I have been working on a different post, but I haven’t been able to finish it in time. It is about a topic I have found fascinating for many, many, many years, and each time I sit down to write it I feel like I need to dig deeper, give it more thought and care, be more thorough. This is a small, tangential, part of it.
Something came up these last two weeks that prompted me to write to my MP: the UK government’s plans to cut £5billion from disability benefits.
Firstly, this is not a lot of money when it comes to government spending. In 2024/2025 the UK Department of Defence (MoD) budget was £56.9 billion. According to House of Commons Library it will increase to £59.8 in 2025/2026, a difference of £2.9 billion.
I'm going to put a note in my diary to remind myself to check how long it takes for the ever increasing military budget to increase by £5billion. There is always money for war.
Secondly, the government needs to stop fostering the conditions where people's mental and physical health becomes so poor that they are incapable of working enough to survive.
The cost of living crisis, the lack of resources for mental and physical health (NHS), exploitative employment practices, energy prices constantly rising: all of these occur because of government policy decisions, not because of an individual’s moral failure. Individuals do not exist in a bubble.
Unless the government can assure the people of the UK that the £5billion they think they're going to save is actually going towards things that will help improve people's chances of being able to afford to live, then it simply appears that they are saving money for war, or preparing to line the pockets of a private company to manage the NHS, or something equally unhelpful for the people of the UK.
The fact that the government won't publish the equality impact assessment or the poverty analysis detailing the impact of these benefit cuts, tells me they know this is going to hurt a lot of people. Because poverty in the UK is a policy choice. It is your MP’s choice.
Finally, I have first hand experience of seeing family members and loved ones become disabled (both quickly and slowly), and now I am someone who is gradually becoming disabled, knowing full well there is little help to be found medically or financially.
Here are a few truths:
1. If you get to live long enough, you will become disabled.
2. You can become disabled at any point in your life.
3. You can become disabled in ways that are not your fault.
4. Becoming disabled does not make you a bad person or a moral failure.
Disability rights are your rights.
THIS WEEK
Most listened to song: ‘All Around You’ by Sturgill Simpson
Favourite thing I’ve watched: Abby Roque doing the first Michigan in the PWHL
Favourite thing I’ve read: ‘The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House’ by Audre Lorde
I’m most excited by: Thawing out