Cuts to disability benefits in autumn budget would plunge disabled people into deep poverty

Since the election of the Labour government in July there has been something of a change in tone when it comes to social security and disability. Speaking to the Observer last month, Liz Kendall vowed to end the blame culture targeted at people out of work and stop the ‘salami slicing’ of the benefits bill that we saw under previous Conservative governments. You might think, given this rhetoric, that the new government will mark a clear break from previous governments’ approaches to health and disability benefits.

But look closer, and there are more concerning signs. Speaking to parliament at the end of July, the chancellor warned that the autumn budget will involve ‘taking difficult decisions’ on social security, and said she ‘will look closely at our welfare system, because if someone can work, they should work’. 

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Many of our clients who can’t work as a result of serious illness or disability face a system that is already threadbare, where financial support is regularly cut or removed altogether as a result of bad decision-making. For our clients, the prospect of further cuts to financial supportis terrifying.

Much has been made of the previous government’s ill-conceived proposals to make radical changes to personal independence payment (PIP). Among a raft of troubling proposals was a suggestion that PIP cash payments could be replaced with vouchers. Labour has yet to set out its intentions with regards to PIP, but notably have said that they are ‘reviewing the responses people have made to the previous government’s consultation’.

The new government has also been worryingly silent about its plans for the work capability assessment (WCA). Its manifesto said that the WCA ‘needs to be reformed or replaced’, but Labour has so far failed to provide much detail about what this would mean in practice. 

Of particular concern is its failure to rule out bringing forward dangerous proposals for the WCA introduced by the previous government. The planned changes to the work capability assessment criteria, which were on the cusp of being implemented before the election was called, would mean over 400,000 seriously ill and disabled people missing out on more than £400 per month of additional financial support, and having to survive indefinitely on the grossly inadequate basic rate of universal credit.

The basic rate of universal credit is just £91 per week for a single person. It’s hard enough living on this if you’re in good health and able to look for work: Trussell Trust polling released last week found that almost half of those on universal credit ran out of food in the past month. But imagine being seriously ill for months on end, and potentially for life, and having to live off this meagre amount.

The previous government’s stated aim for these plans was to encourage people to enter work – but we know that they won’t achieve that aim. The Office for Budget Responsibility analysed the plans and predicted that only 3% of those affected by the cuts would move into work as a result of these reforms. That leaves the remaining 97% having to survive on the lowest rate of benefits for an indefinite period.

What’s more, the proposals would not even result in significant savings for the government. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the plans will ‘at most deliver a short-run saving before becoming irrelevant’. Labour has pledged longer-term wholesale reform of the WCA, so bringing in these temporary shorter-term changes now would just create unnecessary confusion and deepen disabled people’s distrust of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

That’s even before we consider that there is an active legal case against the consultation on which the plans are based. The disability activist Ellen Clifford, supported by Public Law Project and backed by Z2K, is bringing a claim against the rushed and unfair consultation on these plans, due to be heard on 10-11 December. If successful, the action could make the justification for bringing forward these plans even shakier.

That’s why we are today handing in our petition to call on the government to officially drop these proposals. Over 11,000 people have now backed our campaign to say no to these cruel reforms. MPs from the Lib Dems and the Green Party will also be there to support us.

The new government has a real opportunity to reset the relationship between disabled people and the DWP. Bringing forward these poorly thought-out and dangerous proposals would taint these efforts before they’ve even begun. We need to see a health and disability benefits system that provides security and support, not one that pushes disabled people into deep poverty and leaves them at risk of sanctions.

Anela Anwar is chief executive of anti-poverty charity Z2K.

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