On Tuesday the welfare secretary, Liz Kendall, set out her plans to save £5bn from the government’s welfare bill. The current situation is unsustainable, the government says. With the numbers of people claiming disability benefits soaring, it was time for a fairer system, she said.
For many disabled people, who have felt the effects of successive governments’ attempts to reform the welfare system, it was a stressful moment. The disability campaigner, musician and actor Mik Scarlet tells Helen Pidd about the reality of navigating the benefits system, and why he worries about the increasing nastiness of the conversation around benefits and disability.
Patrick Butler, the Guardian’s social policy editor, has been looking at Labour’s new proposals. He explains what has changed and why the reaction of charities and Labour backbenchers to the changes has been so strong.
