DWP overhaul from Reform is the same old shit

Robert Jenrick has announced Reform UK’s policies on how it would run the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP):

But all of his terrible policies are already happening, or in the process of happening, under Labour.

Our politicians seem to be pretty good at coming up with new ways to screw over disabled people, but Jenrick wasn’t even smart enough to think of his own.

Jenrick recycling policies for the DWP

Jenrick is missing the Tories that badly that they’ve given him a bullshit Shadow Chancellor label. Of course, he is not the Shadow Chancellor, as he is not a Tory.

He’s literally recycling shitty policies. It’s the equivalent of Alibaba ripping off a Temu phone case.

Was he taking notes at the Tory conference in October?

Stoking division

Jenrick’s policies for how to run the DWP are bullshit – but more importantly, they are already happening.

During the Autumn Statement back in November, Rachel Reeves announced that the DWP would:

Improve operations by increasing face-to-face assessments, increasing WCA reassessment capability, and PIP award review changes, starting from April 2026.

Then, in December, the DWP issued a press release stating that it would increase face-to-face assessments. It said PIP face-to-face assessments would increase from 6% to 30%, while work capability assessments (WCA) would increase from 13% to 30%.

Do your research, Jenrick

Jenrick is also forgetting that even to claim benefits for a mental health or neurodivergent condition via the DWP, you already need a diagnosis.

Of course, this follows Wes Streeting’s attempts to prove that conditions such as ADHD don’t exist. For a long time now, Streeting has been trying to push the ‘overdiagnosis‘ narrative, because then he would be able to change the criteria to claim benefits for the condition.

Jenrick has clearly never completed a PIP application form.

And as the Canary has previously reported more times than I can count, the mainstream media routinely exaggerates PIP fraud rates to fit the narrative of the people in power.

The actual fraud rate for PIP is 0.4%. That’s practically non-existent.

Meanwhile, the government effectively lets rich people off over £180bn in tax every year. I guess the government can’t be arsed to chase people who aren’t disabled.

More lies

Jenrick also mentioned cutting luxury cars from the Motability scheme. Again, already done, pal.

As the Canary previously reported:

Motability currently helps around 860,000 people get around with a greater degree of independence. It’s funded primarily through the Motability Endowment Trust and the exchange of individuals’ mobility allowance payments, as part of the DWP’s Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

The mainstream media and most of our politicians would love for you to believe the DWP is using Motability to just give free cars to people with ADHD. However, the reality is far different. Many disabled people cannot drive cars that are not adapted specifically for their disability.

Additionally, many of these so-called ‘luxury’ cars are in fact just bigger cars, which disabled people need in order to transport equipment such as wheelchairs.

Typical right-wing muppet

Jenrick does not have an ounce of originality in his bones. Or an ounce of compassion. But why are we surprised when, like the majority of our MPs, he went to private school, then Cambridge, and became a Tory MP at 28? He is a typical right-wing muppet, with no real work or life experience.

It feels like the world is falling apart, and the people in power, and those who want to be in power, care more about spending so much time victimising disabled people than holding powerful child rapists to account, or saving the planet, or ending the multiple genocides that are going on right now, or literally any other useful contribution to society.

So, as Ben put it so nicely:

Featured image via HG