Disabled Workers Oppose Welfare Reforms

The following article or blog is based on the presentation by Andy Mitchell of Unite Community and DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) at the TUC Disabled Workers Conference on 3rd June

Today you had Stephen Timms speaking at the conference, and he tried to paint a positive picture about these cuts to disability benefits, saying only 1 in 10 will be affected and that it will help disabled people get into work.

Let’s be clear these cuts are not about fairness or efficiency; they are not about the economy or improving productivity. These cuts are vicious and cruel and they will devastate people lives. I am one of the people set to lose out. I don’t know yet how bad it will affect me, but it could be up to £9,000.

DPAC is known for protests and the one we held outside Downing Street in March received nationwide attention. The images that came from it are used almost every day and our hashtag #welfarenotwarfare is now used all over the country.

Supporting Disabled Workers - Fighting Welfare Cuts Fringe Meeting. Photo taken by Ann Galpin

Locally DPAC groups have held protests across the UK. Yesterday (2nd June) we protested in Cardiff and over the weekend hundreds of DPAC members and trade unionists were protesting in East London, Leeds and Louth.

A lot of the work DPAC does is not on the streets. We speak to MPs almost daily. We’ve appeared at select committees both publicly and privately. The women and equalities committee are worried about the gendered nature of these cuts with currently 52% of women not meeting the 4-point daily living threshold compared to 39% of men.

We encourage DPAC members to attend MP surgeries and we’ve created email templates. We’ve written briefings, created videos, and filled social media with links and memes. We attend meetings, speak at fringes and panels like this. We’ve been interviewed for podcasts and appeared on telly. Anything to keep the campaign in the public consciousness.

Recently we helped organise a lobby and raised money to help disabled people afford to travel to London. I wish you had been there as it was brilliant to see hundreds of disabled people sharing their stories with MPs.

DPAC members have also attended the shambolic consultations. In Plymouth DPAC members made up the majority consulted inside and the majority protesting outside. At one point 8 police cars turned up to shut down the protest. The whole thing was a farce.

An FOI (Freedom of Information) request recently revealed that it is older people who will be most impacted by these cuts, but it is also important to remember that 1 in 3 PIP claimants have dependent children. It’s quite clear that burden will not just fall on families but schools, local charities, councils and the NHS.

Every time the subject comes up on TV someone dismissively talks about people with bad backs or ‘over-diagnosed’ mental health conditions. But the cuts will hit a much wider group than that.

Andy Mitchell

To name a few, 24% of people with cerebral palsy, a quarter of cancer patients, 50% of people living with MS, and 75% of people living with chronic pain or arthritis will lose out too. Within trade unions there is now much talk about neurodiversity, and rightly so. Around 1 in 4 people with ADHD or autistic spectrum conditions will lose out.

Another FOI request reveals that 46% of claimants who currently get PIP daily living will lose out because of the 4-point rule. That’s around 1.6 million.

The abolition of the work capability assessment will mean that those who lose PIP also stand to lose the health element of Universal Credit. Citizen’s Advice says that this double whammy could mean 900,000 people losing between £9,000 and £10,700 a year.

The government says these ‘reforms’ will save £5 billion a year but the Child Poverty Action Group says this figure masks the long-term impact which will add an additional £5 billion a year.  They also say the number of children pushed into poverty will be 150,000, not the 50,000 stated by DWP (Department of Work & Pensions). They also point out that 700,000 families affected by these cuts are already living in poverty. This group is not mentioned in any government statistics because they don’t register as an increase.

Losing PIP could mean losing other passported benefits and support, including top-ups to things like housing benefit and pension credit. It could mean losing the one-bedroom local housing rate for under 35s, who would then be expected to receive the lower shared housing accommodation rate. 71% of those affected by the bedroom tax are disabled households.

Getting the PIP daily living component means they can claim an exemption. Without it means higher rent. They could also lose council tax support.  It also exempts people from the benefit cap, which otherwise limits the amount of benefit income you can get. PIP also helps with travel as you can apply for railcards, free local bus travel and vehicle tax discounts. Councils will also take PIP into account when working out how much you need to pay for care services. There is so much the government has not considered, it is quite staggering.

Losing PIP has a knock-on impact not just on individual claimants but their wider families. PIP is a gateway for receiving Carer’s Allowance worth around £4,300 a year. The government says 150,000 unpaid carer’s will lose either Carer’s Allowance or the UC Carer’s element.

However, citizens advice think this is an underestimate, pointing out that many carer’s are disabled themselves. 190,000 get both PIP and carer’s allowance, and 95% of them receive the daily living component.

DWP says around 1 in 6 PIP claimants are in work so it might surprise you know that almost 50% of PIP applicants were employed in 2023. However, only 41% receive PIP awards. The data shows that employed people are more likely to get rejected for PIP than other claimants. There is also much talk about disabled people working from home so I regularly check the DWP’s own ‘Find-a-Job website. This morning, of the 105,000 jobs advertised, there were only 4 home-based, part-time Disability Confident jobs available.  

Sir Keir Starmer told The Sun newspaper that he has ‘the balls to be ruthless’ but there is nothing big about throwing the poorest and most disabled people in society and their children into poverty and destitution. There is nothing cool about choosing war over welfare.

What the local elections showed us is their policies have pushed people towards Reform, which makes it even more urgent that we build a united and strong resistance that is based on principles of fairness and solidarity.

There is a huge fear out there so it is up to us to ramp up the pressure. DPAC will continue to push MPs to vote against these vicious cuts, and we will continue to organise locally to show we will not tolerate these changes. This, however, is not just a disability issue, this a class issue and we urge everyone here to join us to fight against these cuts.

I would like to thank Andy Mitchell for giving us permission to publish his speech on the All4Inclusion website.

I am a member of DPAC and would encourage you to join as well by following this link https://dpac.uk.net/join-dpac/

If you are a member of a trade union please persuade your Trade Union Branch and/or your local Trades Union Council to affiliate to DPAC, please follow this link for further information or leave your e-mail address in the comments section below and I will email the necessary information to you

Kevin Daws