal of benefit claimants as scroungers, as lazy and workshy has very real and damaging consequences for disabled people.”

She said the articles were designed to portray disabled people as a group apart and “something other, a group that doesn’t pay its way and one that is getting away with something for nothing”.

Yes. Again, the hateful "scrounger" rhetoric is mirrored in the abuse that disabled people often experience:

[Ms Fitzsimmons] said that a member of her delegation, who is visually-impaired and uses a white cane, had recently thanked someone for holding a hotel door open for them in Blackpool, only for that person to hurl abuse at her, saying she was only using the cane to get personal independence payment (PIP), even though she does not currently receive PIP.

The NUJ wants the IPSO code of practice to be extended to allow complaints to be made about discrimination against groups of people.

It also wants IPSO to use its powers to monitor coverage of disability issues in national newspapers so it can act against “systemic negative framing” of disabled people.

And it wants IPSO to work with the NUJ and disabled people’s organisations to produce guidelines on disability reporting.

Telegraph articles ‘legitimise’ hate speech, disabled activists tell TUC conference

 

[Dystopiary]

The prime minister and the chancellor this week, cheered on by right-wing shit rags like the Express, Mail and Sun:

Rishi Sunak yesterday (Wednesday) told the country in his main conference speech that “welfare” should be “a safety net and not a way of life”.

He said that supporting so many disabled people on out-of-work benefits was “not good for our economy” and “not fair on taxpayers who have to pick up the bill”, and he called it a “national scandal”.

and

On Monday, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, spoke of 100,000 people leaving work every year “for a life on benefits”.

The advance briefings of Hunt’s speech led to news stories in the right-wing media that echoed those of the early 2010s, with the Daily Mail pointing to the figure of 100,000 disabled people leaving work to claim disability benefits and claiming that Hunt would “declare war on 100,000 work-shy benefit claimants”.


The Sun’s headline was “Shirkin class blitzed”, as it said Hunt would “crack down on benefits claimants refusing to find a job as 100,000 people leave the workforce each year for a life on handouts”.


The Daily Express quoted a “senior Tory source” saying Hunt would “turn the screw” on people who refused to work.

[Mel Stride, secretary of state for work and pensions] suggested the increasing use of social media might be responsible for an increase in mental distress among younger people, while he also claimed that the trend towards greater discussion of mental health issues meant there could be “an element of a more extensive labelling of people having a mental health issue perhaps in a way that might not have happened 20 years ago”.

Of course he did. It's the same old BS - like some Tory dickhead is qualified to decide that someone's MH diagnosis is incorrect, or that mental distress is down to social media. Never mind all the years of research (and dare I say, stating the bloody obvious) that increasing poverty, widening class discrepancy, lack of affordable housing, hateful rhetoric in the corporate press, concern about climate change, and the NHS going to shit are having a devastating effect on people's mental wellbeing. Of course Stride knows this.

He repeated this claim at another fringe event on Tuesday, again without quoting any evidence, saying there was “a question mark to what degree are we too readily identifying individuals [as having a mental health condition] and then consequently doing various things as a result of that… it’s a question mark in my mind”

The Telegraph (archived) were on cue:

Spoiler: alt text of Telegraph screenshot

Britons who are “too readily” diagnosed as suffering from mental health conditions are driving a rise in benefit claims, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said.

Mel Stride said “labelling” by society and the socialisation of mental health issues had contributed to a surge in welfare payments.

Ministers ramp up hostile rhetoric, a decade after Osborne, Cameron and Duncan Smith

 

[Cloo]

Absolute cunts.

No one is living the life of riley on benefits. I suspect most people 'refusing to take a job' have some need or caring responsibility or travel access issues that mean they can't work, and if there are people apparently 'living off benefits' my suspicion is they probably have a sideline in something else where they earn money and benefits are just an extra, so they probably won't be scared by threats to remove benefits.

Honestly, if it's only 100k people I'd much rather they have 'my tax' but no one dies of starvation having had their benefits stopped because they missed a fucking letter from the job centre got lost in the post.

 

[Dystopiary]

Absolute cunts.

No one is living the life of riley on benefits. I suspect most people 'refusing to take a job' have some need or caring responsibility or travel access issues that mean they can't work, and if there are people apparently 'living off benefits' my suspicion is they probably have a sideline in something else where they earn money and benefits are just an extra, so they probably won't be scared by threats to remove benefits.

