The word “sweeping” is overused when referring to welfare reforms but, in light of the UK government’s proposal to cut disability benefits by billions of pounds, this time the term is right on the proverbial money.
That it is a Labour government savaging the benefits system – and in a way that will undermine essential support for people with learning disabilities – makes the planned cuts all the more galling.
Campaigners have repeatedly flagged that slashing billions from the benefits budget would hit already impoverished families (700,000 according to the government’s own figures) and exacerbate dire inequalities for learning disabled people, including those in employment.
Work support at risk
The fears are well founded. Alongside the cuts set out in the government’s green paper (with consultation expected to conclude this summer) have come warnings of a second round of cuts that some argue could undermine Access to Work. Given how vital this is for supporting people with learning disabilities and autism in the workplace, this is a huge concern.
Prime minister Keir Starmer with secretary of state for work and pensions Liz Kendall may have spun the reforms and cuts as necessary to get people back to work and make essential savings.
However, many (though not enough) Labour MPs are uneasy about the scale and nature of what’s coming.
In a letter to The Guardian in early May – in what is likely the biggest rebellion Starmer faces in his still fledgling premiership – more than 40 MPs from the party wrote that the proposals for cuts were “impossible to support”.
The missive came on top of Labour MPs raising the alarm about the range of reforms on the table, including a tightening of eligibility criteria for personal independence payments (PIP).
Worse off by £155 a week
According to the Resolution Foundation think tank, an estimated 620,000 people could be worse off to the tune of £675 a month if the planned £5 billion worth of cuts to PIP goes ahead.
As the May letter cautioned: “The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity.”
In what is likely the biggest rebellion Starmer faces, more than 40 MPs from the party wrote that the proposals for cuts were impossible to support
It is safe to say Labour supporters weren’t anticipating Austerity 2.0 when they cast their votes in 2024.
While some will have taken comfort from the MPs speaking out, it was still a small number.
It has been an unsettling experience observing the UK government’s welfare stance from the US. Here, millions of disabled people are facing threats to services and support on multiple fronts.
First is the slashing of staff levels in state agencies that handle assistance by the Department of Government Efficiency, first led by Elon Musk. On top of this, the controversial person in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Junior, appears hell-bent on denying science, prompting disability activists and families to accuse him of pushing harmful rhetoric and reinforcing stigma.
Kennedy particularly inflamed public opinion when he claimed people with autism did not contribute to society – something that is patently untrue – and which provoked fears of what he might have in store for people with learning or intellectual disabilities.
Other threats are looming. Republicans are determined to gut Medicaid, a federal programme on which many disabled people and their families rely.
As the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities has warned: “By decreasing funding for Medicaid in order to fund tax cuts, many programmes which benefit and accommodate individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities could be at risk.”
It is deeply disturbing to watch what the US government is doing – but it is an overtly right-wing administration. It was expected that Trump’s government would target welfare programmes. But Labour in Britain? That’s just shameful.
