I'm working and on benefits – why does Labour say I’m the problem?

You’ll have seen the news that Labour are set to announce £6 billion in cuts to the welfare system, primarily by making it harder for people to access disability benefits.

The UK Government is expected to make it harder to qualify for the disability benefit Personal Independence Payment (PIP), as well as freezing PIP payments next year.

There are also set to be changes to the way the unemployment benefit Universal Credit is calculated, with those who are judged unfit to work seeing their rate cut.

A lot has already been said about the impact of these cuts on people with disabilities and long-term health issues. We’ve heard from charities about the “catastrophic” consequences these cuts will have. We’ve listened to politicians from across the spectrum condemn and criticise and chastise.

I’ve spent the past few days reporting on these cuts and, as a journalist with a disability, I have becoming increasingly tired of seeing the same narrative. People who claim benefits are scrounging off the state and need to be punished for their so-called laziness, we are told.

READ MORE: Scottish Labour MP hits out at own party over welfare cuts

Well, I claim benefits and I’m in full-time employment.

I initially received PIP, before I was transferred over to Adult Disability Payment just over a year ago. While I was too ill to work, I claimed Universal Credit.

I’ve already written for The National about the degrading experience of applying for these benefits. I know how dehumanising it feels to have to prove that you’re disabled "enough".

It’s been an odd experience to report on this – to quote soundbites from Labour politicians who haven’t got a clue what it’s actually like to receive benefits, to be endlessly surrounded by the tired rhetoric aimed towards people with disabilities.

I am glad that Scotland’s political parties – with the exception of Scottish Labour, to no one’s surprise – have condemned these cuts. It shows there is still some humanity in politics, even if it’s the bare minimum.

One of the comments which has stuck with me the most came from Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater, who said “Labour are going further than even the Tories dared”.

Lorna Slater  (Image: unknown) She’s right, of course. Not even the Tories would do this, and that really is saying something.

When I was first awarded PIP, it was under a Tory government. I gritted my teeth throughout that process because I knew that they were on their way out and that a new government was going to be elected – a Labour government which was supposed to be everything the Tories were not.

The position was supposed to shift, but it has only gotten ten times worse.

READ MORE: 'Appalling': Diane Abbott excluded from Labour MPs' meeting with Keir Starmer

These cuts are going to have tangible and devastating impacts on the lives of ordinary, working people. It will mean that people will be unable to access the care they need in order to survive. It will ruin livelihoods and have unconscionable consequences for wellbeing and mental health.

A Labour government should not be doing this. Yet, here we are.

It’s not because they actually care about helping people who have disabilities or health conditions. If they did, they would be working to fix the NHS or making education more accessible, for example.

Instead, it’s because they see people who claim benefits as a political weapon.

To Labour, we are nothing more as fodder in a nasty battle – waged primarily online – to steal Reform votes from the Tories.

This is only being fuelled by the kind of language the media is using to report on these cuts. Take the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, who asked Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden on Sunday: “Is it fair for the taxpayer that some people can get more money if they're on the sick rather than looking for a job?”

(Image: PA) I thought we were supposed to have moved past the “on the sick” language, not to mention asking whether or not it was “fair” on the taxpayer that people receive benefits.

This kind of rhetoric shouldn’t be anywhere near our television, never mind in Parliament.

Instances like this happen because there aren’t enough disabled voices in the media to call this out. Yes, there is opportunistic criticism, but the vast majority of commentary on this doesn’t come from a place of lived experience. We need to be providing more opportunities for journalists with these experiences, but instead we seem to be travelling back in time.

READ MORE: 'Frankly despicable': Five Scottish Labour MPs back UK Government's welfare cuts

It’s not enough to simply state what these cuts are, or to echo the words of government officials without questioning them. It’s not radical to hold people to account, it’s basic journalism.

It’s clear that the rhetoric, both in our media and our politics, needs to change.

It isn’t about getting people “back into work” – there are disability benefits claimants, like myself, who are already in full-time employment.

A much deeper, societal change is required which changes the language people use around disability. But that will never happen under this Labour Government.

We need to move away from this dangerous rhetoric, and we can only do that by changing things from the top down. When those at the top are spewing such hateful and ignorant bile, we can’t expect things to change any time soon.