Louisa Simpson

I will say here and now, I did not vote for Labour in the last UK General Election. I didn’t vote Conservative, Liberal Democrat or Reform. I did not cast a vote for the first time since I was 18, and I struggled with that because I firmly believe that we should fully exercise a right that our ancestors have fought and died for. But there was not a single political party I felt I could, in good conscience, vote for.

Unsurprisingly, Labour won. As I say, I did not feel any political party was deserving of my vote in 2024, and I was not surprised when the new Government quickly ended up ripping up their manifesto to a large extent because their mendacity was always obvious within it. The extent of what they have done has taken me somewhat by surprise as has the number of Cabinet Ministers who have apparently lied on their CVs. Including the Chancellor of the Exchequer – where it was clear from her first budget that she didn’t have the first idea of economics or how to encourage growth. But that’s by-the-by. No, my biggest beef, I guess, is the latest news about cutting money from the Welfare budget, particularly the money going to PIP which is money for those with disabilities or who are too sick to work. It covers living expenses and can provide access to a car through a Motability scheme, providing adapted cars for those who need them to give them means of accessing life outside the home. For many, it is a lifeline.

I don’t, on the face of it, have a problem with a review of the welfare system. It is abused, there is no doubt about it, and as an Indian guru said (whose name I can’t remember), charity does not lift people out of poverty, it keeps them there. In the UK, we have a welfare system that in some instances pays more for people to remain on it than to work, and which is abused by large corporations who pay just about the minimum wage and expect the benefits system to top up the salary to make life manageable financially. This sort of corporate abuse should be stopped instantly. Amazon. I will be honest and say that I am currently in the welfare system and have been for six months. I also work part-time. This is after some 20 years of paying the high level of taxation in my work. Drawing down benefits is not something I am proud of, in fact it breaks my heart, but without it at the moment we simply would not be able to have anything approaching a normal life. It has been for me, what it is meant to be, a safety net and one I am both grateful for and determined to be removed from as soon as possible so that the money can benefit someone else and so that I can go back to paying taxes to help others who have experienced what I have experienced in the past couple of years. But, the welfare system is abused by a minority and there are generations of families stuck in the rut of welfare. It’s also no coincidence that the lowest educational attainment levels are in areas where there is a significant proportion of people stuck in that benefits rut – a combination of a lack of aspiration amongst pupils (even if they have it at school, it is often not encouraged at home), and the education system falling into the pit of despair with the students. A race to the bottom, unfortunately.

The PIP system is also, arguably, too generous. I have ‘tennis elbow’ in my right arm, a condition caused by repetitive motion and which is ‘cured’ by rest and some physio-type exercises. It is painful and annoying especially at night because it is compounded by an old shoulder injury which has also decided to react to repetitive motion. The repetitive motion comes from the cleaning I do as a job currently, and probably my writing which I also view as a job. So, my chances of resting are slim to none though I do try the physio-type exercises every day. They aren’t helping much, because I can’t rest it. It has been suggested to me that I am, because of this, eligible for PIP and possibly even a Motability scheme car. For tennis elbow. Yes, it’s painful. Yes, it restricts movement in my dominant arm. And, yes it is irritating. But to receive a disability benefit for it? I can’t square that one away, and I have not applied for it. Nor will I.

It is this sort of activity that I do think the government should crack down on. You don’t need PIP for tennis elbow, in my honest opinion. My concern is that, if the arbitrary approach taken towards the removal of the winter fuel allowance is taken towards PIP there will be people who are genuinely needing this benefit who will be seriously, and negatively, impacted. As a society, it is incumbent upon us to protect the most vulnerable within it. Those who are not in a position necessarily to help themselves though they may try. This was true of the elderly who overnight were no longer eligible for the winter fuel allowance but that eligibility was because of having £10 too much per week or month to be able to claim state support. The winter fuel allowance is in the region of £200 so to lose £200 for the sake of £10 is a bit much. I agree that the wealthier recipients (it has never been means tested), should not be in receipt of it but it was removed in a very blunt instrument way. And I am concerned that the government will do the same with welfare because they want the savings now, not after a comprehensive review which has not been undertaken (this government isn’t renowned for its timely impact assessments before making policy decisions).

