What is the main message of Crippled?

The main message of Crippled is a powerful critique of the UK's disability welfare system and a call for change.

How long does it take to read Crippled?

The reading time for Crippled varies depending on the reader's speed, but it typically takes several hours. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Is Crippled a good book? Is it worth reading?

Crippled is an eye-opening book that sheds light on the experiences of disabled people and challenges societal norms. A must-read for all.

Who is the author of Crippled?

The author of Crippled is Frances Ryan.

Crippled Summary of Key Ideas and Review

Name: Crippled
Rating: 4.4 (18 reviews)
Author: Frances Ryan

Introduction

What’s in it for me? Learn about the devastating impact of austerity on Britain’s disabled population.

The United Kingdom’s Conservative-led coalition government of 2010, headed by David Cameron, is well known for having introduced a program of austerity measures. But not everyone realizes exactly what effects the austerity program has had thanks to its harsh cuts to public services. Frequently, the people most affected by austerity have been those who need government support most of all – and crucially, this includes disabled people.

Through hard-hitting statistics and case studies, these blinks shine a light on the impact that austerity has had on the 12 million Britons with disabilities. Cuts to social benefit payments, cruel penalties for anyone found to have violated procedural rules, and slashed budgets for local services have all added up to a society in which some disabled people struggle to get a job, pay their heating bills, or even leave their home.

In these blinks, you'll learn

how austerity is forcing disabled people into poverty and dependence;
the especially devastating impact that austerity has had on disabled women and children; and
why we need to change our attitudes regarding disabled people – now.

Key idea 1 of 8

The British government's austerity program has been catastrophic for disabled people.

Britain is one of the world’s richest countries and, historically speaking, its welfare system was pioneering. Yet in 2017, the United Nations declared that disabled people in Britain faced a “human catastrophe.” So what happened? Well, for starters, David Cameron’s Conservative Party took charge of a coalition government in 2010.

When Cameron spoke as prime minister at the opening of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, he called the United Kingdom “a trailblazer for disability rights.” But ironically, that was just when his government’s austerity policies were coming into effect.

Austerity was officially the government’s response to the global financial crash of 2008. The message of austerity was that a period of lower public spending was necessary to balance the books in the wake of the economic crisis.

In reality, the choice to cut back on the welfare budget seems to have been carefully calculated. It reversed decades of progress in disability rights and forced many disabled people into desperate situations. Bankers were to blame for the crash, but it was people with disabilities who got punished for it.

Individual case studies throw this trend into a particularly glaring light. Jimbob, a 68-year-old resident of Ayrshire in Scotland, started work when he was young – first in a garage, later as an engineer. But in recent years, his multiple disabling health issues, including chronic lung disease and bone disease, mean that he can’t work anymore.

He lost his disability benefits in 2013 and now doesn’t have enough money to heat his concrete, two-bedroom apartment. To keep costs down, he effectively lives in a single room so that he doesn’t have to heat the others. He has to plan trips to the bathroom by turning on the heating in the hallway 15 minutes beforehand, so the apartment isn’t ice cold. He even tried sleeping in a tent to cut heating costs even further.

Jimbob’s situation brings home the reality of what Cameron’s cuts have entailed. Under austerity, disabled people faced nine times more cuts than an average British citizen, according to 2013 research by the Centre for Welfare Reform – and those with the severest disabilities faced 19 times more.

It’s hardly surprising that these cuts have left many disabled people destitute. But what’s particularly shocking is that, as the next blink shows, the cuts have been made under a false pretext: that disabled people were trying to take advantage of the system.

Key idea 2 of 8

Austerity is forcing British disabled people into poverty.

At the heart of the new austerity program was a single initiative: huge cuts to the United Kingdom’s social welfare system. Since 2010, £28 billion of these cuts have come from the income of people with disabilities.

To justify this, the government began depicting benefit recipients as “scroungers” exploiting a generous system, maintaining that the cuts targeted only the “bogus” claimants, as minister Esther McVey called them. It wasn’t true, though: The estimated fraud level in claims for the Disability Living Allowance was just 0.5 percent. Yet the government’s new welfare benefit, the Personal Independence Payment, required some three million people claiming disability benefits to reapply – and by December 2017, almost half of them had lost at least part of their payments simply because the new requirements were extremely harsh.

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Key idea 3 of 8

Disabled people face huge obstacles when looking for and maintaining jobs.

One of the biggest obstacles that disabled people have to deal with is stereotypes. Two contradictory stereotypes are especially pernicious: on the one hand, disabled people are scroungers, taking money without working for it, while on the other hand, they’re pitiable, useless, and dependent. This vindictive paradox is starkly apparent when it comes to employment.

The British government has been eager to apply sanctions to benefit claimants, with particularly tough measures introduced in December 2012. If claimants do anything wrong – say, miss an appointment at the job center – they can lose benefits for up to three years. But the sanctions are frequently misapplied: one man with epilepsy lost his benefits after missing a meeting because he had multiple seizures and was in the hospital.

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Key idea 4 of 8

Cuts to wheelchair provision and social care services rob disabled people of independence.

What does it mean to be independent? For many, it’s being able to go where you want, when you want. For 53-year-old Philomena, who has multiple chronic illnesses, this is just the kind of independence that she lacks. Philomena isn’t able to walk unaided, and the exertion of going out can cause her days of pain. She sometimes goes months without leaving the house.

A single tool would make all the difference: a wheelchair. For those who need them, wheelchairs provide freedom, and not having one can mean effectively being imprisoned at home.

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Key idea 5 of 8

There is a dire lack of accessible housing in the United Kingdom, and this is costing disabled people dearly.

Home. It’s supposed to be a place of rest and comfort. For disabled people, however, it can be a struggle not just to find a home but to survive in the one that’s provided; an unsuitable home can exacerbate their conditions or even create entirely new problems.

As the Equality and Human Rights Commission puts it, there is a “chronic shortage” of suitable homes for disabled people in Britain. Some 93 percent of all housing in England is inaccessible to disabled people.

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Key idea 6 of 8

Disabled women face a raft of particular challenges.

You don’t have to look far to see evidence of sexism in society, from inadequate support for women’s health care to gender-based disparities in pay. Discrimination against women is nowhere more evident than in the way austerity has impacted women with disabilities.

Disabled single mothers, for example, are at a particular disadvantage when it comes to benefit cuts, and the problem is only growing. According to the UK Women’s Budget Group, they’ll have lost over a quarter of their yearly income to cuts by 2021 – that’s up to £7,000 per year.

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Key idea 7 of 8

Disabled children are being denied the life chances their non-disabled peers enjoy.

It wasn’t so long ago that disabled children were shut off from society altogether, sent to segregated schools that rarely afforded them the same opportunities that other children had. These days they’re encouraged to dream of living the same kind of independent lives their non-disabled peers lead.

Unfortunately, they’re not provided with the support they need to make that happen.

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Key idea 8 of 8

Society is in danger of losing its humanity. It’s time for change.

By the early 2020s, social welfare will have been cut to the tune of £35 billion per year. At the same time, the Treasury will be saving £47 billion because of tax cuts by 2021–22, so clearly benefit cuts have been a question of choice, not necessity. Yet it’s a choice the public has bought into.

There’s been an increase in hate crimes against disabled people in recent years, a disturbing trend that reflects a key issue. The problem isn’t just that society isn’t providing for disabled people: It’s that people don’t seem to mind this happening.

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