RUTH HUNT is unambiguous. “Poverty will never be history unless we address disability.”

That’s one of the big issues she tackles in The Single Feather, a debut novel recently praised in the Morning Star for giving “a voice to those who have either been ignored or treated as mere victims.” It’s clear that for her the political is more acute when it is also personal.

She speaks very much from experience as a person living with disabilities since an accident at the age of 18 and her first published work has been galvanised both by her own experiences and by Establishment vilification of all people with disabilities.

The novel’s protagonist Rachel struggles with the prejudices of others — ironically, themselves targets of the current attacks from the right — and experiences the shock of a close friend’s death, in part the result of savage benefits sanctions.

She wants readers to “take a journey” with Rachel because, she says, with so much misinformation, ill-informed rhetoric and the labelling of disabled people as frauds and cheats, “it can be difficult to get across the level of fear and anxiety for those who are on benefits.”

Her mission is to portray the sharp end of the treatment Rachel experiences and along with Mike, another prominent figure in the book, give a sense of the injustice they face.

“It’s no coincidence that his main disability is ‘invisible’ and, with mental health problems he belongs to a group who are misjudged and misunderstood more than most,” she explains.

She’s conscious that Rachel and the book’s subject matter are unique in contemporary fiction. “The book world tends to be white, middle-class and able-bodied,” she says. “So I knew having a protagonist with a serious physical disability and who doesn’t work would be unusual.

“Once I had my protagonist, I felt I had this one chance to expose both the treatment of people with disabilities by individuals as well as by the government and the DWP.

“As I was writing it, I knew I had something that was not just unusual but was now unique and I felt a lot of responsibility to do a good job, not simply for me but for those who currently are struggling to get heard.”

One of the most impressive aspects of The Single Feather is the level of research lying behind it but which is conveyed in such a way that the narrative is not reduced to mere lists of the legislative attacks on disabled people on benefits.

This adroit combination reflects Hunt’s own literary inspirations, among them disabled writer Lois Keith who edited Mustn’t Grumble, a collection of writing and poetry from women with disabilities.

She also drew on non-fiction works about inequality, austerity and the human impact, with the poor facing far bigger cuts than any other group.One book, Hard Times: The Divisive Toll of the Economic Slump by Tom Clark, was “a direct influence”.

Hunt is clear where such a prolonged and co-ordinated campaign is going unless it is checked. “For people with disabilities, a cut in income or being forced to sack your personal assistant — which may happen as the Independent Living Fund closes — can be catastrophic and will put individuals at risk,” she warns.

If she had the chance to meet Iain Duncan Smith, the government’s vicious minister overseeing the destruction of the social fabric in our communities, she’s clear what she would do.

“I would take him to my local foodbank and ask him to sit and listen to some of the people cast adrift, with no funds following sanctions.

“Next would be a visit to a welfare rights advice centre that is purely for those with disabilities.

“Finally, I’d hand him the long list of all the recent cuts and changes to benefits that affect people with disabilities and tell him how hypocritical it is to say the vulnerable and disabled have been protected.”

Yet just as The Single Feather is essentially an optimistic novel — its protagonists become conscious of the amount they have in common — so Hunt is not without hope for the future.

“This isn’t just a matter for disabled people now,” she asserts. “If the ‘safety net’ is allowed to become so threadbare, and disabled people continue to be viewed with so much suspicion, then it could impact on other minority groups and services and will have a negative and long- lasting effect on society as a whole.

“So we must carry on lobbying for equal rights, have solidarity with those who need support and increase and find new ways of raising awareness amongst the general public.”

There’s a choice we all have, she says, to get better informed and empathically appreciate how difficult life can be for those who are sick, disabled or who are on the margins of society.

She hopes that The Single Feather will persuade people to make that choice but above all that they’ll find it an enjoyable read and, in doing so, increase their awareness of some of the issues.

“And, practically, I hope some will see it as a call for action and protest!”