The Labour Party has published its manifesto today. Astonishingly, its 136 pages provide not a single concrete action relating to welfare benefits – the issue has been almost entirely airbrushed from the document, leaving disabled claimants with no idea what Labour has in store for them.
The closest thing to an actionable idea relating to benefits is on page 78 of the manifesto, which says:
“Labour is committed to reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty. We want to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels, which is a moral scar on our society.”
So, a review will take place at some undefined time, but with no hint of whether the intention is to increase or reduce UC for disabled claimants, increase or reduce sanctions or anything else.
The document does say on page 42 that:
“We will tackle the backlog of Access to Work claims and give disabled people the confidence to start working without the fear of an immediate benefit reassessment if it does not work out. We believe the Work Capability Assessment is not working and needs to be reformed or replaced, alongside a proper plan to support disabled people to work.”
But this tells readers nothing concrete. When will reform or replacement of the WCA happen and what form will it take? It sounds like Labour has no clear ideas on the subject, just a vague aspiration.
There is, though, the obligatory threat on page 42 to people who are not in work but, in the view of the Labour Party, should be:
“Labour will reform employment support so it drives growth and opportunity. Our system will be underpinned by rights and responsibilities – people who can work, should work – and there will be consequences for those who do not fulfil their obligations.”
On child poverty, the document says on page 79:
“Labour will develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty. We will work with the voluntary sector, faith organisations, trade unions, business, devolved and local government, and communities to bring about change.”
This suggests that there is no intention to increase benefits payments related to children or to remove the two-child benefit cap introduced by the Tories in 2017, which has been such a driver of child poverty.
Aside from that, there is an undertaking to retain the triple lock for the state pension and a stern warning that Labour “will not tolerate fraud or waste anywhere, whether in social security or the excessive use of consultants”.
And that’s all we could find, please do tell us in the comments section if you discover anything else.
This is a cruel manifesto from the point of view of disabled claimants.
The Conservatives put in motion some ferociously anti-disabled claimant plans, including moving forward the forced migration to universal credit, making the WCA harder to pass, consulting on replacing PIP with vouchers and spying on bank accounts.
But it will be Labour, not the Conservatives, who are virtually certain to be in charge of claimants’ fate after the election.
Labour’s decision to give no hint of which Tory plans they will reject and which they will adopt will leave many claimants in a state of real distress for weeks to come.
