Personal Independence Payment: Disabled People Debate
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Rachael Maskell
Main Page: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)Department Debates - View all Rachael Maskell's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
Personal Independence Payment: Disabled People
Rachael Maskell Excerpts(2 days ago)
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Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
Everything is hard in body or in mind. People face the barriers, pain, dejection and not being believed—even when they are, assumptions are made on which only lived experience can speak. They face the effort to live, to just get up and face the day and to prove that their experiences are real, and they face the costs. After 14 years of battling, here we are, with “Pathways to Work”, taking away money, agency, dignity, independence and the essence of life itself. I fear, like many do, that people will take their lives, once again crushed by a system that fails to believe and points the finger rather than offering the hand, turning hope to despair. Poverty, dependency and harm—if not physical, most definitely psychological—await.
Colleagues, we are better than this. Let us vow to stop such pernicious cuts and rewrite the story with the voices, experiences and hope of disabled people. Even if tech, task, time and place can be accommodated, work is not always the answer. We do not even have the diagnosis, understanding of the evidence, or answers from Charlie Mayfield’s report. I will vote against these cuts because I am Labour and because disabled people matter.