Labour’s ‘get Britain working’ plan attacks welfare state

Disability rights group Dpac protesting in March against benefit deaths (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Labour said it wants to “get Britain working” as it released an employment white paper last week. But the lack of clarity over what the government proposals will mean for benefit claimants has left disabled people feeling anxious.

Labour aims to have an 80 percent employment rate—and it’s going to target those it describes as “economically inactive”. This includes people caring for others and ill and disabled people. And it hopes to get young people who have dropped out of training, education or employment into low-paid jobs. 

Many of the policies are dangerous and unhelpful—for example, sending job coaches onto mental health wards. 

Andy Greene from Disabled People Against Cuts (Dpac) argued the plans would transform disabled people’s relationship with the state. He said it would make them responsible for managing their own health in order to get support for work. 

Andy told Socialist Worker, “Disabled people have fought for the recognition that it is not our impairments that disable us, but the barriers posed by society. 

“Now, we are going back to a model that says the problem is your health condition and your inability to manage it. It’s letting the state off the hook in terms of supporting us properly. It needs to fund better health services but this is not the same as employment support.”

Andy was sceptical that employers could be convinced to make workplaces more accessible if it impacts on their bottom line. 

Labour’s plan to offer six week work placements is reminiscent of the Tories’ hated Workfare programmes, which forced unemployed people to work for free. There is a real risk that the plan will push people into inappropriate and insecure work. 

If people don’t take up offers of employment, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall has said that “there will be sanctions on their benefits”.

Prime minister Keir Starmer has previously said he wants to slash welfare spending by £3 billion over five years. 

But the government’s plans for benefits won’t be fully revealed until it produces a green paper in March next year. 

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Dan White from the Disability Poverty Campaign Group said, “We know many disabled people wish to work and moves to provide more targeted and tailored support are welcome. However, the threat of a spring green paper that proposes cuts to the benefits bill is very concerning. 

“Disabled people living on social security are struggling to meet the basic costs of food, energy, medication, social care, transport and housing. Pushing us into even deeper poverty will not provide us with a route towards employment.

“You can’t on the one hand threaten benefit cuts that penalise disabled people and then with the other, assure us that we will be given the support we need to work. These mixed messages do not inspire confidence that the government has our best interests at heart.”

Andy added, “Labour had an opportunity to work with disabled people and our organisations. It had a chance to reimagine disability support after the human catastrophe of the past 14 years under the Tory government. But what we’ve got is the same old same old”.

Labour’s plan doesn’t tackle the deep structural reasons why work in today’s society offers so little to people. Instead, it will drive people who are unable to work into even greater poverty.