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Wales Online
26-04-2025
- General
- Wales Online
'If I worked full-time, I would be worse-off' Report lays bare cracks in Welsh social security
'If I worked full-time, I would be worse-off' Report lays bare cracks in Welsh social security The report alleges 'discrimination and dehumanisation' is rampant in UK's social security The report alleges claimants feel they are not treated with respect while trying to access benefits (Image: Philip Toscano/PA Wire ) A new report published by a leading global charity has raised significant questions about the access to social security systems across the UK, particularly in Wales. The report titled 'Social Insecurity' by Amnesty International UK consists of accounts from 700 benefit claimants from across the UK, including 34 from Wales, and advisors, and claims to take a 'deep dive into the murky and divisive world of the UK social security system.' The report points out that the rate of poverty in the UK is now higher than at any point in the 21st century. According to the Social Metrics Commission report, 16 million people or almost a quarter of the UK's population are living in families in poverty. This figure includes 5.2 million children, 9.2 working-age adults, and 1.5 million pension age adults. Article continues below Benefits claimants have said in the report that they feel they are mistreated at job centres (Image: PA ) When it comes to Wales, these figures become worse with a third of its children living their lives in poverty — with the figure projected to rise to 34.4% by the end of this decade. This would mean a further 32,000 Welsh children will be pushed into poverty. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here The new report alleges that 'discrimination and dehumanisation' is reported to rife in access to benefits. It claims to deliver 'damning conclusions on how the system processes, punishes, harms and dehumanises people and fails to meet international legal obligations.' Nicola who is from Port Talbot has three children including a girl, and twin boys. She has been receiving Universal Credit for nearly 5 years, and has recently applied for a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) . She said: 'At first, I found Universal Credit quite helpful. I had an advanced payment when I moved into a new home and that helped. But I have found it hard since then. I managed to find a part-time job in a local school, but I'm still on UC because I don't earn enough money. 'If I worked full-time, I would be worse-off and I would have even less time to spend with my children. I am in debt because my day-to-day costs are too high.' Nicola added that she has been denied additional funding: 'I applied for PIP because I am hard of hearing, and it impacts my work - I can't hear when people are calling me or asking me for things. "However, I've been told I am not entitled to the amount I need so I am appealing that. I had help from my housing association to apply, but it was hard, and I struggle to keep on top of it all.' She went on to recount how strict rules regarding access to benefits have left her in debt. She said 'I've been sanctioned [reduction or suspension of benefits for failing to meet requirements of Claimant Commitment] before, when my daughter was little. My daughter was struggling with her emotions, so I took her for a drive to calm her down. 'Because I was driving and supporting my daughter, I missed a call and this meant that my payment was reduced for a month. Unfortunately, this meant I had to take out a credit card to afford my bills that month - and I am still paying that card off now.' This is not just the case with Nicola, as other claimants have also recounted how they have missed out on payments during strict rules. A claimant from Wales said: 'You're not allowed in that building until at least 5 minutes before your appointment, but if you're like, one minute late, you'll have a row. "But if you're, you know, 5 minutes early, you just, you wait. You go stand outside and wait. It's terrible. Even if it's raining, then they don't care. They don't care. It is shocking.' Another Welsh claimant explained how they were denied the use of a restroom They said: 'I was on water retention tablets. They would never let me use the toilet and I was on water medications. I said I'm gonna wet myself. They said I can't. And they were like, oh, we don't believe you. 'Luckily one of the women at the Job Centre knew because she'd seen me before, she said I could go but they made me walk to the nearest Tesco, even though I had proof.' Claimants in Wales have also raised concerns about how they are treated at some of the job centres, as a claimant explained: 'They speak to you like crap for a start. So then somebody like me that has like mental health conditions, quite serious. "They'll speak down to me. Which isn't good because it makes me not want to talk to them and I just don't want the money, I just want to leave. I shake and I stutter and everything.' Another Welsh claimant told how they were sanctioned because they had work: 'I've been sanctioned loads of time because I'm working. Borrowed off my sister and mother. Without them I would probably be dead in the gutter because I couldn't afford to live.' Nicola adds that the way people are treated by the DWP needs to change: 'If I could change anything it would be the way they chase people - like when I'm working, they chase me to come in for meetings every couple of weeks. It is so stressful because I finish work, then go to the job centre and then have to rush home to the kids.' Explaining how support from Universal Credit falls short, she said: 'There isn't enough support from Universal Credit and so now I'm in debt and I won't be able to pay it off for years, but honestly, I am one of the lucky ones because I have family and friends helping me. Without that, I don't know how I would put food on the table for the kids. 'This month, I can't pay anything because I need to buy the summer uniforms for my children - so I have applied for help so I can pay off what I can but it isn't enough. I hope when the kids are older, I can get more hours or a better job.' Sanctions or deductions have an adverse effect on people depending on benefits according to the report. From the report, 23% out of the 700 claimants interviewed across the UKhad experienced being sanctioned of having a deduction. Of these, 78% of people said it worsened their mental health, 55% said they reduced the food they ate, 35% went without food, 47% of people said that it worsened their physical health and 44% of people said they were forced to borrow money to make ends meet. Policy Lead for Wales at Amnesty International UK, Glenn Page added that people in Wales are having to make 'impossible choices'. He said: 'Lives are being ruined by a system that is consciously cruel – it erodes dignity by design. We are in a state of severe human rights violations. The social security system is impenetrable, inadequate, and for some completely inaccessible. It is forcing people across Wales to make impossible choices and denying their basic rights.' 