You will have undoubtedly noticed that disabled people have been featured in the news a lot lately. Reading recent headlines would have you believing that all the nation’s ills have been caused, at least in part, by disabled people.

The rising cost of energy, the state of the NHS, increased housing costs and other bills are all supposedly due to alleged benefit fraud. This narrative continues to be pushed, even though the DWP’s own figures show that Personal Independence Payment (PIP) fraud is ‘virtually zero’.

As Black people, we have historically understood what it means to not be afforded the benefit of the doubt. When the topic of a society’s conversation centres on what is wrong, Black people, like disabled people, are often scapegoated. ‘Laziness’ is an accusation made of both groups, so being Black and disabled, like some of us are, means that we face these prejudiced judgments on multiple fronts.