T’is the season to be jolly, and if you’re in receipt of benefits it’s that time when the magical DWP envelope pops through the door.
Usually a harbinger of doom for those on regularly reassessed benefits, this time of year it’s more a Schroedinger's brown envelope- is it good news for a change or the same old terrible? Oh no, it’s the £10 Christmas “bonus”!
Now I know what you’re thinking, an extra tenner at Christmas? How lovely, if only that were the case. You see the £10 Christmas “bonus” was introduced in 1972 and hasn’t changed since.
When it was introduced fifty years ago it was calculated as enough to feed a family at Christmas with all the trimmings, nowadays you’ve got no chance.
There are differing estimates of how much the bonus should be by now, but if it had raised in line with inflation it would be at least £108, with some calculators estimating as high as £168.
If it had been raised anywhere near that disabled people (along with elderly and low-income people) would actually be able to afford an extra treat at Christmas and it wouldn’t feel like such a kick in the teeth.
Instead, the £10 Christmas bonus feels like a sick joke, here you go plebs don’t spend it all at once.
The concept of a yearly bonus that is so low when you’re on disability benefits is an insult, it’s essentially a prize for being good disableds and not causing a big enough fuss that you get kicked off it and declared fit for work.
As someone on Twitter pointed out it feels like we’ve gone out with the begging bowl and I think they’re right. “Please sir can I have some more?” Enough to actually feed our families for one special day at least.
The way the DWP and this government treat disabled people is quite frankly Dickensian.
If we don’t seem ‘disabled enough’ to them – a ridiculous and cruel concept decided by their struct inhumane guidelines– we’re left with nothing. We’re told we’re scroungers and need to be incentivised into work.
But then if they deign us to be trying too hard or not performing their view of disability - sad and near death - they declare us fit enough and deny us the financial support we need to survive.
We either have to work ourselves into the ground or die from hunger. Or as Scrooge put it “if they’d rather die than work they better do it and decrease the surplus population”
And all of this is happening right in the middle of a cold snap when many disabled people are already struggling to heat their homes.
The Office for National Statistics data shows that 55% of disabled adults struggle to afford their energy bills. Meanwhile, polling from YouGov in November found that up to 15% of vulnerable people “self-disconnected” from their heating, meaning they were making the tough decision to top up their meters.
The ever-giving government has come to the rescue once again though don’t worry!
Many on benefits will receive the Cold Weather payment of a whopping £25 - though that’s only if it’s predicted to be under 0c for a full 7 days.
It’s also worth noting that this, of course, hasn’t gone up with the rate of inflation, despite energy prices soaring.
Oh but wait, you guessed it, there’s a catch. The Cold Weather Payment is only available to those on means-tested benefits, meaning if the government have deemed you fit for work you’re left to freeze to death - literally.
Many don’t even get the chance to apply for means-tested benefits like Employment Support Allowance or Universal Credit because they take into account the income from your whole household.
Those who don’t want us pesky disableds getting more than we deserve will cry “Well if you’ve got an income you shouldn’t get anything from us you scroungers” but they fail to take into account that the cap is lower than £20k for a whole household.
That’s without the fact that life is more expensive for disabled people, with Scope estimating that it costs disabled people £583 more a month than non-disabled people and that disabled people who do work earn £3,700 less a year than their non-disabled counterparts.
For all they bang on about supporting disabled people back into work, they really aren’t showing it.
However, any family would struggle to live on under 20k and benefits are supposed to be there to support that. Those who receive PIP which is supposed to as the DWP site says “help with extra living costs” don’t qualify for cold weather payments.
If being able to afford heating isn’t an extra living cost I’m not sure what is.
This year many disabled people will also receive an extra £900 to help with rising energy prices, though again if you’re on PIP you miss out and only get £150.
I’ve previously written about how this is a drop in the ocean for people who need constant heating during winter or electricity due to their conditions.
And while I said at the time it’s great that all benefits are being raised in line with inflation, this won’t come into effect until April - after we’ve already struggled through the hard winter and Christmas.
And then to add insult to injury just last week the DWP delayed millions of payments due to an error with no guidance as to when it would go in.
Instead of providing reassurance, the Minister for Disabled People Tom Pursglove set out his plan for his great Disability Action Plan, which again focuses more on forcing us into the workhouses than actually supporting us.
Pursglove told the House of Commons "I think it is fair to say that this Government has done an extraordinary amount to support those who are disabled"
Thanks for those words of comfort Ebeneezer.
This comes while many disabled people and carers are making the tough decision to cancel Christmas because it’s just too expensive with extra costs. No family should have to make that decision in a country governed by a man worth billions.
The thing is, I don’t think anyone’s ever told the government that A Christmas Carol is a cautionary tale, not a rule book.
Not forgetting that in the end Scrooge changes his ways and vows to show goodwill to all, not just those that bolster his already bulging bank account.