Honestly, if it's only 100k people I'd much rather they have 'my tax' but no one dies of starvation having had their benefits stopped because they missed a fucking letter from the job centre got lost in the post.

Horrible isn't it. And Sunak says all this "national scandal" rubbish with a straight face while the covid inquiry is ongoing. Probably wants a distraction from his disgraceful behaviour.

 

[scifisam]

Absolute cunts.

No one is living the life of riley on benefits. I suspect most people 'refusing to take a job' have some need or caring responsibility or travel access issues that mean they can't work, and if there are people apparently 'living off benefits' my suspicion is they probably have a sideline in something else where they earn money and benefits are just an extra, so they probably won't be scared by threats to remove benefits.

Honestly, if it's only 100k people I'd much rather they have 'my tax' but no one dies of starvation having had their benefits stopped because they missed a fucking letter from the job centre got lost in the post.

This is specifically about people on disability benefits, so not quite the same sector of claimants. They're people who can't work. Some can do some things like volunteering or part-time study, but that is not the same thing as full-time work.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

and of course the attitude of employers towards anyone who actually wants to work but has any mental health issues in their medical history is not an issue, is it...

bunch of cunts (the tories and their friends in the press, that is, for avoidance of any possible confusion)

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

accidwntally came across this in the maelstrom of news today:
Welfare cuts worth billions planned by ministers
off to work you go and shut the fuck up about your condition
I hate the fuckers, truly

 

[Cloo]

And how many billions will the consequences of those cuts cost?

Literally just make people who can afford it pay more fucking tax.

 

[Humberto]

And how many billions will the consequences of those cuts cost?

Literally just make people who can afford it pay more fucking tax.

Totally agree. Although it's ideological rather than fiscal necessity or sense. It's not about the money in terms of cuts, but of a ruling class desire to make the position of workers ever weaker and more precarious. That's their wet dream.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

accidwntally came across this in the maelstrom of news today:
Welfare cuts worth billions planned by ministers
off to work you go and shut the fuck up about your condition
I hate the fuckers, truly

When my mental health was at its absolute worst, and I wasn't working due to having a nervous breakdown because of housing problems, antisocial and harassment, etc, I ended up too mentally ill to work for a while. I think if I hadn't had that safety net of benefits to support me, if I'd been left destitute, I'd have probably topped myself. As it was I took an overdose, tried and failed to kill myself one occasion and had two short stays in a mental health crisis residential facility. I'm a single person without a partner or family to interven on my behalf and advocate for me, and something like that could've easily pushed me over the edge. Still could if I experience another mental health setback in future.

 

[Humberto]

Hope you are doing better AnnO'Neemus. It's undoubtedly a cruel system.

They've no shame or consience or a drop of honour. God bless if I may holy it.

 

[Humberto]

That WAS the achilles heal. Their honour. They'd be horrified if it was questioned. Upset and confused on some level. Now it's all games, image and dog-eat-dog. That's going. Might not be a bad thing for us. They're naked now.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Hope you are doing better AnnO'Neemus. It's undoubtedly a cruel system.

They've no shame or consience or a drop of honour. God bless if I may holy it.

I'm okay-ish at the moment, but I still have very fragile mental health, still have ups and downs, although the downs haven't been quite that down for a while. But then I haven't been engaging with the housing very much, because I know it's bad for my mental health. And I've been avoiding writing to the Housing Ombudsman to chase them, because every time I think about doing so it triggers my PTSD and I start crying. Even just typing that last sentence made me tearful. I just can't function properly.

 

[WouldBe]

accidwntally came across this in the maelstrom of news today:
Welfare cuts worth billions planned by ministers
off to work you go and shut the fuck up about your condition
I hate the fuckers, truly

I'm sure I saw some time ago that the law had been changed so a person could be charged with assault if they cause physical or mental injury to someone through communication by phone or letter.

If the DWP are going to force us to work and something happens then there could be a lot of assault charges flying about. Wonder if it would also apply to murder / manslaughter if someone dies as a result of their actions.

 

[Humberto]

Tories are talking about being harsher. More sanctions. More invasion all coming under the steam of massive welfare budget cuts, and a strong line in vilifying and scapegoating.

 

[existentialist]

Tories are talking about being harsher. More sanctions. More invasion all coming under the steam of massive welfare budget cuts, and a strong line in vilifying and scapegoating.

They're determined to jump the shark.