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Proud to be a (non-celebrity!) signatory to the #TakingThePip letter sent to Starmer and the government. We “demand that the government withdraw its inhumane and catastrophic plans to cut disability benefits.” This is nothing less than “cruelty by policy.”tinyurl.com/y8sh3n58

Disability benefits cuts would, unequivocally, kill a lot of disabled people. Some would die by suicide. Others through the slow violence of stress, malnutrition, untreated pain. It’s that simple. It really is. Vote against #DisabilityBenefits cuts.

“We just want to help people work.” That’s why we’re cutting PIP which enables many people to work. And scaling back Access to Work. Because… well… the goal was never inclusion. It was disappearance.

Obviously I’m not a lawyer, but if premise 1 is true—i.e. the 4+ rule is about targeting those with higher needs—then wouldnt they have just scrapped standard rate, or raised thresholds (e.g. 9 for standard, 13 for enhanced)? Isn’t something nefarious—and thus illegal-i going on?

Some people don’t realise how difficult—and sometimes impossible—making a phone call can be. I wish we could move past the assumption that it’s a simple or neutral ask. I wish people wouldn’t withdraw support or opportunities just because that’s not possible.

A few weeks ago we had 30 MPs, now we have 170! That’s one hell of an upward curve due to phenomenal activism by so many. Brilliant progress—but a long way to go. Not least in making clear that tweaks arent the answer. Please speak to your MPs in person if poss #WelfareNotWarfare

You want to cut PIP because “too many people qualify.” Ever wonder why? Maybe more people are disabled because more people are burned out, injured by austerity, stuck on waiting lists or living in systems that break us. The answer isn’t less support. It’s more care.

The new UC proposals treat illness like it’s temporary, linear, and neatly resolved. But chronic pain, psychosis, and neuroimmune illness don’t heal on cue. This isn’t a system that misunderstands disability. It’s one that’s designed to exclude it. #WelfareNotWarfare

Your regular reminder that when someone says they are suicidal, it’s important to believe them.

MPs are floating a “transition period” to soften the blow of PIP cuts—so claimants can move onto “other benefits.” That’s fantasy. PIP is to be the gateway. Lose it, and you lose access to nearly all other benefits. That’s the cliff’s edge.

Still hearing “they can’t be autistic—they’re too empathic.” Please stop. Read Damian Milton on the ‘double empathy problem’ and, more importantly, listen to the autistic community. Empathy isn’t one-way, and neither is humanity.

🧵TW: PIP & Mental Health My new FOI further exposes the 4+ rule’s cruel impact on mental health. 1 in 3 MH claimants will be cut off, including those with the most severe disability. It shows a system built to erase cumulative + fluctuating need. #TakingThePip #WelfareNotWarfare

How horrific. After a cuts meeting, a disabled woman collapsed—and disability minister Timms ignored her. Given his faith, the only explanation is that he thought she was being “hysterical”. This is the discourse Labour keeps using to disability-deny. tinyurl.com/bdfjwucc

NEW “Labour's £4.8 billion welfare cuts …likely to damage the health of vulnerable people more than any measures since George Osborne's £12 billion of savings in 2015, at the height of austerity.” Devastating blow to Labour. I reckon this will increase the 170 MPs supporting us.

People talk about “benefits culture” like it’s some scam. You know what the real scandal is? That you have to fight, cry, collapse and prove you’re disabled again and again just to survive. Labour were supposed to be better, not worse. #TakingThePIP

As a consultant psychologist, I’ve seen what fear of reassessment does. It doesn’t motivate people. It destabilises them. It makes people stop attending therapy, stop taking meds, stop eating. Cuts don’t save money. They cost lives. We must protect LCWRA. #TakingThePIP

No one “recovers” from a disability benefits cut. They disappear. From communities. From hope. Sometimes from life. You don’t cut benefits to cut benefits when it’s someone’s lifeline. #TakingThePIP

As I’ve already condemned Timms’ lack of empathy, to add—speaking as a senior clinician—it’s impossible for him to make blanket assumptions about ‘people like yourselves’ being able to work. This rhetoric fuels shame, isolation, and the belief that not working means failure.

Scrutinising bank accounts and intermittently zoning in with demands on why someone spent money on something is a known tactic of ‘coercive control’.

Silly psy cartoon for the weekend!