LABOUR’S announcement of £5 billion a year benefits cuts to be snatched from one million disabled and mentally ill workers were denounced by trade unions and charities yesterday.
Standing between Labour PM Starmer and Deputy PM Rayner in Parliament yesterday, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall presented her ‘Pathways to Work Green Paper’ and threatened to take ‘decisive action’ against unemployed workers and especially youth.
RMT transport union General Secretary Eddie Dempsey responded: ‘Welfare cuts target people who rely on support to survive, including disabled people, carers, the unemployed, and those in insecure work… RMT stands with all in our working-class communities, including the disabled and unemployed.’
James Taylor, from disability equality charity Scope, said: ‘The biggest cuts to disability benefits on record should shame the government to its core. They are choosing to penalise some of the poorest people in our society. Almost half of families in poverty include someone who is disabled. Life costs more if you are disabled. Ripping £5bn out of the system by 2030 will be a catastrophe for disabled peoples’ living standards and independence.’
PCS union General Secretary Fran Heathcote said: ‘Targeting the most vulnerable with benefit cuts to meet arbitrary fiscal rules is an immoral choice at any time, but at a time of rising poverty, long NHS waiting lists and when the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite is abhorrent,’ she added that her union, whose members include staff working in Jobcentres, will be ‘campaigning with allies to oppose these cruel cuts’.
Labour MP Clive Lewis said: ‘As things stand, my constituents, my friends, my family are very angry about this and they do not think this is the kind of action that a Labour government takes.’
National Education Union chief Daniel Kebede said: ‘It is hard to conceive of a Labour government treating the most vulnerable members of society any worse.’
Charles Gillies of the Disability Benefits Consortium, an umbrella body representing over 100 charities and organisations, warned: ‘These immoral and devastating benefits cuts will push more disabled people into poverty, and worsen people’s health.’
Save the Children’s Dan Paskins said: ‘We fear child poverty levels will rise in families where someone has a disability as a direct result of these reforms.’
Child Poverty Action Group research shows:
- 870,000 children live in families who receive Personal Independence Payment (PIP);
- 290,000 of these children are already in poverty;
- 46% of children living in families who receive PIP are in in-work households;
- Households stand to lose nearly £1,400 on average, with many losing much more.
Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: Children in families where a person has a disability are already at a disproportionate risk of living in poverty.
‘Disability benefit cuts would only make life harder for these and many more
families.’
