Good morning. Isabella McRae here, senior reporter at the Big Issue.

I will be honest: it has been a tough week as a journalist who writes extensively about the benefits system. Welfare cuts are never something I want to bring news about but, unfortunately, the government is building momentum in its pledge to slash the benefits bill.

To be clear, nothing is officially announced yet. We don’t know what the changes to disability benefits will look like or how the government will go about making savings. It may well be that your own situation doesn’t change at all in the aftermath of these potential cuts.

And there is still time to fight this. Rachel Reeves’ spring statement will not be announced until 26 March, and Labour MPs are now joining charities, campaigners and people with lived experience in taking a stand against the government. You can write to your MP and ask them to stand up for benefit claimants in parliament.

We’ve got a huge amount of reporting on disability benefits you can read to help shape your argument.

Here at the Big Issue, we’ll continue our work investigating the truth about the benefits system. And we’ll keep telling the stories of real people with health conditions who have no choice but to claim state support to survive. In this week’s newsletter, we meet people with long Covid who are facing debilitating symptoms and have been forced to give up work.

I also wrote about how the pandemic more broadly has led to the nation’s health deteriorating – a reminder to the government not to forget that people are very rarely to blame when life does not go to plan and they have to ask for help.

Most importantly, please look after yourselves. The news is worrying, but there is help out there. Call Samaritans for free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit samaritans.org for useful resources and advice on coping.

Mind’s welfare benefits helpline supports anyone with mental health problems who is navigating the benefits and welfare system. Call them on 0300 222 5782. Citizens Advice offers advice and can refer you to support which may help.

If you’ve got a story to share, we want to listen. Get in touch at isabella.mcrae@bigissue.com or share your story here.

Kendal's story: 'Empathy is just gone'

Kendal was deployed to look after patients dying of coronavirus at the start of the pandemic. Formerly a nurse working with children in palliative care, she joined the frontline as the virus spread, caring for desperately ill people while the NHS was short-staffed and failed to provide proper PPE.

After she caught coronavirus from a patient, Kendal never recovered. She is one of at least two million people in the UK with long Covid, suffering with debilitating symptoms which have forced many out of jobs and needing state support to survive.

“We nearly died doing our jobs. I was willing but I naively thought that when I got sick my employer would look after me. I thought the government would look after me,” Kendal says.

“I would love to go back to work, but I probably have a year left of life. I have organ failure. If I cut myself, I don’t heal anymore. I have such low immunity.”

Despite her symptoms, Kendal was denied PIP the first time. She appealed the decision, with the help of a DWP worker who helped her fill in the form, and she was awarded the full rate.

PIP is a lifeline – but it covers less than half the cost of her rent, and she is waiting for her local authority to decide if she will get housing support. She fears homelessness, with an average wait time of five and a half years for social housing in England.

Kendal says she has been accused of being a “scrounger” – whereas once people had stood outside their homes clapping for nurses like her who were trying to save people’s lives.

“Empathy is just gone, and people want us to go away because we remind them of Covid,” Kendal says. “I want to raise awareness so it wasn't for nothing all this suffering.”

Read Kendal’s story and that of three other people facing long Covid and claiming benefits.

In case you missed it

Why are so many people off work sick? Labour told not to forget the pandemic ahead of benefit cuts. Evidence shows deteriorating health since Covid has contributed to the rise in the number of people receiving disability benefits and out of work. Read my analysis.

Disability benefit cuts could plunge 700,000 households into poverty, Labour warned. Keir Starmer reportedly called the benefits system the 'worst of all worlds' as he briefed MPs on the government's plans to slash the welfare bill. Get the story.

Millions of universal credit and disability benefit claimants turn to food banks: 'I'm terrified of cuts'. More than three quarters of people claiming universal credit and disability benefits have gone without essentials in the last six months. Find out more.

DWP reveals new plans to get sick and disabled people into work ahead of benefit cuts. Jobcentre work coaches will be tasked with delivering “intensive” support to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions. Read the story.

Slashing billions from welfare will not help people into work or save money, Rachel Reeves warned. Campaigners are calling on the government to tax wealth instead of taking money from benefits claimants. Read more.

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Labour MPs warn Keir Starmer that benefit cuts would be a 'grave mistake'

Have you lost trust in Labour MPs? After all this talk of cuts, you wouldn't be alone. But some are taking a stand and demanding that the prime minister stops plans to cut benefits.

Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, said: “You cannot escape the fact that after 50 years of neoliberalism, a decade of deep austerity, and then Covid, our social infrastructure has collapsed. Is it any wonder that so many people are experiencing debilitating ill health? Is it any wonder that people, who feel betrayed and let down, are turning to ever more extreme political movements?

“If a government drives people who are unwell into exploitative and insecure work, the illness doesn’t go away. We will just see more people on waiting lists, more people visiting food banks, and more people pushed into services that are past breaking point.”

And Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, said: “Cutting disability benefits would be a grave mistake, which I’m worried could push hundreds of thousands of people into poverty. We live in a wealthy society – this is not the only choice the government could make. We should be taxing the super-rich, not re-running austerity.”

Meanwhile, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell (who has lost the Labour whip), said: “Let’s be clear, these proposals are not so-called ‘savings’, they are cuts in benefits to many of the poorest in our society. They will cause great hardship and suffering. This is not what any Labour government was elected to do. I will oppose and join with others campaigning against.”

There are more who are fighting against disability benefit cuts. Read about it here.