Benefits shouldn't pay below the poverty line.

Benefits shouldn't pay below the poverty line.

Benefits shouldn't pay below the poverty line.

People who are out of work or can't work shouldn't be forced to live in poverty!
I know we're not the only group affected, but right now I'm especially thinking about how many disabled folks - many of whom have extra things to pay for compared to non-disabled folks due to the #HiddenCostsOfDisability - are forced to live in poverty just because we can't work.
(Or because the working world is generally so thoroughly inaccessible and ableist to the core that even disabled people who are able to work are routinely shut out of the working world.)
It's really weird to me how rarely I see leftists talking about this. Maybe people have been and I just happen to have not seen it, but...idk, it feels like benefits should be a pretty big focus for the left given all the issues with them and how many of us they affect.
Anyway, I'm gonna say it a few more times:

Benefits shouldn't pay below the poverty line!

Benefits shouldn't pay below the poverty line!

Benefits shouldn't pay below the poverty line!
I mean, society needs massively reconstructing anyway, including stuff like a universal basic income, all of disabled people's health needs being covered, support services being properly funded so people don't have to go private, etc. But still, this needs talking about.
It is so blatantly abusive that benefits pay poverty amounts. Keeping people in poverty is abuse, plain and simple. Poverty is massively harmful, psychologically and physically. Especially for folks who already have psychological / physical health issues.
There should be a decent minimum wage, that is adjusted over time with inflation. And the same should go for benefits. All should pay above poverty amounts. No-one - not one single person - should be left in poverty. No-one should be forced to struggle like this.
And as for where we're gonna find the money, the answer is the same as always - rich people's pockets, corporations actually paying their damn taxes, etc.
After finally getting out of an abusive household, I started living alone and claiming benefits at age 16. I have been living in poverty on benefits ever since then, and will be for the foreseeable future as I'm not going to magically become non-disabled and society is still
refusing to become non-ableist.
I moved out of an abusive household and immediately started getting financially abused by the bloody government and the damn benefits system. Because that's what it is. Financial abuse (not to mention how immensely psychologically harmful the
benefits system is, and how physically harmful to some people with physical disabilities).

Thinking about society's idea of a "normal sixteen-year-old" and how far I was from that, living alone and dealing with all that trauma alone and on poverty amounts of money...
I deserved better than that. I still deserve better than that. Everyone on benefits deserves better than that.
And given how many disabled people are on benefits, I can't see this as anything but horrifically ableist. A very sizeable chunk of the disabled population, along with
many disabled people's family members, are forced into permanent poverty. That isn't "how it has to be" or "just how things go", that is a very conscious choice being made about what we deserve. Poverty. Apparently poverty is what we deserve.
I don't just think benefits amounts should be raised a little bit, I think they should be raised drastically. Especially during a pandemic, but the rest of the time too.

£2700 a year (on Income Support) wasn't enough.
£4900 a year (on ESA) isn't enough.
I NEED more.
What I'm getting now is the highest amount of money I've ever received while on benefits. I'm still barely getting by, certainly can't afford a lot of the things I need, and am having to resort to donations from folks online (thank you!) to get some necessities.
This. Is. Wrong.
We're being punished for not properly participating in capitalism. That's the only conclusion I can find in all of this. We're not suitable productive, so we're being punished by being forced into poverty, in the hopes that desperation will push some of us into working when we
really, really shouldn't. All the bloody stuff around benefits that straight-up admits to trying to get us "back into work" (I was never in work, I've been disabled my whole life) points to that.
Essentially, I'm being punished for being too disabled.
And the punishment isn't even a one-off; it's potentially an entire lifetime of poverty. For the crimes of being born disabled and of having the impacts of my disabilities intensified by abuse, I am likely going to live an entire (probably shortened) life struggling immensely.
I. Deserve. Better. Than. This. Abusive. Capitalist. Bullshit.
(feel free to retweet the above tweet even if you don't relate to the exact situation I'm describing here, e.g. even if you're not disabled or on benefits)
Benefits
Should
Pay
More
Than
Poverty
Amounts

Because NO-ONE deserves to live in poverty.
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