Response to the government’s benefits cuts

Labour’s policies will kill people like us. 

Being disabled and mentally ill in Britain is exhausting. Every day, we are fighting for survival in a system that is rigged against us.

A system that is harming us.

A system that is killing us.

Politicians like Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting will never understand what this is like. And their actions over the past few days have proven that they not only don’t care about us - but that they intend to actively pursue policies that will make our lives even harder. 

Benefits such as PIP provide a lifeline to those of us who live with debilitating mental illness. For many, the small amounts we receive get spent on the costs of our medication or our therapy - things which are vital to enable us to live, and which *should* be provided freely and universally to all who need them. 

Wes Streeting claims that many young people like us are being “over diagnosed”. This is ignorant and insulting, when the truth is that so many of us have been stuck on years-long waiting lists or bounced around from service to service; denied access to any kind of appropriate treatment or even assessments for a diagnosis. For the Health Secretary to deny the reality of how mental illness impacts people’s daily life is dangerous.

Streeting’s comments also conveniently mask the reality of what’s driving the youth mental health crisis in the first place. Harmful economic policies are pushing people into poverty. Unchecked corporate profiteers - from big tech and fossil fuel giants, to landlords and property developers - are eroding our quality of life. These are the systemic issues that are making young people sick. But acknowledging this would require the government to put our health and lives before profit and wealth. Clearly, they have chosen their side. 

As disabled and mentally ill people, our value and worth is so much more than being "productive". We don’t exist to serve the economy. In fact, our economy should exist to serve us; to provide the rights and quality of life we all deserve. Instead we have an economy engineered to serve the interests of corporations and the rich elite, at the expense of our health and wellbeing. 

The government claims these cuts will save £5bn a year. Yet a 2% wealth tax on assets worth more than £10m would raise £24bn per year. So let’s be clear - this is not about making responsible “fiscal” choices. This about waging war on the most vulnerable working class communities. 

Numerous studies have linked the era of Conservative austerity from 2010 onwards to tens of thousands of excess deaths in the UK. Now, Labour are not just looking to uphold these deadly policies, but to go even further. The truth is that if their plans are implemented, more disabled people will die. Our government has chosen social murder, and this betrayal will not be forgiven or forgotten. 

These policies are designed to grind us down, shame and defeat us. But although we are scared about the future, we are more determined than ever to fight - and we know that the way we will get through this is by collectively organising. 

Mad Youth Organise sends our rage and solidarity to all those who will be impacted by these cruel policies. Together, we will call out this callous and cowardly government and fight to defend the rights and lives of disabled and mentally ill communities.