Take this as an example – recent research has shown that in a group of young people diagnosed with ADHD, a new diet of unprocessed food, a reduction in sugar and other similar changes took 76% of the young people out of the parameters for the diagnosis of ADHD. Having diagnosed ADHD means (if of a school age), the requirement for an EHCP and additional benefits all costing the state significant amounts of money in total. For the sake of what is, essentially, a healthy diet. So, let’s all eat healthily as we know we should, then, and save the state even more money because of a reduction in the cost of obesity (including the cost of the new anti-obesity medication which brings its own side effects). The problem is that the unhealthy diet is actually more affordable when you are on benefits. I know this from first-hand experience. Buying meat, vegetables and fruit is the ideal and I try to do this every week. But there are some weeks when this is simply not possible, such as towards the end of the month if something has gone wrong leading to additional expenses. It got to the point last summer where I had exhausted my extra supplies of meat in the freezer, and I could not afford to buy any more. I buy frozen vegetables as it is to save money (not a bad thing), and fruit had been off the list for a long time. Buying white bread, cheap butter, bags of white pasta, and processed meats like bacon or ham was much cheaper because I could knock a quick meal together that didn’t require a dizzying list of ingredients I simply couldn’t afford. So, how are families expected to purchase the type of food necessary to remove ADHD? When it isn’t actually in their financial interests to do so…it’s a vicious circle that needs a silver arrow to stop it spinning out of control.

The truth is, the government understands none of this. With the possible exception of the Deputy Leader, none of the Cabinet members have any real experience of life on benefits. Of how it feels to go to the DWP offices and sit and go through your financial problems. Don’t get me wrong, the person I saw could not have been nicer or kinder. She was utterly lovely and I will be forever grateful to her for that. But, it was never a situation I thought to find myself in though it is a safety net I am tremendously grateful is supplied in this country. Which is all it was ever intended to be. Except for the most vulnerable in our society who should be cared for to the utmost degree. Our most vulnerable should not have a more reduced life because of a set of circumstances, usually beyond their control, that has placed them in that situation. It is those people I worry about if this welfare review is the hatchet job, the ill-considered policy, this government seems to apply to certain things. The Chancellor sees the pound signs she’s desperate to save, not the suffering that could come as a result because the wrong problem is being addressed. But how can the Cabinet truly know what it is to to live essentially on the breadline? I didn’t until recently. I didn’t have a clue, but I spent my old working life ‘helping’ those who were, ostensibly to get off benefits. I still believe education is the route to get off benefits, but then I am educated to Masters level and I’m availing myself of them. If this has taught me anything, it’s that the question of the welfare state is multi-faceted and certainly complex. Requiring of a decent, thought-through strategy and vision. That’s focused on how we can help the long-term off benefits rather than just an arbitrary cut in the welfare state.

I have not been impressed with this government’s record so far. On education and economic growth, it is disastrous. But if anyone can sort out health and welfare, it is Labour given they were the party who brought it about after World War II and have been dedicated to protecting it (while the Conservatives appear to have expanded the welfare state ironically enough). I think we have a Health Secretary who is prepared to say the unpopular thing (mental health is over diagnosed – yes, any GP will tell you that but it loops back to benefits again) and do the unpopular thing – abolish the nonsense that is NHS England and put power back to the governmental department. I would go further and stop the nonsense that is acute hospitals essentially being franchises if they meet certain criteria because the cost to the Exchequer of their behaviour is colossal. So, I have hope there. But health and benefits are inextricably linked, and there won’t be any real improvement in either until there is a joined-up approach to reviewing both. And a comprehensive review with the aim of how to do health and social welfare with a view of a better outcome for the end user – with a clear vision of who that end user is/should be – rather than the blunt instrument of how to save money. Because if the first is done, the second will happen. It rarely works the other way around.

The welfare state, like the health system, in the UK have been political hot potatoes probably since they were established. That they have grown to out-of-control proportions financially is no secret but there hasn’t been a government with the guts to truly address it head-on. I make no secret of the fact that I don’t like this government, but if they can get to the root of health and welfare, make it a just system that is about doing good, then they will have done the best job of any government in who knows how many years. I fear, though, the welfare system will be hacked to death financially with little thought and with the consequences for our most vulnerable being very dire.