Cutting benefits won’t help disabled people into work | Letters
Any welfare cuts are going to have hideous consequences for people with health conditions, says Heather Bingham. Plus letters from Carolyn Sutton, Michael Miller, Sacha Deshmukh and Dr Natalie SymesI doubt the government understands what disabled people need in order to work (Starmer decries ‘worst of all worlds’ benefits system ahead of deep cuts, 10 March). I have a mental health condition, physical disabilities and am neurodiverse. To do meaningful part-time work, I had to become self-employed, simply to work at my level of skill and experience. It costs me nearly £1,000 a month in various ways to remain well enough to work consistently – all post-tax.The NHS is merely keeping me alive – it isn’t interested in optimising my life, for example, by tackling the hideous side-effects of my medication – and the tax system refuses to recognise that anything more than keeping me alive is required. And a Labour government thinks it can cast people out into the world of work with no resources to make them well enough to show up, day in, day out? Continue reading...

Any welfare cuts are going to have hideous consequences for people with health conditions, says Heather Bingham. Plus letters from Carolyn Sutton, Michael Miller, Sacha Deshmukh and Dr Natalie Symes
I doubt the government understands what disabled people need in order to work (Starmer decries ‘worst of all worlds’ benefits system ahead of deep cuts, 10 March). I have a mental health condition, physical disabilities and am neurodiverse. To do meaningful part-time work, I had to become self-employed, simply to work at my level of skill and experience. It costs me nearly £1,000 a month in various ways to remain well enough to work consistently – all post-tax.
The NHS is merely keeping me alive – it isn’t interested in optimising my life, for example, by tackling the hideous side-effects of my medication – and the tax system refuses to recognise that anything more than keeping me alive is required. And a Labour government thinks it can cast people out into the world of work with no resources to make them well enough to show up, day in, day out? Continue reading...