[Beso]

Asylum seekers have seeked asylum, and been given it in many countries on the way to the UK. They risked that asylum with their lives to jump on a wee boat to cross the channel. Therefore, in my eyes. They have lost that moniker and are now illegal immigrants, risking it all for the easy life

[Cherie]

Gone a little quiet in here?

[Cherie]

Call it a process of radicalisation. It’s a fair bet that when Liz Kendall was elected to parliament in 2010, she never imagined that one day she would be giving a statement to the Commons as work and pensions secretary that included a £5bn cut
We were at the tail end of the five stages of grief. The denial. This wasn’t really happening to her. The anger when she realised it was really happening to her. There was no way of avoiding her destiny. The bargaining. Perhaps she could spin this as a good thing. Yes, that was it. Cuts were a moral force for good. She would be helping people in ways they didn’t know they needed helping. Depression. Who wouldn’t stare into the abyss given her choices? Finally, acceptance. It was what it was. A shitty job but someone had to do it. So she might as well try to enjoy herself.

Kendall wasn’t short of outriders. Though you couldn’t be sure how many of her cabinet colleagues were there just to offer moral support. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves may also have been there to make sure Liz had no last-minute wobbles and missed out the bits about the cuts. Wes Streeting was revelling in his newfound role as enforcer. Wes has never yet met a scrounger with anxiety and depression whom he couldn’t shout at and bully back into work.

The others, not so much. Angela Rayner was fairly inscrutable. Not all the changes were entirely to her taste. Ed Miliband and Bridget Phillipson also looked as if they would rather be elsewhere. They consoled themselves with the knowledge that at least they didn’t have to be Liz and go through a two-hour ordeal at the dispatch box. Though their turn may one day come.

Meanwhile, the Labour backbenches were packed. Full of MPs hoping for the best, but fearing the worst. Only 30 Tories were in situ on the opposite side of the house. This wasn’t their fight. They have no real interest in people who are out of work or disabled. Other than to make life worse for them.

Liz started off at a canter, as if sounding like she believed this stuff would make it true. It was a successful strategy. Because, by the end, she spoke with the conviction of the newly converted, pleased also to have got out alive. This was her big day out as one of the grownups and she had passed the test. Her reward was a pat on the shoulder from Starmer.to the welfare budget. It’s not generally the type of thing that Labour members get into politics for. But time, ambition and pragmatism all play their part. And, on Tuesday, that moment arrived for Liz.

We began with the positives. The good news story. She was ambitious for the country. She wanted everyone to feel as good about their work as she did. Though she understood that not everyone could have her job of wanting people to feel good about themselves. This was beginning to get almost meta. People were being denied the dignity of work by a system that everyone knew was being scammed by many. There were some, she graciously accepted, who could not work. They would still be taken care of. Cue muted cheers from her own backbenchers.

Related: Deep cuts, Pip and ‘right to try’ work: the key changes in UK benefits overhaul

Then to the tricky bits. Anyone under the age of 22 would be prevented from claiming health top-ups for universal credit. Yes. Liz had been informed that a young person could never be properly described as disabled until they were at least 22. There would also be cuts to personal independent payments combined with a new assessment regime. Anyone with mental health problems or a disability would be placed on a stool and immersed underwater. Those who drowned were genuine claimants. Those who survived were trying to cheat the system and would be denied payments. Simple. The old ones are still the best.

After that, we were all in need of a good laugh. Fortunately Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, was on hand to oblige. Her response to Kendall will give her nightmares for years to come. Not just the outright derision from Labour MPs but her own MPs holding their heads in their hands in disbelief. It’s just as well Helen had never been asked to do a work capacity assessment as she would have failed miserably. She has missed out on a lifetime on benefits.

Whately had just one job. To try to drive a wedge between Kendall and her largely sceptical backbenchers. Instead, she – temporarily at least – bound them tightly together. To call her hapless is to be too generous. That adjective is reserved for Kemi Badenoch, who was off giving yet another pointless speech that no one was listening to because it coincided with a major announcement in the Commons.

“Everything is a mess,” said Whately. But also, somehow, OK. The welfare bill was too high and yet she had forgotten who had been in power for much of the past 15 years. “Governing is hard,” she sobbed, as she listed all the things she would have liked to have done but somehow never did. Everything was too little, too late. She wanted the cuts to go deeper, but she didn’t know where. This was either a very public suicide note. Or a sophisticated resignation speech. Maybe she’s already had enough of opposition.

The Labour responses to the statement could be filed more under sorrow than in anger. Though no less dangerous for Kendall for that. Some did accept the need for an overhaul of a system so open to abuse, but none could bring themselves to welcome the cuts. The list of dissenters was as long as your arm. Debbie Abrahams, Clive Lewis, Clive Efford, Florence Eshalomi and Rachael Maskell among them. Starmer may find he has a substantial rebellion on his hands when the bill eventually gets a second reading.

As for the handful of Tories in the chamber, their contributions varied from the curious to the insane. Esther McVey wondered what jobs disabled people and young people would be doing given that the labour market was contracting. She had a point. One million low-paid jobs aren’t going to appear out of nowhere. Harriett Baldwin wanted reassurance that terminally ill people wouldn’t be made to work, while Mark Pritchard thought she would pack the armed forces with disabled people. It’s a thought.

All the while, Kendall only grew in confidence. Frequently mistaking criticism for support. Maybe she was expecting worse. Still, it worked for her. If she wasn’t fully on board with her changes at the beginning of her statement, she clearly was by the end.

