Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) boss Liz Kendall has refused to apologise after being criticised for ‘misleading’ (or lying, if you prefer) to MPs four times in one parliamentary sitting – by linking planned cuts to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) with support for disabled people’s employment.
DWP PIP: cuts and lies
In a Commons session Kendall was questioned multiple times about the government’s plan to reduce PIP spending by £4.5 billion annually, as outlined in the March Pathways to Work green paper. However, rather than addressing the cuts directly, she repeatedly spoke about Labour’s approach to helping disabled people into work – even though DWP PIP is not an out-of-work benefit.
Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability, also faced questions on the cuts but similarly focused his answers on employment support rather than the direct impact of the reductions on disabled people.
PIP is a benefit available to disabled people regardless of their employment status, intended to help cover the additional costs associated with disability. Experts and disability advocates have expressed concern that cutting DWP PIP risks damaging the financial security and independence of thousands of claimants.
During the exchange, Labour MP Imran Hussain highlighted the fears of 41,000 disabled people in Bradford who face potential hardship from the PIP reductions. Yet, as Disability News Service (DNS) reported, Kendall responded by emphasising support for disabled people who can work and protection for those who cannot, without addressing the projected £4.5 billion in cuts. She said:
We want to improve people’s chances and choices by supporting those who can work to do so and by protecting those who cannot.
But that has nothing to do with the planned DWP PIP cuts.
And more lies
Similarly, when Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale and Labour’s Rachael Maskell raised concerns about the impact on disabled people and public services, Kendall spoke about expanding employment support programmes and the health benefits of work, avoiding direct answers about DWP PIP cuts and implying it was out-of-work related.
To Gale, she said the government would be:
Consulting with disabled people about how to build our £1 billion a year employment support programme, and we will make sure that those who can never work will be protected.
Again, this is nothing to do with DWP PIP. To Maskell, Kendall said:
We have clear evidence that being in work is good for people’s health: good work is good for people’s physical and mental health.
We repeat, DWP PIP has nothing to do with this.
Green Party MP Sian Berry labelled the cuts “cruel and wrong,” but Kendall again shifted the focus to employment statistics, saying:
Disabled people who are out of work and economically inactive are more likely than non-disabled people to say they want to work, and if they are in work, they are half as likely to be poor.
Once again, Kendall’s response wilfully misled parliament.
DWP PIP cuts are NOT about work
Timms was also criticised for conflating DWP PIP cuts with employment support. When asked about the 300,000+ disabled people expected to be pushed into poverty by the benefit cuts, he focused on the desire of disabled people out of work who want employment and the need for support measures.
A spokesperson for the DWP declined to comment to DNS on why Kendall and Timms repeatedly misled MPs.
Of course, Kendall and Timms responses are part of the Labour Party government’s agenda with DWP cuts. By reinvigorating the ‘work shy/scrounger/fraud‘ narrative that the state has always propagated about chronically ill and disabled people, they are hoping to get away with throwing countless people into poverty, and killing countless more.
But when it is this obvious they are lying, it remains to be seen what portion of the public – and MPs – will buy it.
Featured image via the Canary
