• Disrupting Power Since 2015
  • Donate
  • Login
Friday, May 16, 2025
  • Login
  • Register
Canary
MEDIA THAT DISRUPTS
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
MANAGE SUBSCRIPTION
SUPPORT
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
Canary
No Result
View All Result

The Guardian just protected the DWP over cancer patients’ hardship

Steve Topple by Steve Topple
29 April 2022
in Analysis, UK
Reading Time: 4 mins read
169 3
A A
1
Home UK Analysis
320
SHARES
2.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Cancer patients are struggling to eat and heat their homes. That’s what a charity found when it surveyed 2,000 people living with the disease. The blame for this can be firmly placed on the government and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – unless of course you’re the Guardian. For them, cancer patients’ suffering is ‘just one of those things’ in the faceless “cost of living crisis“.

Cancer: appalling findings

Macmillan Cancer Support surveyed 2,000 cancer patients about their financial situation. The charity framed it in the context of the so-called “cost of living crisis”. As the Guardian reported, Macmillan found that among cancer patients:

  • 32% are “wearing coats or dressing gowns indoors more to try to stay warm”.
  • 24% “can’t afford life at the moment”.
  • 24% “have been buying less food or making fewer hot meals”.
  • 16% have been “washing their clothes or bedding less – or not at all”.

Pretty shocking figures, no doubt. It’s worse when you consider the health needs of cancer patients. Lara Burwell, who lives with thyroid cancer, said that:

I have overwhelming anxiety as all the money worries add up, and on top of this I am so fearful about how our standard of living will affect my cancer recovery. We’ve completely cut out heating, which is horrible as my treatment means I get really cold, but even with that saving I’m not sure we can afford the rent any more.

The DWP: blameless?

But who is responsible for leaving cancer patients in this dire situation? If you read the Guardian article – you’d have no idea. It managed to write over 500 words on the story without once mentioning:

  • The government.
  • The DWP.
  • HMRC.
  • Energy companies.

That is, the Guardian did not give any context as to whose actions were causing cancer patients’ suffering. This is despite the culprits being obvious.

DWP: attacking the poorest people

For example, Disability News Service (DNS) reported on the state of the DWP. It noted that it was taking on average 23 weeks (nearly six months) to deal with people’s Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims. Many of these would likely be for cancer. Then, you also have the built-in five week wait for people’s first Universal Credit payment that the DWP inflicts on new claimants. On top of this, it also makes chronically ill, sick, and disabled people wait three months for the extra sickness and disability payments in Universal Credit.

HMRC isn’t blameless in this, either. It deals with Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), which some cancer patients will claim. The UK’s SSP rate of just over £99 a week is one of the lowest in Europe. Moreover, the EU found it breached its Social Charter in 2018, saying that UK SSP was “manifestly inadequate” and “not in conformity” with the charter. The Institute for Employment Rights noted that:

Only three countries – including the UK – apply a flat rate of [SSP] to all workers, and we are one of only four that do not extend this protection to the self-employed.

All of this is without the energy companies seeing a £1bn-plus profit bonanza as people’s prices surge. Yet if you’re the Guardian none of this matters, and cancer patients’ hardship and destitution is all down to the faceless, perpetrator-less “cost of living crisis“.

The Guardian: don’t mention the class war

When even right-wing tabloid the Express manages to report on campaigner’s claimed link between the DWP and cancer patient’s suffering, you know the Guardian has had it. However, the broader point is that its approach sums up a wider problem.

The media’s framing of the wilful persecution of the poorest people as a ‘cost of living crisis’ helps absolve the government and corporations of any responsibility. It downplays the fact that they know their policies and inaction are hitting the poorest the hardest. So, framing forced destitution as “Tory incompetence”, like Labour leader Keir Starmer did, means the class war we’re in the midst of becomes an almost benign entity about which nothing can be done. You’d hope the Guardian would know better. Sadly, it seems it doesn’t.

Featured image via Sander van der Wel – Flickr, resized to 770×403 under licence CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia and Wikimedia 

Share128Tweet80
Previous Post

Royal tours to Caribbean ‘should be scrapped unless they address justice’

Next Post

Nadine Dorries wades into yet another gaffe

Next Post
Nadone Dorries poses for the camera

Nadine Dorries wades into yet another gaffe

Immigration detention centre

Black British boy's horrific story of immigration detention while seeking mental health support

Boris Johnson at PMQs on Wednesday 30 March

Cabinet Office condemned by MPs for FOI ‘clearing house’ secrecy

Matt Hancock just lied about coronavirus care home deaths

Matt Hancock just lied about coronavirus care home deaths

Report calls for primary school exclusions to be banned by 2026

Report calls for primary school exclusions to be banned by 2026

Please login to join discussion
Trump has just sparked another major national security row
Analysis

Trump just sparked another major national security row – not that he cares

by Steve Topple
15 May 2025
The far-right's latest attack on Jeremy Corbyn is its most preposterous yet - with Lee Anderson leading the charge
Analysis

The far-right’s latest attack on Jeremy Corbyn is its most preposterous yet

by James Wright
15 May 2025
Starmer Rwanda deportation plan
Analysis

Just when you thought Starmer couldn’t stoop any lower – he does this

by Ed Sykes
15 May 2025
Jewish anti-Zionists IJAN respond to police ban on protest against Israeli ambassador
Analysis

Jewish anti-Zionists IJAN respond to police ban on protest against Israeli ambassador

by Ed Sykes
15 May 2025
Social Media Activism: How Grassroots Movements Are Gaining Power Online
Lifestyle

Social Media Activism: How Grassroots Movements Are Gaining Power Online

by Nathan Spears
15 May 2025
  • Contact
  • About & FAQ
  • Get our Daily News Email
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

The Canary
PO Box 71199
LONDON
SE20 9EX

Canary Media Ltd – registered in England. Company registration number 09788095.

For guest posting, contact [email protected]

For other enquiries, contact: [email protected]

The Canary is owned and run by independent journalists and volunteers, NOT offshore billionaires.

You can write for us, or support us by making a regular or one-off donation.

© Canary Media Ltd 2024, all rights reserved | Website by Monster | Hosted by Krystal | Privacy Settings

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion

© 2023 Canary - Worker's co-op.

Before you go, have you seen...?

Trump has just sparked another major national security row
Analysis
Steve Topple

Trump just sparked another major national security row – not that he cares

The far-right's latest attack on Jeremy Corbyn is its most preposterous yet - with Lee Anderson leading the charge
Analysis
James Wright

The far-right’s latest attack on Jeremy Corbyn is its most preposterous yet

Starmer Rwanda deportation plan
Analysis
Ed Sykes

Just when you thought Starmer couldn’t stoop any lower – he does this

Jewish anti-Zionists IJAN respond to police ban on protest against Israeli ambassador
Analysis
Ed Sykes

Jewish anti-Zionists IJAN respond to police ban on protest against Israeli ambassador

ADVERTISEMENT
Lifestyle
Nathan Spears

Social Media Activism: How Grassroots Movements Are Gaining Power Online

Travel
Nathan Spears

Best Destinations In Spain For A Couples Holiday

Travel
Nathan Spears

Surviving Long Layovers: A Frequent Traveller’s Guide