Disabled people are tired of being used as the government’s scapegoat

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

We have yet another chancellor yet again penalising those in our society with the least (PA)

How desperate can Rishi Sunak and his doomed Conservative Party get? One year they raise national insurance, and then when the finances are even worse and they clearly can’t afford to, they cut it.

Taxes are already the highest in decades. So to try and bribe the electorate for something that could potentially be implemented during a 2024 general election campaign, when they have already busted the economy once, is just absurd.

Our economy needs responsibility, proper investment and clean energy. The only energy left in the Tory party is spent on bullying the poor, the disabled and those on benefits just to keep the richest 1 per cent of taxpayers happy and the beloved blue rinse brigade at Tory supper clubs up and down the land with a smile on their face.

Instead of providing an autumn statement focused on helping the vulnerable, all we have is another chancellor yet again penalising those in our society with the least. Hopefully next year Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves will deliver a Budget and a government that actually cares.

Geoffrey Brooking

Havant

The answer is right in front of us

Economic growth is, as The Independent points out in an editorial, “badly constrained by labour shortages”. The Tory answer is to try to force disabled people back into work.

All the while, tens of thousands of able-bodied asylum seekers, many highly qualified, all desperate to be allowed to fill the vacancies in the labour market, languish in limbo, forbidden from working. The UK’s population is ageing, as your editorial also points out, and our birth rate is not keeping up. Is our government hoping that a combination of disabled people and AI will save their dwindling rump of Tory voters from immigrants in perpetuity?

David M Brown

York

These cuts could cost lives

Often, I feel like I’m trapped in some dystopian TV show. Tune in tomorrow to find out who the government’s next scapegoat of the week is! Will it be asylum seekers? Homeless people? Transgender people? Oh, I can’t wait to find out!

This week disabled people are once again being punished for the government’s mistakes, with Jeremy Hunt telling people who have been written off work for medical reasons to work from home or face cuts to their benefits. It’s nothing but another culture war used as a pathetic attempt to hold onto power.

These culture wars may seem like nothing more than strangers arguing on the internet to some, but this could cost the lives of many disabled people. However, the Conservatives have consistently shown that they see human life as disposable. If the Tories actually wanted to help people with physical and mental health issues back into work, they would stop slashing the budgets of NHS services people rely on to get better. Mindlessly forcing people – who have been written off work by medical professionals for a reason – into work by threatening to cut their benefits is cruel.

At what point will we stop allowing them to point the finger at everyone else but themselves? These politicians have the audacity to paint benefit claimants as a drain on taxpayers. Rishi Sunak even goes so far as to say that the welfare system is “unsustainable”. Do you know what’s really unsustainable for the economy? Continuously giving tax breaks to your rich friends. Being ruled by a Tory government is unsustainable.

Perhaps it’s about time we see MPs’ bank accounts. What are they needlessly spending taxpayer’s money on? What are their expenses? Maybe it’s them who should have their benefits cut, not vulnerable people who are struggling to survive.

The government’s continuous attacks on disabled people claiming benefits is causing extreme amounts of anxiety to those already suffering. Adding the prospect of not being able to afford to eat or keep a roof over your head is only going to increase that suffering. But appealing to the government’s sensitive side is futile when they show no traces of empathy.

You can support those with physical and mental health issues. You can post mental health awareness on social media and tell everyone to “be kind”. Or you can support this government. But you can’t do both.

Emily Shields

Bristol

Sunak is failing – just like Boris did before him

I’ve just been listening to Rishi Sunak’s PMQs responses. What’s clear is that he is in total denial, avoiding answers, swerving the questions and spouting Trump-style nonsense about supposed improvements.

Boris Johnson tried this already, and it also failed for him.

Such an approach is bound to fail. Why? Because what you say has to resonate with the electorate. If it isn’t, then quite simply you are perceived as a fraud. Sunak has learnt nothing; he’s not his own man. He will fail, just as Johnson failed.

Tell the truth and don’t waffle – it only brings failure!

Dale Hughes

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