Christina McKelvie argues that a new social security system must be progressive - where the Westminster one is brutal
The recent Bafta awards saw I, Daniel Blake take home the prize for Outstanding British Film.
It’s a painfully real-life film that has already profoundly moved many people – though not any members of PM Theresa May’s cabinet.
Ken Loach’s film took its inspiration from real-life recordings made here in Scotland.
When accepting the Bafta, Loach said: “In our country, the most vulnerable and poorest people are treated by this (Conservative) government with a callous brutality that is disgraceful."
So it shouldn’t surprise us that, as had been revealed in TFN, the report from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities brings extra unremitting evidence that the Tories’ unrelenting austerity agenda has "gravely or systematically" violated the human rights of disabled people.
In their pursuit of cuts and austerity, the Tories have left a trail of anguish and despair
Christina McKelvie MSP
Human rights don’t seem to sit very high up the Westminster agenda. The race to opt out of the EU law that protects those rights is another means of destroying the guarantees we are progressively losing.
With that same “callous brutality” that Loach speaks of the Conservative government continues to flaunt its international – and its moral - obligation to uphold the rights of disabled people. In their unrelenting pursuit of cuts, austerity and so-called reform, the Tories have left a trail of anguish and despair.
Make no mistake, people have died because of Tory welfare reforms. Disabled people have committed suicide, damaged their mental health, lost their homes and lost their dignity under pressure from a government determined to progress an austerity agenda that hits the neediest hardest.
The Scottish Government has been consistent in its opposition to Conservative government policies on social care. It opposes the punitive bedroom tax, the scrapping of the Independent Living Fund, the determination to get rid of DLA and ESA in favour of some kind of universal benefit that looks to be anything but “universal”.
At its core, the Scottish Government is determined to introduce a social security system that meets people’s genuine needs; treats them with dignity, respect and compassion and sheds that judgemental attitude of disapproval so embedded in Conservative government welfare reforms. Those who use the Scottish social security system will neither be customers nor service users – they will be people.
Our new powers over welfare are limited – there’s no denying that. It’s frustrating that while we can change some aspects of Tory welfare reform, we can’t change it all.
What we can change is the constant assessments disabled people face in just to maintain their benefits. This undignified, punitive process means a stranger has the power to confirm or deny your payment. A throwback to a draconian state, where those who need help must somehow prove their sickness not just once but repeatedly.
I am proud to work with MND Scotland and its Let’s Get Benefits Right campaign. That MND sufferers, and others with life-long debilitating illnesses, will no longer face repeated reassessments to maintain their entitlement.
The Scottish Social Security System has the potential to be different; the potential to be progressive and bold.
Christina McKelvie is MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
