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Frances Ryan (2019), Crippled: the Austerity Crisis and the Demonization of Disabled People, London: Verso, £14.99, pp. 240, pbk.
It may seem as though it was a lifetime ago, but the 2012 Welfare Reform Act in the United Kingdom set out a complete restructuring of the British welfare and social security system under austerity, alongside vast cuts to budgets for social care, and other services that many disabled people rely upon. Frances Ryan’s new book documents (with numerous harrowing case studies, statistics, and reports) the impact that austerity, and resulting changes to social policy, has had on disabled people.
Throughout, readers are taken through issues ranging from housing, poverty, work and independence (not an exhaustive list) – each with its own chapter. The book focuses on the idea that disabled people have indeed been demonised under austerity, in numerous ways, to allow for the justification of austerity cuts. Here Ryan explores the devastating impact this has had on disabled people’s lives. The work is reminiscent of Deborah Stone’s text, The Disabled State (1984) where Ryan draws upon how powerful government rhetoric is, and how disabled people are subsequently categorised and treated by the state’s welfare system, and are then thrust into deeper poverty. This assessment of how disabled people are categorised, and the impact that changes to welfare can have on impoverished groups, is highly significant. Standing on the shoulders of giants, it builds on what Stone asserted some 35...