Ben Baker
@BenBaker3000
Church of England priest & book lover living with chronic illnesses. #MECFS #pwME 🏳️⚧️
Chloe Kelly's winning penalty against Spain was clocked at 110km/h - faster than the most powerful shot in the men's Premier League last season - scored by Alexander Isak 🚀
It's so sad that it's considered radical to say that even disabled people who are unable to work should still have nice things. A coffee every once in a while, a nice dinner, a fun trip. Just because you're unable to contribute to capitalism doesn't mean you should suffer.
The Observer article has really upset me. I nursed my Mum through the horrors of corticobasal disease & I knew from the outset the story in #TheSaltPath couldn't be true. But it will have given people false hope, all in pursuit of money. It's both unkind and unscrupulous.
What upsets me most about The Salt Path being false is that it reinforced the view in society that even when terminally ill it’s possible to walk hundreds of miles. It fed into how politicians and DWP assessors view illness & capability - and it’s not true observer.co.uk/news/national/…
I feel really sorry for Rachel Reeves crying in #pmqs AND I’m sure that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of disabled people will have cried in despair and fear over the last few months about losing the money we rely on to live. #TakingthePIP
Losing the Health Element of UC will make my life unsustainable. I need to start making plans NOW. I am deeply deeply ashamed to have voted Labour. I will not be doing so again if I am around at the next election.
The legal definition of #disability in the #EqualityAct 2010 covers fluctuating conditions and the cumulative impact of multiple impairments. The #WelfareBill is breaching this by limiting PIP eligibility via 4-point score on one descriptor and the Severe Condition Criteria in UC
Disability benefit cuts violate human rights even with concessions, MPs warned ahead of vote bigissue.com/news/social-ju…
Let me be clear: this is actively traumatic for disabled people. We’re treated as economic bodies—worth less if we can’t work—and not even consulted. It’s retraumatising after years of this, worse because it’s Labour, and worse still because of the scale of cuts. #TakingThePIP
Imagine watching someone you love collapse under this benefits system. It is that stressful. Now imagine politicians voting to make it harsher, aware this is not a one-off tragedy. That’s exactly what’s happening. At least 50 MPs are voting against cuts. Join them. #TakingThePIP
I wish politicians and journalists knew the human cost of this. My partner had a stroke during a PIP assessment 4 years ago. It ruined her life and mine. She spent every day since waiting for the post. She died on Thursday at 58 years old. I despise 'them'.
I’ve worked a lot on the welfare reform bill in recent months - in press, radio, and podcasts - but today’s column is everything I need to say:
When a disabled person dies by suicide, and a coroner links it to the DWP, headlines urge readers to call the Samaritans. But where’s the call for a welfare system that doesn’t drive people to despair in the first place?
WATCH: What cutting disability social security #PIP really means - from someone who actually gets it
In 2016 @AngelaRayner attacked the Tories for cutting disabled people's benefits by £3,000 a year. Now she's in power she wants to cut them by £4,500 to £12,000. 🙃 #TakingThePIP
If this vote was pulled, I'm not exaggerating when I say it would be up there with one or the best days of my life. I can't communicate strongly enough how catastrophic and wide reaching these cuts are. They would cause multi-generational damage.
First it was one by one, now Times reports a dozen junior Ministers and bag carriers on the first rungs of a government career may be willing to jump off over plan to cut £4.8bn from disabled people bit.ly/3SYE2yr
Absolutely terrified about my future now under @UKLabour. As a disabled mother of a disabled child you have just thrown us both on the scrap heap. Horrific to realize your own government doesn't believe you have any basic human rights. #DisabilityRights
The disability benefit cuts being introduced today would have made George Osborne blush. We cannot underestimate their human and political cost. The public will not forgive us if we remove support from those most in need of it.
The “welfare reform bill” is out and let’s be clear: this is not reform - it is devastating cuts. Disabled people will be made poorer, sicker, and more isolated as a result. That it is a Labour government causing this misery will be a mark of shame on the party for years to come.
Disabled people are worthy of living regardless of if they can work or not.