More Weight: Austerity’s Cruel Burden on the UK’s Sick and Disabled

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller gives us Giles Corey—pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing false confession. His final words? “More weight.” A man literally crushed by injustice, defiant to the end.

For the UK’s sick and disabled, years of austerity have echoed that slow, merciless pressure. Every cut to services, every reassessment, every hostile policy—another boulder on the chest. More weight.

PIP, ESA, WCA, bedroom tax, benefit sanctions—the labels shift, but the burden doesn’t. This isn’t collapse; it’s a long erosion of dignity, security, and hope.

And like Miller’s Salem, this didn’t happen by accident. It stems from deliberate choices—policies that punish need under the guise of reform. Starmer’s recent welfare concessions don’t erase that legacy. If anything, a two-tier PIP system adds yet another stone. Discrimination by date of claim? Still more weight.

Austerity didn’t just fail the disabled community—it damaged them. Its toll is counted in lost health, stolen independence, and shortened lives.

We should remember Giles Corey—not for his suffering alone, but for his resistance. He stood unbroken under the weight. Today, we owe that same resolve to every disabled person still being pressed down by this system.

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