Thursday, 16 October 2014
The UK Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, declared Lord Freud's comments, revealed yesterday, about "disabled" people as "deeply distressing" and "offensive". The Welfare Reform Minister suggested that "disabled" people might not be worth the minimum wage.
Those being critical of Lord Freud are being unfair they've sort of labeled the very notion as disgusting when it does have merit. It's the type of idea that needs exploring.
I'm by no measure a conservative nor am I a liberal. My political ideology is closer to the sort of bubbles Russell Brand chats about on The Trews...
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I don't speak for all "disabled" people. However, I've experienced how difficult it is to find employment as a someone who uses a wheelchair. I also recognise that being unemployed does make you feel sort of useless, there is time you can do other things but at the end of the day, week, month, year, you've made no contribution to society. Often it's not because it's desirable but because "disabled" people appear unemployable.
I don't know why there is such fuss about this idea. It's not the best way of doing it and taken out of context (of the discussion) it can come across as devaluing "disabled" people and being a little insulting. However, the premise I agree with. Maybe they could offer tax breaks to companies that employ x% of "disabled" people. Which would do the same thing.
EG: Incentivise employers to employ "disabled" people and reduce the welfare bills.
Paying less (Reducing minimum wage) and topping up incomes with welfare will do the same thing. Though as we now know that sort of move will just create headlines.
That was probably the plan.
I lost all the comments. They should still be on g+. It's just that now the comments aren't tied to Google!
ReplyDeleteI remember this came up before and I had a big debate about it with people on a forum, being (I'm pretty sure) the only disabled one. I kind of had the same opinion as you. I don't think it's so much that we deserve less, but that in time when able-bodied people can barely find work there is little incentive for employers to employ disabled people. 'Disabled people' is a very broad term and some have more uhm... baggage for an employer to take on than others. They need all the help they can get. But the flip side of this is how do disabled people live on less than the minimum wage? Would they still get benefits to make up for it from the government? I have a feeling even if the government thought it wasn't discriminatory that they wouldn't want to have to fit the cost for regulating it. :/
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