Stanley Tucci, Stephen Fry, Rosie Jones and more hit out over benefit cuts: 'It breaks my heart'

Celebrities including Stanley Tucci, Brian Cox, Stephen Fry, Arlene Phillips, Rosie Jones and more have joined calls for the government to rethink cuts to disability benefits.

Labour proposals involve restricting the eligibility criteria for personal independence payment (PIP), and freezing the health element of universal credit for current claimants and halving it for new claimants.

It would see between 800,000 and 1.2 million people lose financial support from PIP over the next five years, according to estimates from the Resolution Foundation.

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Charities have warned that the plans to cut disability benefits are a “violation of human rights” – and now high-profile celebrities are joining them in urging the government to scrap the proposals.

Comedian Rosie Jones, who has cerebral palsy, said of the disability benefit cuts: “Disabled people are scared of what the future holds if there’s cuts to disability payments, as they are already not enough to cover life’s essentials. Disabled people are far more likely to need to use a food bank and further cuts will only deepen the hardship they are facing.”

It comes as polling from anti-poverty charity Trussell reveals that the majority of UK voters (81%) agree that the government has a responsibility to ensure disabled and sick people can meet their essential needs.

Voters are “unimpressed” by the government’s current record on poverty – especially people intending to vote Reform. Some 59% of voters told researchers the government is “doing badly” on reducing the numbers of people experiencing poverty, while 82% of Reform voters felt the same.

Responding to the plans for disability benefit cuts, actor Stanley Tucci said: “It breaks my heart to know so many people in a country as wealthy and developed as UK are experiencing hunger. Through my work with Trussell, I know that the reality of these cuts will be parents in disabled families having to skip meals so that they can feed their children.

“Things don’t have to be this way. We must shout as loud as we can to let the UK government know this plan is wrong.” 

Disabled people are already at greater risk of poverty, with Trussell finding that three quarters (75%) of people referred to their food banks are disabled or living with someone who is disabled.

Succession actor Brian Cox, who experienced poverty as a child, said that the government’s plans to cut disability benefits “risk even more people having to seek support”. “It makes no sense and will have a lasting impact on the lives of so many people struggling to afford life’s essentials,” Cox said.

Recent research by Trussell indicated that three quarters (77%) of people getting universal credit and health or disability payments are already having to go without essentials.

Sir Stephen Fry added: “Cuts should be for people who can best afford them, not for disabled people, who are amongst the most vulnerable and overlooked of all our population. The social security system should be rooted in justice and compassion, fairness and need. It’s not too late to rethink this.”

Meanwhile, Dame Arlene Phillips, choreographer and former judge on Strictly Come Dancing, said the social security system should be “rooted in justice and compassion”. She said “cutting disability benefits is shameful”.

Other celebrity figures backing Trussell and other charities’ call for change include chef Levi Roots, actors Aisling Bea and Charlotte Ritchie, singer Guy Garvey and television writer Jed Mercurio.

If you want to share your thoughts on the proposed cuts, you can email your MP via the Trussell website.

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