For the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, welfare reform is a “moral mission”. Launching the Tories’ latest policy yesterday, she invoked double amputees who “run marathons” and people with autism who “run some of the biggest tech companies in the world” as justification for £36 billion in welfare cuts, including £13.7 billion in proposed cuts to disability and sickness benefits. If they can manage without state “handouts”, why can’t everyone?
Labour is also promising welfare cuts, albeit less extreme ones. The details have not yet been announced, but the government has already cut the Universal Credit health element for many new claimants almost in half, while protecting existing claimants and those with specified severe or terminal illnesses.
As a doctor, I see the consequences of benefit cuts in my clinical practice. It is time politicians were held responsible for what happens when people’s needs survive the support withdrawn from them.
