Worth Reduced to Work:
A Disabled Person’s Experience of the Welfare Cuts Debacle

Penny Pepper explores the impact of the watered-down Welfare Bill and questions the very notion of ‘work’ as a marker of human value

The lead-up to the vote on the Government’s welfare cuts – particularly to the Personal Independent Payment (PIP) – was a hellish time for me and, most likely, for many disabled people.

Even with a climbdown in the face of a backbench revolt that saw concessions made, including the dubious announcement that only new PIP claimants will be affected, it all leaves me wondering where we are.

What remains in the bill are changes to Universal Credit, which is means-tested and will affect claimants who are currently seen as unfit for work. What does this say about our society? What do they want us to do? Why do they continue to consider us separate? We are entirely ‘othered’.