I just had a quick google of headlines about ‘The Vulnerable’.
Better suited to being the name of a crap indie band, or part of the next very long title of an album by The 1975, it’s the unfortunate name the media and Government like to give to a lovely big lump of us, including older people, disabled people, and anyone else living in poverty.
We are not ‘The Vulnerable ’. We are people – fully rounded people. Not a lump to be pitied under such an ugly, disempowering word.
Disabled people are only made vulnerable because of the dismissive, contemptible choices made by Government in meeting our basic human rights and needs – in terms of opportunities, services, and means to live lives on a par with non-disabled, ‘non-vulnerable’ people.
We have been labelled ‘The Vulnerable’ since Covid – because it’s easier to stick us all in a big lump with a definite article before it than see us as what we are, individuals, sometimes, like right now, needing help, but vulnerable? Why are we called ‘The Vulnerable’?
Because, for years, we have had our rights and benefits chipped away.
We are treated as an inconvenience. We are treated as an expense. We have twice the unemployment rate of non-disabled people. We earn less, in lower paid jobs.
It’s not because we make rubbish employees, it’s because people are scared to hire us. About four million of us claim PIP or DLA – the disability benefits available to people of working age – but the last increase in PIP was 3.1%, and inflation now stands at over 10%, so we aren’t getting what we need to survive.
We are the subject of pity, not collective outrage and action about the undermining of our lives by successive governments.
We are seen as people without the right to determine the direction of our own lives. We have decisions made for and about us by people who don’t really have the faintest clue about the ins and outs of our lives and what we need to live them with independence, dignity and a lack of waking-up-vomiting-level fear.
The current fear, the biggie, is the cost of living.
I am hearing an endless stream of stories from disabled people at the moment about needing to give back accessible cars on the Motability Scheme, vital for independence and not being forced to be housebound, because they can't afford the fuel (but then how do you afford extra heating instead of car fuel?) .
I’m hearing about disabled people unable to afford decent quality food if they need to run vital medical equipment.
I’m hearing about disabled people unable to afford to heat a room, let alone a house.
I’m hearing about disabled people’s physical health deteriorating, and mental health collectively falling off a cliff.
It's hard to tighten your belt when you’ve been financially standing under a scaffold over a trapdoor for years, and the belt is around your neck.
The Tories are currently undergoing a reboot. There is talk of compassionate Conservatism – for people to have the means to have independence, to be viable, to be vital – good V words. Is Rishi Sunak hearing this? And moreover, will he act on it?
He has a choice. He can balance the books by ensuring ‘The (ugh!) Vulnerable’, and the services we need and use, like the NHS, council support, and care are squeezed more, or he can tax elsewhere.
Many of us are living in true poverty and dire straits, with the only power we have at the moment being the ability to flick a V sign to the V word.
We want to start hearing another V word about disabled people coming out of the mouth of Government: Valuable. It's time the Government recognised that we have real value as people, and to society, and that it has a duty under its own Equality Act to raise us up, not put us down.
Anna Morell works for Disability Rights UK – the UK’s leading organisation led by, run by, and working for Disabled people.
It works with Disabled People’s Organisations and Government across the UK to influence regional and national change for better rights, benefits, quality of life and economic opportunities for Disabled people.
Find out more about DR UK here.
Contact DR UK here.
