PIP cuts mean Labour have lost my vote - forever
- Viv Dawes
- Mar 19
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 26
I am angry, so very angry! I have voted for the UK Labour Party my whole life and have always been a proud socialist, but the Labour party have now stepped way over the line with their plans to overhaul the welfare system in ways that could directly affect autistic people. They are going further with their cuts than even George Osbourne did with the Tories and that sticks in my throat.
Enough is enough! There are many other sectors where they could look for the extra savings but like Tories Labour have decided to attack some of the MOST vulnerable people in our country. This is not just unfair, it is utterly abhorrent.
The plans are likely to make it far more difficult for autistic people to claim PIP. Autistic people can often struggle to find appropriate jobs, keep jobs or work full time- if at all, due to co occurring conditions and things like autistic burnout.
Let’s look at the issues that lie behind the many challenges there are for autistic people:
Stigma surrounding being autistic fuels the ableism that autistic people find everywhere - including in so many work environments. There can be constant micro aggressions such as "you don't look autistic", "we're all a bit autistic" and constantly being told that we are being unreasonable when we say somewhere is too noisy, too hot, too crowded, etc
The stigma leads to far more serious issues such as victimisation and bullying. Autistic people are more likely to experience victimisation, bullying, exploitation, mate crime and other abuse and in one study they found that 55-89% of autistic people have been victimised by someone they know
Most autistic people experience bullying. I have experienced bullying throughout my life in many of my jobs and even as a self employed person. Bullying can make work environments impossibly stressful for autistic people who are more susceptible to experiencing depression and rejection sensitivity dysphoria also.
Stigma leads to things like autistic people suppressing stimming and other ways of regulating themselves when they become dysregulated because of things like sensory overload and social hangovers - stimming is highly pathologised and we are often told to stop or people’s reactions lead to us masking our stims.
Many in society who don’t understand autism believe all manner of myths regarding what it means to be autistic (which are also part of the stigma that harms autistic people), such as that we can’t be in relationships, that we can’t feel empathy and that we cannot lie. The cannot lie myth is a good example to use because on the one hand we are told we cannot lie and yet in truth we are constantly accused of lying - and often accused of lying or exaggerating in order to get welfare benefits such as PIP. The fact is an autistic person can lie but autistic people are more concerned about fairness and things being equal, fair and just. I have been accused of lying throughout my life including by employers and by the welfare system for example when trying to claim PIP, the advisor told me that I didn’t appear anxious when I had explained my struggles with anxiety (apparently the she could tell over the phone that I wasn’t anxious).
Many don’t see how hard things can actually be for autistic people in so many environments because so many autistic people mask and suppress their distress. Distress that might be caused by sensory overload, too many changes that exhaust us, lack of flexibility and understanding that an autistic person may need more breaks and rest time, expectations by others to keep changing focus and be able to filter out distractions, not enough time for processing thoughts and feelings and so many other issues. And if we do express our distress (often because we have reached crisis and no longer have the energy to internalise and mask it) we often experience victimisation; our distress seen as ‘being over the top’, ‘aggressive’, ‘mental instability’ and even that we are dangerous to others (if for example we experience a meltdown in public). Meltdowns can also lead to us losing our jobs and I know many autistic people who have lost jobs because they experienced a meltdown.
Masking is a survival mechanism that kicks in because so many environments are not in sync with autistic people’s differences and needs - our sensory needs, our communication needs, our social needs, our executive functioning needs etc. The lack of understanding and lack of empathy that autistic people can experience from others so often makes many work environments toxic and exhausting.
Autistic burnout https://www.autisticadvocate.co.uk/autistic-burnout I don’t know a single autistic person who doesn’t find this world completely exhausting and who hasn’t burnt out, usually many times throughout their life. Autistic burnout is real - we are not lying when we tell you we are exhausted, that every cell in our body is tired and that just getting out of bed when we are burnt out is a Herculean task. Autistic burnout https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.3129?domain=p2p_domain&token=ACC5KVBIASFBXVCUPC9I is essentially the result of an autistic person living unsustainably (by no fault of our own). When we spend prolonged periods of time hiding our true nature, suppressing distress and often experiencing trauma responses due to surviving in environments that are so often not in sync with our needs and far more suited to neurotypical people’s brains - we get exhausted and experience burnout. We too often end up pushing ourselves beyond our capacity, exhausted by social environments that cause social hangovers. Social environments can be too demanding due to neurotypical expectations, that mean autistic people (who have a naturally occurring brain difference) are expected to adjust and to shape shift, like square pegs forced into round holes, in order to conform and comply with ways of being that are not natural to us. We are expected to change, adjust, be resilient, focus, work at a pace that doesn’t suit the way we process things - in environments that are actually harming us! The harm might be because of sensory overload which can lead to unbelievable levels of distress, that we may hide (because for example when we end up almost in the foetal position with our hands over our ears because a sudden loud noise is so distressing and people will likely think we are very odd, weird and laugh or even poke fun, rather than having compassion and understanding). The harm can be caused by the constant micro aggressions we experience that are exhausting: “ You don’t look autistic’, “We’re all a bit autistic anyway”, “It’s not too loud/quiet/cold/hot/ in here”, “Stop using autism as an excuse”, “How can you be autistic when you can give eye contact, are married and have children”. The harm might be because the fact is that prolonged masking leads to significant damage to an autistic person’s identity, mental and physical health (we have been found to have significantly higher levels of cortisol in our bloodstreams a lot of the time, due to higher anxiety and stress caused by environmental factors and in turn this leads to very high levels of heart disease, diabetes, etc). Masking also uses up a lot of our capacity and exhausts us, leaving no resources for other things.