'There can be no tinkering of the system – it has gone too far, and it is too late. There must be full reform. It is broken from start to finish and intentionally sets people up to fail. No-one would want political choices in this country to deliberately diminish dignity and perpetuate poverty.' He added: 'We need a landmark, independent Social Security Commission with statutory powers to overhaul the UK's broken benefits system. It must be rooted in dignity and human rights and designed by and for the people. This must protect us all – be that today or in the future where we all may need it.' Government's response A government spokesperson said: "We inherited a fundamentally broken welfare system which does not work for the people it is supposed to support. That's why, as we secure Britain's future through our Plan for Change, our reforms to health and disability benefits will ensure the welfare system is there to protect those who need it most. "We are also unlocking opportunities for sick and disabled people through our £1bn employment support package, and we've also increased the Living Wage, boosted benefits, and extended the Household Support Fund for another year to help low-incomes families with the cost of essentials, as well as protecting pensioners through our commitment to the triple lock." The government also claims that it has "layers of support" in place for DWP to carry out its core functions while people who are vulnerable or have complex needs have the right support measures put in place for them. It insists that one of the department's core values is "we care", and that the department is embedding a culture and practice that strives to provides the best for the people we serve. About sanctions: Claimants are generally expected to undertake certain activities in return for financial support through the benefit system. To ensure the conditionality requirements for those on work-related benefits are realistic and achievable, they are based on the claimant's' capabilities and household circumstances, including any caring responsibilities, health issues, earnings, and ongoing work or volunteering. A sanction is only applicable where a claimant fails to meet their agreed work-related requirements without demonstrating good reason for doing so. Before any referral for a sanction decision is made, checks are performed to ensure they are appropriate, and that their circumstances have been taken into consideration. Article continues below
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labour is gaslighting disabled people – and that should terrify us all
The fashionable thing is to decry the government's 'messaging'. Last week, it was signalling a plan to slash disability benefits. Jo White, the MP for Bassetlaw, was bemoaning the fact that people's 'aspirations are so low'. By the weekend, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, was blaming the numbers of disabled people on an overdiagnosis of mental health conditions. Keir Starmer, however, was rumoured to be considering a U-turn on the cuts – apparently he hadn't been expecting so much opposition from the cabinet and backbenchers. Why not, one might ask? They are, after all, members of the Labour party. Surely they would be uncomfortable with a plan that sounded exactly, to the letter, as if it had come from the Conservatives? Fine, it doesn't look like the most expert job of managing the optics. But it has also left as many as 10 million people sleepless with worry, because the world this government describes bears no relation to the reality they are living in. As of last October, there were 3.6 million personal independence payment (Pip) claimants. Eligibility is stringent. The idea – last floated by Tony Blair, whose transformation into know-nothing golf-club pontificator is still startling after all this time – that we are 'medicalising the ups and downs of life', handing out diagnoses and sickness benefits to people who just feel a bit sad, is fanciful. According to the 2021 census, there are 5.8 million unpaid carers in the UK, 1.2 million of those living in poverty, 400,000 in deep poverty. A report by the Social Metrics Commission found that, of the 14.9 million people living in poverty in the UK in 2021-22, 8.6 million were in families that included a disabled person. In any one of those families, there will probably be a carer who would love to work, but can't get the support. They can't find a job that will work around medical appointments, or school holidays, or the shambolic special educational needs and disabilities provision of many local authorities, or they can't get a place at a day centre, or get respite, or there simply aren't enough hours in the day. Carers UK estimated last year that if every unpaid carer in the country decided to cease caring tomorrow and joined the 'productive' economy instead, that would cost the state £184bn a year. In other words, the cost of disability is already being shouldered mainly by disabled people and their loved ones. The state owes these families an enormous debt of gratitude as a baseline. On top of that, it owes them better services, so that those who want to work can do so; it owes them better services anyway, if it wants to count itself modern and humane; and it owes them the basic decency of recognition. What the government delivers instead is a narrative that sounds bland, but is actually gaslighting on a large scale. It describes a country in which poverty is caused by low aspiration and disability is a choice, by people who simply aren't robust enough to be well. This country doesn't exist. It describes a world that can't afford for people to be chronically ill or disabled, when the opposite is true: we cannot wish away those things. In offering patchy, unsympathetic, parsimonious support, the state only traps more people in poverty, deprivation which it then performatively ignores. If you are reliant on Pip, it is truly terrifying to witness, but it should terrify all of us, because a government that can front out this kind of denial is one that is not listening, not curious, not realistic and not humane. Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
