Any welfare cuts are going to have hideous consequences for people with health conditions, says Heather Bingham. Plus letters from Carolyn Sutton, Michael Miller, Sacha Deshmukh and Dr Natalie Symes

I doubt the government understands what disabled people need in order to work (Starmer decries ‘worst of all worlds’ benefits system ahead of deep cuts, 10 March). I have a mental health condition, physical disabilities and am neurodiverse. To do meaningful part-time work, I had to become self-employed, simply to work at my level of skill and experience. It costs me nearly £1,000 a month in various ways to remain well enough to work consistently – all post-tax.

The NHS is merely keeping me alive – it isn’t interested in optimising my life, for example, by tackling the hideous side-effects of my medication – and the tax system refuses to recognise that anything more than keeping me alive is required. And a Labour government thinks it can cast people out into the world of work with no resources to make them well enough to show up, day in, day out?