The Guardian....oh dear

[user104658]

There is an uncomfortable reality to the whole thing. A nation can't realistically support ballooning welfare forever, it can proportionately support the physically and developmentally disabled of course, but not an increasing proportion of the workforce who can't work. And yet... They can't work. It's not that they're faking anything. It's that the long term knock on effects of end-stage capitalism are so genuinely debilitating that there are an increasing number of people who simply are not fit for work... and an increasing number of more straightforward roles that they perhaps could have worked in that are either redundant or outsourced. What do you do when both things are true?

I think they'll start playing with the idea of UBI within the decade tbh.

[arista]

[bots]

i have no idea what the figures are for young people registered as disabled and unable to work. Is there a published figure? Without that, i don't know how we can be expected to comment

[MTVN]

Originally Posted by bots

i have no idea what the figures are for young people registered as disabled and unable to work. Is there a published figure? Without that, i don't know how we can be expected to comment

I saw this yesterday showing the big rise in young people out of work on sickness benefits

[arista]

[bots]

40% increase does seem a bit mad

[Beso]

Related: Deep cuts, Pip and ‘right to try’ work: the key changes in UK benefits overhaul


This right to work thing, now correct me if I'm wrong, but wont that require some extraordinary assistance from uk employers? And well, after the last budget, will that backing be there! I think NOT!

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Beso

Related: Deep cuts, Pip and ‘right to try’ work: the key changes in UK benefits overhaul


This right to work thing, now correct me if I'm wrong, but wont that require some extraordinary assistance from uk employers? And well, after the last budget, will that backing be there! I think NOT!

They are all going to go into the Army apparently

[arista]

New Claimants

April 2026 getting £97 Universal Credit
will get £50, instead. per week.

[bots]

Originally Posted by Cherie

They are all going to go into the Army apparently

seems like just what we need. Pissed off people that are trained to kill

[arista]

A Disabled Lady
just spoke on LBC Live.

She wants to work
but can not if she wants benefits.

Her illness goes up and down.

She also said she has been Suicidal.



Terrible caller
in the sense,
she is not getting proper fair help.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by MTVN

I saw this yesterday showing the big rise in young people out of work on sickness benefits

Weird I wonder if anything happened in 2020 that would explain a sudden statistical shift like this, nothing is springing to mind

[Liam-]

Originally Posted by arista

A Disabled Lady
just spoke on LBC Live.

She wants to work
but can not if she wants benefits.

Her illness goes up and down.

She also said she has been Suicidal.



Terrible caller
in the sense,
she is not getting proper fair help.

Which is why the government bringing a right to try scheme is a very much needed upgrade

[Beso]

Originally Posted by Liam-

Which is why the government bringing a right to try scheme is a very much needed upgrade

The right to try scheme will require backing from employers, this is where it starts to unravel and fail cause I doubt many employers will back anything labour does after the last budgets raid on employers.


Unless of course they can offer them a monetary incentive from all the savings they will be making...


Drip
Drip
Drip...like a wet sponge

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Liam-

Which is why the government bringing a right to try scheme is a very much needed upgrade

who is going to give her a job? its hard enough for healthy people to find work, and with the employer NI increasing next month, employers are shedding staff 10,000 alone from NHS England, and you think they are going to take someone on, train them up with a view that in 6 months they might decide they are unfit for the role....please open your eyes ...anyone who tries a job will then be required to look for work .if they leave the job they 'tried' ...that is what is going to happen

[Livia]

This Labour government, and every government that's come before despise the working class, they despise the sick and infirm, they despise the homeless and downtrodden and they have utter contempt for poor pensioners. They are happy to continue the great replacement, bringing in other cultures and planting them in communities where those who can afford to leave, will leave. I hope they don't last the full term for the sake of the country.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

This Labour government, and every government that's come before despise the working class, they despise the sick and infirm, they despise the homeless and downtrodden and they have utter contempt for poor pensioners. They are happy to continue the great replacement, bringing in other cultures and planting them in communities where those who can afford to leave, will leave. I hope they don't last the full term for the sake of the country.

To be replaced by who? Reform? Even if you believe in their "policies", it's a gaggle of beer sozzled old pub rats posing as career politicians; they have absolutely no idea what they're doing, and that would be evident for YEARS if they got in. The alternative would be them being stacked with defecting MP's from Tories and Labour in which case, same-old-same-old, what's the actual difference?

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Quantum Boy

To be replaced by who? Reform? Even if you believe in their "policies", it's a gaggle of beer sozzled old pub rats posing as career politicians; they have absolutely no idea what they're doing, and that would be evident for YEARS if they got in. The alternative would be them being stacked with defecting MP's from Tories and Labour in which case, same-old-same-old, what's the actual difference?

Blah blah...

[Beso]

it's a gaggle of beer sozzled old pub rats


Proper working class...


But yeah, reform.. waste of time and resources, and not for me.

[Vanessa]

Im all for getting people into work.
As long as the genuine people who need help don't lose it.
Remember life can change in in instant, anyone could find themselves needed help.

[Vanessa]

Originally Posted by Quantum Boy

To be replaced by who? Reform? Even if you believe in their "policies", it's a gaggle of beer sozzled old pub rats posing as career politicians; they have absolutely no idea what they're doing, and that would be evident for YEARS if they got in. The alternative would be them being stacked with defecting MP's from Tories and Labour in which case, same-old-same-old, what's the actual difference?

I say let them have a go. I can't remember the last time Reform was in charge. Has that ever happened?

[Vanessa]

I have kidney disease and one day will need dialysis.
But I have no intention of stopping work. I can change to part time if I can't cope with full time or change my hours/shift to suit.