FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 0.00 TUESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2024
The letter signed by 25 disability organisations and trade unions states:
Disability organisations and trade unions have written to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, calling for a rethink over government plans to cut out of work benefits for severely Disabled benefit claimants by more than 50% as part of the £3 billion welfare budget savings Reeves is looking to make in Wednesday’s budget.
The letter [attached] signed by 24 disability organisations and trade unions states:
“The consequences of these measures will be devastating for the Disabled people affected. They will also add to already unreasonable workloads and working conditions for frontline [Department for Work and Pensions] staff.”
Media reports published on 18 October indicated that Labour plans to go ahead with changes to the Work Capability Assessment, first proposed by the previous Conservative government, as part of Reeves’ package of savings, with 453,000 Disabled people estimated to be affected by 2028/29.
Tony O’Reilly from Disabled People Against Cuts Northern Ireland said:
“Cutting a massive £400 of thousands of disabled people’s monthly income won’t help get us get permanent jobs as we’ll be fighting greater poverty and inequality just to survive. This is the government’s alternative to employment support and investment in our lives.”
The vast majority (93 per cent) of those affected will see their awards drop by £416 per month (or £4,990 per year, in 2024-25 prices) compared to a world where the changes did not happen.
Around 290,000 of these will be subject to conditionality, where they are expected to engage in work search activity or risk having their benefits stopped.
According to official figures, only 15,400 of the 453,000 affected will be able to move into paid employment.
The letter says:
“It is clear that these measures will do nothing to address current labour shortages.
“They will however increase levels of entrenched deprivation.”
Paula Peters, speaking on behalf of the UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Coalition, said:
“According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, only 3% of those affected will move into work while the rest are left in deep poverty. We urge the government to rethink these horrendous proposals, to listen to Disabled people and co-produce a social security system that provides a genuine safety net for those that need it.”
Although the Department for Work and Pensions only has powers to roll out the proposed changes across Britain, the Northern Ireland Department for Communities has historically retained parity with Westminster on social security matters.
Michael Lorimer, speaking on behalf Disabled People Against Cuts Norther Ireland, said:
“Our politicians will have a choice whether or not to implement what will be devastating cuts to the income of many Disabled people living in Northern Ireland. We will be urging our Executive and Assembly to resist and reject changes that will inevitably drive disabled people into poverty.”
One key concern for the signatories, which also include Disability Rights UK, Advice UK, and the mental health charity Mind, is the prospect of more benefit deaths occurring as a direct result of the cuts.
One of the two main groups of Disabled people affected are those in the “substantial risk” group.
These are people living with such severe mental distress they are assessed by medical professionals to be in serious danger of harm to themselves if forced to engage in work search activity. They include victims of childhood abuse and people living with suicidal ideation.
John McArdle, a benefit claimant in the substantial risk group, said:
“Thinking how this would affect me personally is hard. Emotionally. All I know is that with more pressures on me to engage, I’d probably just fall. The effects of the loss of income on me would be catastrophic. Deadly. The inadequacy of benefit payment levels mean I am already finding it hard to keep my head above water right now. I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to survive. I cannot believe they are doing this to us.”
The letter also questions the economic wisdom behind the proposals, pointing to long-term impacts such as increased pressures on the NHS, mental health and social care services
Ellen Clifford, who is the claimant in a legal challenge against the adequacy of the government consultation on the WCA changes, said:
“These planned cuts – entailing a dramatic drop in income inflicted on those who are too Disabled to escape poverty through paid work – feel like an assault on Disabled people’s right to exist, pushed through by a Westminster government who is making a calculated choice to throw hundreds of thousands of Disabled people into deep poverty in order to continue pandering to populist misinformation and hostile stereotypes regarding benefit claimants. There is no ethical justification for this choice.”
For more information or to speak to more people who may be personally affected by the changes contact: 07505144371
Notes
1. Of those whose benefits will be reduced:
260,000 are people with mobility impairments
163,000 are people in the “substantial risk group
Also another 33,000 with mobility impairments will be exposed to more intensive work search demands.
For DWP analysis of numbers impacted see: gov.uk/government/publications/work-capability-assessment-reform-estimated-number-of-claimants-affected/work-capability-assessment-reform-update-to-estimated-number-of-claimants-affected
2. The changes will only apply to new claimants. Existing claimants will however be affected if their out of work benefits are stopped for any reason, for example if they are unable to comply with DWP demands or they take up paid work, and they then need to reapply.
3. The Resolution Foundation has looked at the likely impacts of the WCA changes: resolutionfoundation.org/publications/cutbacks-ahead/
4. Poverty rose dramatically among Disabled people even before the cost-of-living crisis, as evidenced by DWP figures published in January 2024: in 2021-22, 58% of all poverty in the UK was linked to disability.
DWP’s ‘truly shocking’ disability poverty stats are ‘terrible indictment’
gov.uk/government/statistics/below-average-resources-developing-a-new-poverty-measure
5. Office for Budget Responsibility supplementary forecast information release: https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/UC-WCA-employment-effects-supplementary-release.pdf
6. In June 2024, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched an inquiry into treatment of Disabled benefit claimants by DWP. Alongside the inquiry, the EHRC will also assess whether the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has failed to comply with equality duties. EHRC to investigate DWP’s safeguarding failures leading to benefit-related deaths | Disability Rights UK
A report by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Disabled People published in March 2024 called for reparations to be made to the families of benefit death victims.
Benefit deaths are also the subject of a new book by John Pring entitled The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence.
7. New claimants in the substantial risk group will not be forced to engage in mandatory work search activity but with a cut to their out of work benefits of 53%, it is likely more from this group will want support to find paid employment. There will also be increased expectations on them to maintain contact with work coaches and DWP.
8. An expert committee reviewing euthanasia deaths in Ontario this month identified several cases where non-terminally ill patients asked to be killed in part for social reasons such as isolation, fears of homelessness and inadequate income.
9. The legal challenge will be heard in the high court 10 – 11 December 2024. A disclosure hearing for the case is scheduled from 10.30am this Thursday 31 October. disabilityrightsuk.org/news/government-be-taken-court-over-work-capability-assessment-reforms