Fightback begins over £5 billion disability benefits cuts, as key questions remain over Labour plans
Disabled people are fighting back against government plans that will see more than £5 billion cut from spending on disability benefits, and which are set to push hundreds of thousands further into poverty.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Pathways to Work green paper, published on Tuesday, left many key questions unanswered, including exactly how much the Labour government plans to cut and how many disabled people it expects to lose out.
Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, repeatedly refused to release these figures until next week’s spring statement, although she told MPs the cuts would top £5 billion.
There is likely to be anger at the comments of Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, who claimed (watch from 11.34) – after being asked by a Liberal Democrat MP what harm the cuts would cause – that the changes would “ensure that personal independence payment is financially sustainable in the long term… and that will reassure a very large number of people for whom PIP is vitally important”.
Kendall, Sir Stephen, and other ministers also ignored the concerns of many disabled activists about the risk of harm to those affected (see separate story), with many of those activists having fought for years to highlight the devastating consequences of similar cuts and reforms in the post-2010 austerity years.
The green paper changes will only apply to England, Scotland and Wales, while key measures on personal independence payment (PIP) will not apply to Scotland, which has responsibility for its own adult disability payment – although it will be affected by the spending cuts – and some measures on employment support will not apply to Wales.
Most of the cuts to spending appear to come from PIP, where it will be made much more difficult to receive the daily living element, with these changes to be introduced from 2026 through new legislation.
DWP claimed the cuts were necessary because of the “spiralling health and disability benefits bill”.
But the lack of any justification for the PIP cuts – at a time when NHS waiting-lists have risen sharply, social care is in crisis, the retirement age has been rising, and the pandemic has had a significant impact on long-term health – was repeatedly shown by the actions of the prime minister, Kendall and other ministers when they failed to attempt to justify the PIP cuts but turned constantly to defending cuts to out-of-work benefits instead, which they described as a “moral issue”.
There was anger and fear among disabled people who contacted Disability News Service (DNS) this week, both on social media and by email and phone.
David*, a disabled person who currently receives PIP, said: “This is an existential threat. The government is coming for us, for me, for people like me. And if we lose this fight, which it seems we will, many will die.
“Without PIP, without the benefits that keep me sustained, how am I supposed to pay the bills? How the hell am I supposed to buy food?
“How is starving us supposed to help us work, when the systems we are forced to navigate are fundamentally hostile to our participation?”
He said it was “not a policy designed to lift people up. It’s a policy designed to crush us down, to break us, to starve us, to remove us from the balance sheet.
“It is impossible to see this as anything other than eugenics by economics. If it isn’t deliberate malice, then it’s utter economic ignorance.”
Ministers also plan to scrap the work capability assessment (WCA) from 2028, and to rely instead on the PIP assessment to determine eligibility for the health element top-up within universal credit.
For new claimants, the rate of that health element will be cut from £97 per week in 2024-25 to £50 per week in 2026-27, while the health element will be frozen for existing claimants until 2029-30.
The standard allowance of universal credit will be increased, but it is not yet clear by how much this will rise above inflation.
The green paper does promise that those disabled people with “the most severe, life-long health conditions, who have no prospect of improvement and will never be able to work” will no longer be reassessed and will receive an additional premium, but there was no clue as to how much this will be and how many will receive it.
But Kendall also announced that young disabled people would not be eligible to claim the health element until they were 22, from 2027.
The government is also consulting on whether to raise the age at which young people transition from disability living allowance to PIP from 16 to 18, a move which will again cut spending.
There is also a pledge that an extra £1 billion will be spent on employment support under the Pathways to Work banner to ensure “tailored, one-to-one help alongside access to appropriate employment, health and skills support”, which will begin with an employment-focused “support conversation”.
The green paper also states that nearly every disabled person receiving the health element of universal credit will need to engage regularly with DWP “about their aspirations to work and to hear about the support available to them”, which will begin on a voluntary test basis this year.
It says this “increased level of engagement with almost everyone [will be] a key feature of the reformed system”, with “the ultimate backstop of sanctions”.
From 2028, ministers also plan to end the indefinite entitlement to contributory employment and support allowance for those with a recent work record who have been assessed as having limited capability for work-related activity.
They are consulting on how long entitlement for a new replacement benefit – unemployment insurance – should last.
Peter*, who currently receives contributory ESA and is autistic and has been unable to work for the last 16 years, said scrapping this support was “immoral”, and that the news had caused a significant deterioration in his mental health.
He said it was not yet clear how the measure would affect him but he believes that it could leave him more than £600 a month worse off.
He said: “I worked for 18 years before becoming unwell and these proposals put forward by the UK government today are not only cruel, immoral and unjustifiable, these measures need to be opposed by any means.”
The green paper also says there will be more face-to-face PIP assessments, all assessments will potentially be recorded (although there is likely to be an opt-out for those being assessed), and DWP will try to improve the quality of medical evidence provided by claimants, while the department will at some stage restart WCA reassessments.
There will also be a review of the PIP assessment.
The green paper is also consulting on the future of the Access to Work programme, although it is far from clear how each of the three “potential future approaches” would impact disabled people, although they suggest the department is considering forcing employers to take more responsibility for making workplaces accessible.
The green paper suggests – although it is not at all clear – that ministers want to cut future spending on Access to Work, which is set to increase from £142 million in 2019-20 to £385 million in 2025-26.
DWP is also consulting on “a new safeguarding approach”, but the green paper provides few details on how that might improve the department’s current approach, which has been closely linked to countless deaths of claimants over the last 15 years.
There are already serious questions being asked about the legality of the green paper – which doubles as a consultation document – with one respected advice website describing it as “entirely bogus” because it asks leading questions that assume the cuts will go ahead, and omits key information about how many disabled people will be affected.
That lack of critical information has also left many disabled people hunting for clarity online as to how the changes will affect them, with many contacting DNS and other websites and social media in significant distress.
There is also anger that some of the key proposals are not part of the consultation, and will instead be implemented by the government without consulting the public, including the plans to scrap the WCA; tighten eligibility for PIP; and cut the universal credit health element.
And there was also frustration about the delay in publishing accessible versions of the green paper.
DWP said the 12-week deadline for responding to the consultation would not be triggered until the accessible versions had been published.
The anger, fear and frustration at the cuts was highlighted by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), which said it had been “inundated” with membership requests since Kendall’s announcements, with “terrified and anxious” people wanting to join its Facebook group, and as many as 20 volunteers willing to take legal action against the government over what DPAC’s co-founder Linda Burnip described as the “absolutely appalling” and “despicable” actions of the Labour government.
On Wednesday (26 March), the day of the spring statement from chancellor Rachel Reeves, when further details of the cuts will be announced, DPAC is holding a national day of action in protest at the “pernicious” green paper.
Along with actions in other parts of the country, there will be a protest outside 10 Downing Street, followed by a lobby of MPs and a joint protest with other organisations outside parliament.
Paula Peters, a member of DPAC’s national steering group, urged “all disabled people and allies to join us on the streets and online” under the #WelfareNotWarfare banner.
*Not their real names
**The following organisations are among those that could be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article: Mind, Papyrus, Rethink, Samaritans, and SOS Silence of Suicide
Credit for this article goes to John Pring with the Disability News Service
We encourage you to also read these pressing articles listed below:
DWP delays publication of vital PIP evidence until after green paper and spring statement
No responses yet