The Coronation was of course this weekend. When we all bore witness as another unelected rich beyond many of our wildest dreams morally bankrupt “monarch” was inflicted on us.
We, the poors, had nothing to do (there was literally nothing else on TV) but gawk in wonder as a man worth £2 billion rode in a gold carriage during the biggest cost of living crisis this country has ever seen.
Before the country was taken with Coronation fever, Scope announced that it cost disabled people on average £975 more a month to live.
In previous years the disability charity had said the figure was £500 but due to the cost of living crisis that has doubled and more some. You see when we account for inflation the already sky-high price that comes with being disabled rockets to on average £1,112 a month.
That’s over £13,000 extra a year disabled people are expected to find to be able to live.
However, that’s if there is just one disabled person in a household. It rises to £1,248 a month for households with two disabled adults and at least two children.
These extra costs include buying, running and the upkeeps of specialist equipment such as wheelchairs or beds. Food also accounts for a lot of it - with foods free from gluten and dairy being extortionate compared to those that do contain it.
There’s also the cost of prescriptions - as many taking medication for long-term conditions don’t qualify for free prescriptions - and just how much more the inaccessibility of daily life costs. This includes having to get taxis when public transport is unreliable or our bills costing more due to inadequate housing for our disabilities.
I know what many people will say - the government are there to help disabled people. If you believe that then you don’t have to worry about any of this because you clearly don’t live in the real world.
The standard rate for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) which is supposed to help us live our lives and pay for any extra costs varies between just under £400 and just shy of £700 (depending on how you’re assessed).
Yearly that brings us to between five and eight grand - even at the high end, which only those with advanced needs get, most get the “standard” and that’s if we’re awarded it at all.
But clearly, it’s not enough. Cost of living payments, which again not all disabled people qualify for, are still too low.
The funds to help disabled people are there, the fact they could easily whip out £250 million for a billionaire's coronation shows that.
This is one of the reasons I and many others struggled with the coverage of the coronation this last weekend. It felt very Hunger Games in the sense of the rich attending this lavish event and literally parading it through the streets and broadcasting into our households while millions couldn’t afford to feed their kids or pay for medication.
Scope has outlined what they think the government and energy providers need to do in order to prioritise lowering the extra cost. As part of their aims, they are calling for the creation of an “Energy Social Tariff” for disabled households which would include a discounted rate for disabled people who often need to use more energy.
The charity also wants regulators such as Ofgem and Ofcom to ensure disabled people aren’t overcharged.
However, the one that struck me was that they want the government to commit to prioritising tackling the extra cost of disability. They say in order to do this the government must first focus on “designing a welfare system that lifts disabled households out of poverty.”
While I am a disability rights reporter I can’t help but feel that all people should have access to a welfare system that seeks to help us, instead of one that punishes us for living with partners or working extra hours.
When people are struggling to live we must do more to help them than offer them entertainment in the form of pageantry and the parading of people who never had to worry over making the last tin of beans spread out.
The coronation was used as a distraction, to appease the lower classes, but instead, we need to use it to fuel our fight.
We cannot allow people to starve to death when the king literally has a carriage of gold. We must be better than this.
