THE Government’s proposed overhaul of the advantages system includes positive steps, but risks pushing disabled people into poverty, several charities say.
The Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, said on Wednesday that he was “deeply concerned in regards to the hardship and anxiety” that proposed changes to disability profit might cause for those unable to work.
The stated aim of the Government’s plans, announced on Tuesday, is to get more people into work. They include proposals to vary the best way wherein some disability advantages are assessed.
“I understand the deep concern felt by thousands and thousands whose vital income could also be in danger under these proposals. In tough economic times, the Government faces difficult selections because it seeks to chart a good and equitable course, however the burden must not fall on those already struggling, each to make ends meet and to access the support they need,” Bishop Snow, who’s the lead bishop for poverty, said.
The director of policy at Trussell, Helen Barnard, said on Tuesday: “We’re deeply concerned by the cuts announced to disability payments today. People at foodbanks have told us they’re petrified of how they could survive.
“We welcome the positive proposals from the Department for Work and Pensions to spice up the fundamental rate to Universal Credit and put money into employment support. However, we fear these steps will likely be undermined by a Treasury drive to make short-term savings,” she said.
Changes to how disability advantages are assessed were a specific source of concern, Ms Barnard suggested. “Disabled persons are already thrice more prone to face hunger, and three-quarters of individuals at foodbanks are disabled or live with someone who’s. Our social-security system ought to be rooted in justice and compassion, in a position to be there for us all, especially when we want it most,” she said.
The chief executive officer of Christians Against Poverty, Stewart McCulloch, also criticised the changes to the best way “daily-living” support can be assessed.
Many people relied on the support, he said, and “the prospect of doubtless losing this vital source of income will create high levels of hysteria for among the UK’s most vulnerable households.”
Mr McCulloch welcomed, nonetheless, the Government’s commitment to above-inflation increases in Universal Credit, and an extra £1 billion in funding for support for people attempting to get off employment advantages and into work.
He also welcomed plans to remove reassessment of individuals with lifelong conditions, but said that tightening eligibility for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) “may put among the most vulnerable prone to falling into unmanageable debt”.
A member of the C of E’s Disability Task Group, Canon Alice Kemp, spoke of her own experience, and said that if proposed restrictions to daily-living support were introduced, it would make her less in a position to work.
“Carrying out basic domestic tasks – cleansing, washing, and cooking — would use up all of my energy, leaving me nothing for work. These proposed restrictions to PIP would potentially take me out of labor quite than into it,” she said on Wednesday.
“Restricting PIP is a cruel blow for individuals who already experience severe disadvantages within the workplace, in the roles market and in society more generally. As Christians we should always arise for many who are disadvantaged and pushed to the margins.”
The Disability Benefits Consortium, a coalition of greater than 100 organisations, described the Government’s proposals, announced on Tuesday, as “immoral”.
The co-chair of the group, Charles Gillies, said that the reforms, unveiled within the House of Commons on Tuesday, would “push more disabled people into poverty and worsen people’s health”.
The Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall, told MPs that, by 2030, the reforms would cut spending on advantages for working-age adults by £5 billion a yr.
The Office of Budget Responsibility has previously projected that advantages spending on working-age adults would rise to £75.7 billion in 2029-30, up from £48.5 billion in 2023-24, BBC News reported. After making her speech, Ms Kendall acknowledged that overall spending would increase regardless of the reforms. Precise costings of the proposals were on account of be included within the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, she said.
The current system was “failing the very people it’s presupposed to help, and holding our country back”, she said, blaming previous Conservative Governments for the “broken” system. She cited the statistic that one in ten people of working age was claiming advantages, and said that the changes would create a “more proactive, pro-work system for many who can work, and so we protect it for many who cannot work”.
One of the objectives of the proposals, she said, was to “restore trust and fairness in the advantages system . . . by fixing the broken assessment process and tackling the perverse incentives that drive people into welfare dependency”.
Under the plans, individuals with lifelong disabilities that mean that they can not work won’t routinely face reassessment of their entitlement to advantages.
The Work Capability Assessment, which decides whether someone is in a position to work or not, would even be scrapped, Ms Kendall said. Financial aid for disabled individuals who weren’t in work would as a substitute be covered by PIP.
PIP would rise with inflation this yr, however the eligibility criteria can be narrowed from November 2026, and a review of the PIP assessment would run alongside these changes.
Earlier plans to freeze PIP were scrapped after opposition from charities and a few Labour MPs, BBC News reported.
In response to Ms Kendall’s speech, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, Siân Berry, said: “It’s clear that these plans were plotted without the input of those whose lives will likely be most impacted. Disabled people have to be listened to before any changes are made, and I hope that Labour backbenchers will join me in being their fiercest defenders and fight off the worst of those plans.”
A public consultation on the plans will now happen. People living with disabilities are particularly encouraged to participate.
Poll. Perceptions of the Government’s performance in cutting poverty, and its overall responsibility for supporting individuals with disabilities, vary widely depending on which political party one supports, a latest poll suggests.
The poll, commissioned by the anti-poverty charity Trussell, suggests that, overall, 59 per cent of voters say that the Government is “doing badly” on reducing the number of individuals in poverty. The results differ widely when broken down by party, nonetheless. Only 28 per cent of Labour voters agreed that the Government was doing badly on poverty, compared with 61 per cent of Liberal Democrat voters, 69 per cent of Conservative voters, and 82 per cent of Reform voters.
Responses to a different query, whether the Government ought to be accountable for meeting the essential needs of disabled and sick people, also differed by party, though by smaller margins.
Ninety-one per cent of Liberal Democrat voters agreed that the Government was responsible, followed by 88 per cent of Labour voters, 81 per cent of Conservative voters, and 72 per cent of Reform voters. Overall, 81 per cent of the UK voters polled said that the Government was accountable for supporting individuals with disabilities.
