The Government’s systematic violations
In 2009, the UK ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and subsequently incorporated disability discrimination law into the Equality Act. Article 4 of the CRPD sets out general obligations for all signatories to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities. However, there is currently no explicit statutory requirement for the Government to have regard to the CRPD when developing new policy and law. The UN has repeatedly found that the UK government has committed “grave and systematic violations” of disabled people’s rights. Article 28 of the UN Convention states that all signatories must recognise the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families.
This includes adequate food, clothing and housing, and the continuous improvement of living conditions, and signatories shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realisation of this right. Regarding the UK, the UN has stated that austerity, welfare reforms (like PIP), and cuts to social care have disproportionately affected disabled individuals, leading to regression in rights, poverty and isolation. Further examination in 2024 led them to conclude that nothing had changed.
Out of focus
Nigel Farage has said his party would cut support for many disabled benefit claimants, with cuts focusing on those he claims do not “genuinely deserve help”. Wes Streeting, the present Health Secretary, aims to reduce the number of working-age people claiming incapacity benefits, stating the rise in claimants is due to “overdiagnosis”. There is an inherent bias in these politicians’ statements. Disability rights groups warn that this political decision would legalise discrimination against those with disabilities.
A rise in claimants is not seen as a cause for concern, even though it is also accompanied by a rise in mortality rates. The narrative is that somehow the successful claimants are cheating the system, yet the DWP sets the rate of PIP fraud at 0%, nor is the pay-out in disabled benefits a large part of the government’s budget. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts disability benefits spending could increase to £58.1bn in 2028-2029. That would represent around 4% of total public spending. The DWP’s own report calculated that there were 14.9 million people living in poverty, and 8.6 million who were living in families with someone disabled.
Equality or ‘luxury’ transport?
The failure to see disabled people as part of a family unit has led to the myth that disabled people don’t need family-sized cars. The Motability scheme is once again under attack, especially by the Reform party and the government, who feel that cars should only be for disabled drivers, and they should not get to choose the type of car. The cost to the government remains the same regardless of which vehicle a disabled person chooses to lease. I broke the law every time I went out with my baby in a sling, driving an 8mph mobility scooter along the pavement. The law said I couldn’t drive a powerful scooter on the pavement or carry passengers.
My eldest child was asthmatic, which meant a lot of visits to the GP, clinics, and occasionally emergency care at the children’s hospital, but accessible transport was not provided because I was not the patient. Community transport was also banned as there was no provision for non-disabled children travelling with me. But if I hadn’t broken the law, I wouldn’t have been able to take the children to the GP, to school or to the supermarket. Thankfully, this law no longer applies, though locally the trams won’t allow my scooter on board.
The invisible carer
When I gave birth to my three children in the late 1990s, I was treated as a rare anomaly. Information on equipment that could help mothers with disabilities was non-existent. The advice is now available, but the money to buy the equipment is not. Disabled mothers and children are particularly affected by ‘deep’ poverty and discrimination. When they seek support with their children, they are most likely to be denied support and to risk having their children removed for having asked for it. Too often, children are taken from the disabled mother on the basis that having a disabled mother is “harm” to a child. It is difficult for a disabled parent to be seen as a carer by institutions.
When our children started school, I was unable to attend parent evenings and other public events, because although schools were obliged to create access for a disabled pupil or staff member, not a parent. I challenged the government on this and won. However, many disabled parents still do not have access to their child’s school, or even the right to have their child placed in an accessible school.
In 2018, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that one in five disabled people in social housing live in unsuitable accommodation, and that just 7% of homes in England have the most basic accessibility features. In 2022, researchers were told of decades-long waiting lists for accessible social housing and significantly higher asking prices for accessible homes for sale.
Sir Keir told BBC Breakfast’s Naga Munchetty the laws were “core” to British values and had given “decades of protection”, ensuring women and people of all races were “treated equally”. Yet equality for disabled people was not mentioned.
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