This is so intensely appalling, to the extent that you stop being shocked about halfway through: by that point, it has become clear how deliberately rigged the benefits system is against disabled people, and Dr Ryan is just explaining the intersections of this with gender, class, race and so on.
Frances Ryan combines cases of individuals who are being oppressed by austerity with a plethora of statistics that demonstrate that those case studies aren't exceptional in how badly people are being treated, but rather are the norm.
It would have been five stars if Ryan's rhetoric had been stronger or if she described the changes needing to be made, but as a researcher she is descriptive rather than prescriptive. It still remains a powerful and overwhelming account of injustice.

A maddening and important read. Essential for anyone in the UK who needs to learn more about the real impact that benefit cuts and social policies that penalise disabled people have.

Frances Ryan's Crippled: Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People is a rage-inducing read documenting a decade of ideological cuts to disabled people's benefits, pushing hundreds of thousands in the UK into poverty, all while pushing a narrative of sick and disabled people as undeserving scroungers and benefit cheats. It took me weeks to get through because I was so angry and upset reading it, but its a really important read, especially if you're in the UK.

Very grateful I came across this book. I especially liked the chapters on women and children, think it ties really well within intersectionality. Glad Frances Ryan brought light to so many of the issues disabled people face. Wished these topics were tied into policy conversations as a default.

This book is a pretty harrowing look at the devastation austerity policies have caused, particularly for disabled people. The details are horrifying, made me feel very grateful that I’ve had the luck not to be in the receiving end of this hardship, and angry that anyone should be enduring this. I wanted to hear more about the alternatives to austerity, but that wasn’t really the purpose of this book. There’s a covid update at the end that felt particularly powerful. Recommended, easy to read.