Labour’s proposed disability benefit cuts are nothing short of terrifying, say campaigners
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) cuts appear to be focused on the Personal Independent Payment (PIP), reports award-winning disabled journalist Rachel Charlton-Dailey
Disabled people’s worst fears were confirmed this weekend, when the government’s proposed cuts for disability benefits were revealed.
ITV News reported on Friday night that the Department for Works and Pensions and the Treasury are planning over £6 billion worth in cuts to vital disability benefits. These will involve making PIP harder to claim, freezing the rate of PIP and cutting benefits for those unfit for work.
Ellen Clifford, from Disabled People Against Cuts and author of The War on Disabled People said “The proposed cuts to disability benefits are nothing short of terrifying”.
£5 billion of these “savings” (cuts) will be funnelled into making Personal Independence Payment (PIP) harder to claim. PIP is a vital benefit for many disabled people as it’s supposed to help with the extra costs of being disabled. Scope estimates it costs disabled households an extra £1,010 a month- with PIP between £114.80 and £737.20 a month, it’s still not enough.
Despite many MPs and ministers linking it to employment, PIP is not an unemployment benefit. In fact many rely on it to help support them into work as it allows them to not only pay for things like taxis, but is there as a safety net that allows them to only work the hours their conditions allow.
PIP is also, despite what many politicians, media sources and angry people on twitter say, not an easy benefit to claim. The form is 40 pages long, and you need extensive evidence from medical professionals to be able to claim. Just 56% of all claims are successful and the DWP has spent a horrendous amount of taxpayer money fighting claimants.
Big Issue reports that, despite 90% of all benefits being awarded to claimants at the initial mandatory reconsideration process, last year alone the DWP spent £22.9 million challenging them. They spent a further £28.1 million on tribunals last year, even though 69% of claimants win at this stage.
ITV also revealed that the government planned to freeze PIP in 2026 so it does not rise with to reflect inflation. They are doing this despite knowing that disabled people are some of the poorest in society. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimated in 2023 that 57% of households with a disabled person had experienced food insecurity and seven in ten regularly went without essentials.
Mikey Erhardt, Campaigner at Disability Rights UK, said: “The government’s intention to cut billions from the social security budget will drive the poorest Disabled people into even deeper poverty.”
The other plans relate to Universal Credit, the benefit that replaced both Jobseekers allowance and Employment Support Allowance, lumping together those who are unemployed and those who can’t work. Crucially, UC also supports those who do work, but don’t earn enough to live on, meaning again many disabled people who work claim it.
What this means is that those who can’t work are often demonised and treated as though they don’t want to work and instead described as making a “lifestyle choice” to quote Keir Starmer. He’s not the only one to take this stance; Liz Kendall was heavily criticised last month for stating that some benefit claimants are “taking the mickey”.
The government now apparently want to raise the rate for those in or looking for work, whilst cutting the rate for those judged unfit for work. This means that those who literally can’t work will either not be able to afford to live - or will be forced into work that will make them even sicker.
The government are also planning to pump a billion pounds into “employment support”, but this won't involve any real support to help disabled people into work, or making work places more accessible - no it’ll be spent redeploying work coaches into helping disabled people write CVs and search for work.
The key statistic that the DWP has used to support all of this is that 20% of people in the Low Capability for Work Related Activity Universal Credit group said that they “would like to work at some point in the future”; however, this ignores that a whopping 80% said they wouldn’t. In that same survey, just 4% said they felt that they would be able to start a job right now if they had the right support - something the government aren’t offering
Erdhart also said “It needs to be acknowledged that some of us will never be able to work and our lives should not be valued any less.”
Disability campaigners want to impress on the government just how much has already been cut for disabled people and how much they are already struggling. A spokesperson for Inclusion London said “There's nothing left to cut, and that puts us in a very scary position when the government suggests funding should be further reduced. What level of poverty for us will be acceptable to them?"
They also want to remind the government who they should really be putting pressure on Mark Harrison of Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance and DPAC Norfolk said “Labour need to go after the real cheats – the tax avoiders and evaders and the billionaires just getting richer by the day just for being rich while disabled people are labelled and scapegoated for a crisis not of our making.
Lines are also being drawn between this happening at the same time as the assisted dying bill is being rushed through parliament. Many disabled people are scared that they will be forced into Assisted Dying the same way that others have in Canada
Clifford said ”Either this is the start of a slide towards openly eugenicist government or these are decisions the Labour party will live to regret. At the moment, with assisted suicide supporters on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill committee excitedly voting down every amendment proposing effective safeguards, disabled people are fearing the former scenario.”
However, it’s important to remember that these are still not official proposals and that any proposals have to pass through the House of Commons. The Telegraph reports today that over 80 Labour MPs say they “won’t tolerate” these horrendous cuts, so there is a tiny bit of hope that the proposals will be voted down.
As Harrison concludes “This Government was elected because people demanded change. Labour were not elected to carry on where the Tories left off and step up the attacks on our rights and living standards”.
About the author: Rachel Charlton-Dailey is an award-winning disabled journalist, activist and author. She is a columnist for The Canary and the author of Ramping Up Rights: An Unfinished History of British Disability Activism (out July 3rd, Hurst Publishers). When Rachel isn’t writing, they can be found walking their sausage dog, Rusty.
Disability and the challenges faced by the disabled community is a topic we have covered regularly on The Lead, William Elisabeth Cuthbert reported for us last week on how for many individuals they find comfort and support in like-minded disabled groups and forums because of the lack of official support. And Rachel has reported for us extensively on the UK being found in violation of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of People With Disabilities and how more needs to be done to enshrine the rights of the disabled in law. We’re able to write about topics and issues beyond the mainstream headlines thanks to the support of our readers, consider taking a subscription to The Lead or upgrading your existing subscription from free to paid to support us.