Disabled caller worries disability allowance will be Tories' next target under guise of tackling 'economically inactive'

9 August 2023, 13:21 | Updated: 9 August 2023, 13:46

Disabled caller is worried long-term disability allowance is going to be the Tories' next target

By Grace Parsons

This disabled caller is concerned that the long-term disability allowance will be the next "convenient whipping boy" for the Tories to target.

Following on from comments made by Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson regarding migrants, James O'Brien asked listeners "how nasty" can the Conservative Party get.

Ellie in Kilburn told James: "As a person living with disability, I can see that we're going to be the next kicking... I've seen how the changes have come about."

She recalled how former Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith changed Disability Living Allowance into Personal Independence Payment. In 2016, Mr Duncan Smith imposed plans to cut disability support by £1.2 billion.

Ellie labelled the move "performative cruelty" that went "completely under the radar".

In an effort to adjust to further cuts made by the Conservatives, Ellie revealed to James: "I have a bath once a week if I'm lucky and I haven't used the heating in the past ten years."

READ MORE: Bibby Stockholm is 'a death trap', warns fire safety expert as first 15 migrants board controversial barge

Ellie went on: "It's short-term performative cruelty, so they can wave a thing about saying we've got yay many people off disability benefits.

"75% of the people who are taken off disability benefits who have the courage, the stamina, and the support to go for a reassessment, through a tribunal, they get their benefits back and more.

"People die in the process because they're so distressed, they don't have support, they don't have the mental capacity to answer a letter within the time period so they're sanctioned."

READ MORE: 'People are starving, people aren't eating, kids are going hungry', says this emotional Shelagh Fogarty caller

Ellie expressed her fears: "It's really very depressing that this has gone under the radar and nobody in the media wants to talk about it... it's very frightening and I think this is where they're going to put their target next."

"My world is just getting smaller and smaller with this government... we live behind closed doors a lot of us."

READ MORE: James O'Brien scolds Tory MPs for 'sub-National Front rhetoric' and their claims that migrants are enjoying 4* hotels

More James O'Brien

See more More James O'Brien

Sacked borders watchdog David Neal said the Home Office is 'dysfunctional' and needs reform.

'It goes to the very top': Sacked border watchdog slams Home Office and calls for reform after Cleverly row

Exclusive
Shahd Waleed is trying to leave Rafah with her parents and enter Egypt

'They want us to experience pain': Young woman trapped in Rafah with her parents tells of terror as Israel invasion looms

Sir Keir Starmer has defended comments he made about Margaret Thatcher earlier this month.

Starmer defends Thatcher comments as he says he ‘completely disagrees’ with former prime minister’s politics

A caller to James O’Brien’s programme has shared footage of the extraordinary destruction done to his newly purchased property just outside of Durham.

Property investor's shock at 'unexplainable level of damage' he discovered after buying new home

Exclusive
James Cleverly replaced Suella Braverman as home secretary on Monday

'I've spent more time with James Cleverly this week than with Suella Braverman in the last year', Sadiq Khan tells LBC

James O'Brien discusses Suella Braverman's 'destructionist' leadership style with a caller

'She's a destructionist': James O'Brien caller claims Suella Braverman governs like 'a five-year-old'

James O'Brien

'She definitely has something on him': Caller and James O'Brien debate why the PM hasn't sacked Suella Braverman yet

'A complete reset of the top' is needed says caller.

'We're being let down': There is a 'complete disconnection' between parliamentary and local Conservatives says caller

James O'Brien

'It's essential that people are able to protest peacefully against war', says James O'Brien

James O'Brien

Rishi Sunak 'almost physically moves away' from Suella Braverman in House of Commons debate, says James O'Brien

James O'Brien

'Suella Braverman succeeded - she's caused hate', claims caller after Home Secretary criticises pro-Palestine marches

'A fish rots from the head': James O'Brien caller reacts to claims of misogyny in Downing Street during Covid Inquiry

'A fish rots from the head': James O'Brien caller reacts to claims of misogyny in Downing Street during Covid Inquiry

'Ludicrous, bogus, nonsense': James O'Brien is astounded by Boris Johnson 'laughing at Italy' during the pandemic

'Ludicrous, bogus, nonsense': James O'Brien is astounded by Boris Johnson 'laughing at Italy' during the pandemic

James O'Brien on Dagestan

'It's a hatred as old as religion itself': James O'Brien analyses escalating anti-Semitism after Muslim crowd storms Dagestan airport

Carol Vorderman shocked about UK Poverty

'One million children are living in destitution': Carol Vorderman struggles to comprehend stark wealth inequality in the UK

Wes Streeting on dentistry

Wes Streeting invites the government to steal Labour's policy to solve 'dickensian' NHS dentist crisis

James O'Brien

'I think they're the loneliest voters in Britain', James O'Brien claims after Tories' double by-election defeat

JOB and caller Andy

Biden's visit to Israel is to show that the US stands 'unequivocally' with Israel says James O'Brien caller

JOB and Usman

Israel's current response will only 'strengthen' Hamas by rearing Gazans who seek revenge warns this James O'Brien caller

JOB on deaths in conflict

James O'Brien unpacks the 'controversial' feeling of being 'equally devastated' by Palestinian and Israeli deaths

JOB on starmer speech

Keir Starmer is using 'working class as the opposite of having a sense of entitlement', notes James O'Brien

JOB on HS2 promises

James O'Brien criticises Rishi Sunak's watering down of 'illustrative' Network North projects funded by HS2 cut

Sadiq Khan and James O'Brien

Sadiq Khan declares there is 'no place for anti-Semitism' in London as kosher restaurant in Golders Green attacked

James O'Brien on the challenge HS2 scrappage poses to Labour.

‘How much can Rishi Sunak knock down before Keir Starmer becomes Prime Minister?, asks James O’Brien

James O'Brien

Rishi Sunak is like an 'incontinent cat': James O'Brien slams Tories ahead of PM's Party Conference speech

JoB and Jeremy Hunt

Navy veteran deeply hurt by Jeremy Hunt's plans to clamp down on benefit claimants

James O'Brien on Tory tactics in the upcoming election.

Tories desperately seeking wedge issues is the 'only way' they will retain power in 2024, says James O'Brien

James and caller Mervin on knife crime

'I'd prefer you to go to jail than die': James O'Brien is left aghast by this caller's father's stance on knife possession

James O'Brien

James O'Brien ridicules those prioritising Labour's private school VAT plans over the cost of living crisis

James O'Brien

'I mean this is a novel': James O'Brien hears why this caller blames Labour for HS2 problems

James O'Brien

James O'Brien takes aim at uninformed 'idiots' criticising Keir Starmer for not wanting to diverge from EU rules

JOB on Rishi Sunak Bins

Rishi 'seven-bin' Sunak is lifting bans that 'don't exist', asserts James O'Brien