Autistic people are very likely to have co occurring conditions such as Elhers Danos Syndrome, Hypermobility, PoTs, IBS, Fibromyalgia, gut related conditions, etc. These conditions also cause fatigue and make working almost impossible for many. But it is often very hard to get a diagnosis of many of the co occurrences we experience, as we are often not believed (back to the accusations of lying again!) and our experiences dismissed due to stigma, the lack of understanding and often a lack of empathy.
ADHD. A very large percentage of autistic people are also ADHD and have significant needs around executive functioning, often needing medication to be able to work (many are however undiagnosed and unable to get meds that would actually make their lives much better). Being autistic and ADHD also makes us far more likely to experience mental health struggles, addiction, etc due for example to our emotional regulation differences and racing intrusive thoughts, etc.
Mental health - a very high percentage of autistic people have co occurring mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, OCD etc. We are also more likely to experience issues relating to food and often experience sleep deprivation. These cuts will increase the mental health struggles of autistic people and lead to increased isolation and loneliness. The support we are often offered for our mental health is often unsuitable and not appropriately adjusted, with many therapists not understanding our emotional, sensory, executive functioning and other differences.
Another reason why these cuts will not just harm but could actually lead to increased deaths is because of things like domestic violence. The number of autistic women (and people assigned female at birth) who experience domestic violence is shocking. Nine out of ten autistic women (and people AFAB) have experienced domestic violence! https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.852203/full
Taking away or denying PIP to autistic people could mean they lose things like their car and independence and this can be a lifeline (travelling on public transport can be impossible for many autistic people due to their sensory needs, etc) for a woman experiencing domestic violence. It could for many make escaping potentially impossible and more could die at the hands of their abuser.
It’s very hard for people to understand the need many autistic people, (especially those autistic people with a PDA profile), have for autonomy. Autonomy is like oxygen for me. In work environments where I had no autonomy I often clashed with employers and was seen as rude and argumentative. I was in fact distressed and very anxious. Our distress as autistic people might lead to meltdowns and these again are misunderstood and misinterpreted. Meltdowns can lead to an autistic person being arrested and restrained and even ending up sectioned or in prison. And yet meltdowns are a fight, flight response of the nervous system due to fear, stress, anxiety. The autistic person is terrified and due to ignorance of how to help and support an autistic person in a meltdown many of us end up treated as though we are the threat.
For many autistic people PIP helps us to stay in work and so the government is cutting off their nose to spite their face- because they will see unemployment figures go up (and less taxes). PIP pays for the costs towards mobility for many autistic people such as running a car for example- as many find public transport too stressful. It can also pay for many of the things an autistic person might need to help with executive functioning and sensory challenges, etc. These cuts will mean many will loose cars, their independence, therapeutic supports and so many other things. This means they will have to use other money that usually pays for rent, food and heating and so many more autistic people may become homeless, many will become sick, relapse into addiction because of stress and many more will die by suicide.
Most autistic people also find employers unwilling to make adjustments and accommodations, even though they are legally required to make reasonable adjustments. As so many autistic people fawn (also a trauma response) they may struggle to self advocate and speak out against unfairness, inequality and the lack of accommodations. They may also struggle to speak up about bullying and other abuses that make the environment impossible for them. Employers also need to think about the interview process and how this might discriminate against neurodivergent people. Many neurodivergent people can find interviews very challenging, with expectations for the individual to present in neurotypically (which is not natural for a neurodivergent person). There can be a lot of expectations to for example give direct eye contact, remember lots of information, stay fully focussed and ask questions - all with little time and space to consider answers. Many neurodivergent people need employers to think outside the box when it comes to interviewing for jobs.
These cuts are immoral and are a sign that like so many previous governments they do not understand the challenges of autistic and other disabled people and actually don’t care. These cuts will lead to far more suffering and even deaths- more autistic people will die as a result of the government picking on some of THE most vulnerable in society. Shame on you Labour.
Below is a file that you can download (to use for example in evidence to send to your MP regarding the changes), regarding evidence around issues such as stigma, reasonable adjustments in workplaces, burnout, triple empathy, health barriers, etc for autistic people.
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