No more ‘good disabled’ guff

The government’s proposed cuts to disability benefits will ruin lives if they are not fought

~ Fingers Malone ~

Their focus is on making it harder to get Personal Independence Payments (PIP), halving the health element of Universal Credit for new claimants, and after 2029 connecting the Limited Capability for Work Related Activities to qualifying for PIP.

Personal Independence Payments are not related to whether or not you can work and are not means tested. They are an important benefit which enables people to pay for wheelchairs and other essential equipment, and to pay for care and other services which help people be independent. The planned changes would make it harder to get the daily living component of PIP.

The health element of Universal Credit is extra money which people receive if they are assessed as having Limited Capability for Work Related Activities after a Work Capability Assessment (WCA). These claimants do not have to look for work or have job coach interviews. They can work a limited number of hours if they are able to. This payment will be halved for new claimants and people under 22 will not be able to claim it at all.

After 2029 the government proposes to abolish the WCA and use the assessment for PIP – at the same time as making PIP more difficult to get. Claimants who do not get PIP will not only lose money but will be expected to look for work and may be sanctioned.

The government responds to criticism by saying it is not impoverishing vulnerable claimants, as it’s going to help people get into work and the plan is to have more job coaches to focus on interviews. This is not a meaningful or realistic response at all. Some disabled people just cannot work. Others could work with support – but the government is not going to stop employers from discriminating against people, or make public transport fully accessible, or force employers to make adjustments. The pressure is all on the claimant.

The Labour Party has a vision of a good disabled person, who has a positive attitude and therefore works full time in a nice professional job and doesn’t need benefits. Everyone else has a negative attitude and is probably encouraged not to work by “perverse incentives” (being able to claim). The solution is to encourage a positive attitude through coaching, removing perverse incentives (the benefits) and then people will be transformed into good disabled people with well-paid jobs and be virtuous and happy. Except people are not out of work because of negative attitudes but because of material conditions, so taking away benefits will only impoverish people and make them more ill.

Somebody being able to do a job, with the right support, does not mean they are actually going to get the job when an employer can just not bother to provide support and pick somebody else. A lot of disabled people don’t have great qualifications due to lack of support in the education system, so the idealised well-paid work from home job on your laptop is probably less achievable for disabled people on average than for non-disabled people.

Taking a lot of people off PIP would have a lot of harmful knock-on effects, as PIP can qualify a relative to get carer’s allowance – a totally insufficient benefit for carers, but still a lifeline – and removing it will cause more immiseration. As PIP is not means tested, people living with working partners can still claim it and have their own money, and parents don’t get it deducted from other benefits. Removing these benefits will put more children into poverty as well, and make people more dependent and vulnerable to abuse.

There have been demonstrations in various cities already against the cuts, and online organising meetings. A good group to follow both for information and to know about protests is Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC). Scope have information on their website scope.org.uk about the planned cuts and MIND have a welfare benefits line on 0300 222 5782. Support from other people is vital as otherwise small numbers of people, who have health challenges, are doing all the work. People demonstrating in Exeter earlier this year faced intimidation with a chair thrown at the protesters, some of whom were attending their first protest. These cuts are unpopular and can be challenged, protest has worked before, please support campaigns.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Freedom Journal

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