Benefits Bonanza Day?

It delivers a pitifully low pension by international standards, and even for that people are soon going to have to wait until beyond average male life expectancy, but the triple lock does at least put money in the pockets of the people who spent it, thereby injecting it into the consumer economy, and thus employing the young.

The same is true of the sickness and disability benefits that have in fact been cut to what we all know will be a widely fatal extent, despite the lie that Keir Starmer had "backed down" on such cuts, a lie to rank with Starmer's having in any way kept Britain out of the war with Iran (and notice that we can afford that), with his having been state secondary educated, with his heading "the most working-class Cabinet ever",  with his having been "a human rights lawyer" rather than a ruthless securocrat even by the standards of a Director of Public Prosecutions, and with his graciously and heroically having lifted the two-child benefit cap when in fact he had withdrawn the whip from seven Labour MPs because they had voted for nothing more than such an amendment to the Humble Address, and when that amendment had been defeated, then they had voted with the Government.

37 per cent of people on Universal Credit are in work, including 59 per cent of those who will benefit from the lifting of the two-child cap, so the problem is low pay. Most of the rest are medically unable to work, an extremely difficult status to attain. If you doubt that, then try it. PIP, on the other hand, is an in-work benefit. You do not get it for having a specific condition, but for how your conditions affect your life. You most certainly cannot self-certify onto it. Again, try it. By giving money to people who spent it, PIP stimulates our consumer economy, as sickness and disability benefits in general do, as the triple lock does, and as the lifting of the two-child benefit cap will, all while declaring the social and cultural value of the direct beneficiaries.

There is a case for Motability to buy only vehicles manufactured in the United Kingdom, but show me a PIP claimant who had been bought a BMW or a Mercedes on Motability. And how many more times? You may have constipation, or tennis elbow, or whatever, while also on Motability, and that would be listed among your conditions on the paperwork. But nothing like that could be grounds for the award. The cost of leasing your vehicle is deducted from your PIP, costing the State not one penny piece more than you would in any case have received. If you did put that towards a "premium" car, then you yourself would have to pay the difference. For a vehicle that you still would not own. Without Motability, far fewer physically disabled people would be able to work. Motability buys, and then owns, one in five new cars purchased in this country, which also translates into a lot of people's jobs. Some of those people are on PIP. Since PIP is an in-work benefit.