Cutting Disability Benefits Is Not Fair

Even as the work of slash and slaughter went on at Westminster, the sun was shining on the executioners. I don’t think George Osborne could have thought in his wildest dreams that he would be able to announce a budget as drastic and grim as this – and get such a warm, approving reaction from the chattering classes.

It shows the absolute triumph of the softening-up process before the bad news, and perhaps reflects the fact that even with pre-legislated Labour tax rises, the better off get off quite lightly. Capital gains tax has not gone up nearly as much as predicted; and most of the top-rate taxpayers will barely notice higher VAT. “We’re all in this together” – but some are in it only up to their ankles, others to their necks.

For the really bad news will be felt far away from Westminster green, and the parts of London where those who welcomed the budget in front of the TV cameras live. It will come quietly and in dark corners, as meals-on-wheels services are cut; lower-income families adjust to more expensive bills and plenty of hardworking public sector employees lose their jobs, at the same time as having to pay more for their pensions.

One thing brought it home to me more than anything else. The squeeze on people claiming disability living allowance is predicted to save the government £1.4bn by 2015. This is the weekly allowance that can be claimed by people so physically or mentally disabled they cannot wash or dress themselves; can’t eat unaided or use the toilet independently. It helps them pay for a helper. Just last December, Andrew Lansley, the new health secretary, launched a Commons motion to defend DLA when the Labour government was thinking about abolishing it to pay for a new social care system. Now a Conservative chancellor cheerfully announces a big cut in the DLA budget, with no improvement at all in the social care system. Surely, hitting the disabled and the elderly is not what constitutes “fair”.

Yes, yes, I know there are vague promises of tougher times for bankers, and targeted regional help. But the City was jubilant about the budget and for good reason. I’m not saying that tough decisions didn’t have to be taken, though I think there’s a good chance these cuts will drive the economy into recession. But if you’re wondering why there seems to be a fairly positive reaction in the media, it’s because few of the elderly or the disabled can find a voice there.