This metal song perfectly sums up the anger felt by disabled people towards the benefits system

If a music genre could describe the mood of disabled people in Britain this year, it might be metal. Think wails of anger, growling, heaviness and screams, but with a power behind it and a strong politicised community who fight for each other.

Punk and noise band Pupil Slicer are releasing new album Fleshwork this month, and its final seven-minute ‘black metal’ track deals with the state of the disability benefits system in this country.

It is a subject that most musicians wouldn’t dare touch, but vocalist and guitarist Kate Davies felt personal outrage as the government sought to rip away financial support from disabled people. They know from experience that it is already a painfully difficult system to navigate.

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“As a disabled person myself and knowing other disabled people, it has been a big part of my life,” Davies says. “For a lot of people, the only exposure comes from the media, and there has been a massive push around ‘benefit scums’. I think it’s targeted. 

“It is such a marginalised community that it is easy to put out this propaganda, and people probably can’t speak up for themselves as easily. And then you frame it around budget cuts, and people see it as a win. But it is in a completely separate world from the actual facts.”

As Davies points out, and as the Big Issue has reported, fewer than 1% of disability benefit claims are fraudulent – despite the narrative around it which has existed in the media.

Davies believes that benefit cuts “leads to people dying” and “people left on their own who can’t afford care anymore”.

Ministers rolled back on plans for personal independence payment (PIP) cuts this year, after significant controversy and backlash from Labour MPs, but the trust in the government from the disability community remains bitterly low.

“I’m disabled, but I’m privileged in that I’m not in some of the positions of other people I’ve known where they can’t leave the house on their own. They need someone to go with them. They need someone to do their shopping for them. Those kinds of people need this support to be able to survive,” Davies says.

Davies has recently been helping a loved one through their disability benefits assessment process. This person has hydrocephalus, which is water which they struggle to drain, and it involves multiple courses of invasive brain surgery throughout their lives.

“The brain damage causes behavioural issues and extreme anxiety which makes going out a lot harder. That’s a person who can’t leave the house without someone with them, and they need someone to help prepare food. They can’t socialise. They’re a wonderful person, but they can’t live their life without the support,” Davies explains.

That person was awarded zero points on their most recent annual PIP review. 

They have gone through the first stage of the appeals process, known as the mandatory reconsideration, and were denied PIP again. Now they are moving onto appealing it at tribunal stage.

Around 78% of people who challenge a PIP decision through mandatory reconsideration lose, but then 66% of people win the appeal when they take it to tribunal. That whole process comes at great cost to the taxpayer – as the Big Issue revealed, more than £50 million was spent on staff costs in the financial year 2023/2024.

“I take solace in the fact that this person has me to help them and get them the care they need,” Davies adds. “It really upsets me thinking about the amount of people that don’t have that help, people who are relying on their income to help pay a carer to come and look after them, or to help them accommodate their lives and stuff, and those people they’re not going to know that the system’s geared to say zero points.”

The government is set to review the assessment process for PIP, led by disability minister Stephen Timms. He has said that the review will be “co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, clinicians, carers, experts, MPs and others” and that a majority of the review’s leadership group will be disabled.

“This group will not work alone: it will shape a programme of participation and engagement that brings together the full range of views and voices,” Timms claimed.

There are clearly reforms needed. Davies says that the assessment can be “humiliating”.

“The way our society is set up, it’s not normal to talk about those struggles you’re having. You keep them to yourself. You try to present outwardly that you’re doing a lot better than you are. I think a lot of people don’t want people to know how much they struggle, because it makes you lesser in our society. 

“And in an assessment, you have to open yourself up and let that guard down, and you have to go into the nitty gritty of talking about things you wouldn’t talk about with anyone else to get these points across,” they say.

Pupil Slicer’s song, “Cenote”, tells this story in an abstract sense. Davies describes it as “atmospheric” and “grander” than other songs on the album.

It speaks of a “world of excess” which goes “straight to the top” while others “sink”. It suggests that there is a “scent of blood” which will “always stay”. It says “we let them fall”. It pleads: “Don’t fail them now.”

Davies explains: “I’m exploring these ideas of people being left behind by society, and the ways that people keep dying because of these situations, and no one at the top cares about it, and the only way we’re going to really be able to change that is by continuing to speak.”

Hundreds of people are estimated to have died at the hands of the benefits system. Between 2023 and 2024, the government investigated 40 deaths of claimants – and since 2020, there have been at least 240 internal reviews into cases where there is allegation that the DWP’s actions may have contributed to a claimant’s death or serious harm. People have not only died of suicides but also starvation.

“All that’s left of these people are the memories of them and we have to try to cherish the memories of people and not let anyone be forgotten. And that’s coupled with my own issues. I don’t have the best memory and I don’t remember things as well as I used to. I want to remember but things slip away from me, which I don’t want them to,” Davies says.

They hope that the song raises awareness and support for the disability community at a time when that is needed perhaps more than ever in this country.

“It helps people be exposed to conversations and perspectives they might not be otherwise, and that allows them to think about who to vote for and what local politicians support,” Davies says. “I know we’re not Metallica. We’re not going to have an impact on that level, but if one person rethinks their view, I think the song’s done its job.”

Fleshwork by Pupil Slicer is released on 7 November.

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