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’.

This is the Paywall

We pay our journalists to investigate stories that matter. So we make some of our best articles and investigations available exclusively to paying readers. This is one of those articles; to read it, sign in or subscribe.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Get access to the Byline Times Digital Edition and read this article now

It costs £3.95/month or £39.95/year
Find out more and compare ways to read Byline Times

Get access now