People take part in the People’s Assembly Britain is Broken national demonstration in central London, November 5, 2022
AHUGE demonstration is being held in central London tomorrow to “send a message” to the government over spending cuts and welfare reform.
The People’s Assembly said it expected thousands of trade unionists, campaigners and activists to attend the protest.
The campaign group accused the government of making spending cuts that target the poorest in society.
A spokesperson said: “The adherence to ‘fiscal rules’ traps us in a public service funding crisis, increasing poverty, worsening mental health and freezing public-sector pay.
“Scrapping winter fuel payments, keeping the Tory two-child benefit cap, abandoning Waspi women, cutting £5 billion of welfare by limiting PIP [personal independence payments] and universal credit eligibility and slashing UK foreign aid from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent of GDP, while increasing defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, are presented as ‘tough choices.’
“Real tough choices would be for a Labour government to tax the rich and their hidden wealth to fund public services, fair pay, investment in communities and the NHS.”
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
A devastating new 44-page report reveals Labour’s cuts will push 400,000 into poverty and cost disabled people up to £10,000 annually, while the government refuses to make savings by cutting spending on war instead, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY
THE Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) has just issued a hard-hitting report entitled Pathways To Poverty, which condemns the government’s Pathways To Work green paper. This well-researched 44-page report totally undermines the many flimsy arguments put forward by the “red Tories” to justify their killer cuts.
The report goes through the effects of restricting Personal Independence Payment (PIP) eligibility, cutting the universal credit (UC) health element and making PIP daily living the gateway to UC health. As the CAB points out, over 1.6 million people, which is nearly half of those currently receiving the daily living element of PIP, stand to lose out with an average loss of £4,500 a year.
Its opening paragraph blasts Keir Starmer and company for their sham consultation over the £7 billion worth of proposed cuts: “By refusing to properly consult on its plan to cut billions from disability benefits, the government is choosing not to ask questions it doesn’t want the answers to.
“The cuts will have a devastating impact on disabled people (and their children), sending hundreds of thousands into poverty, and many more into deeper poverty. This will result from a series of arbitrary reforms that have been designed around savings targets rather than improving outcomes, inflicting hardship on people in ways that the government doesn’t yet fully understand.”
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As the CAB report notes: “A DWP survey of disability and incapacity benefit claimants found that 41 per cent of respondents were on a waiting list for treatment for their health problems, and 50 per cent who were currently out of work felt their ability to work was dependent on receiving treatment.”
Finally, the CAB report makes the point that cutting billions from disability benefits is a false economy as it will merely make many disabled people even more ill, dramatically increasing the demands on the NHS, social services, education and voluntary sector. Besides this, there will be a growing number of disabled people made homeless by these cuts, never mind the increase in the suicide rate which will inevitably follow.
The CAB report concludes with a call on Labour to abandon its cuts, which are a devastating attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our society: “The government must reconsider its current approach. We are calling on the government to cancel proposed cuts to disability benefits.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
A homeless man in a tent in the centre of Liverpool, April 1, 2025
INFLICTING welfare cuts will push more people into homelessness, charities warned today.
Disability groups also accused the government, which aims to cut £5 billion a year from welfare spending by 2030, of “playing with fire by risking the lives of disabled people to meet arbitrary fiscal goals.”
Central to Labour’s welfare cuts is the tightening of eligibility criteria for personal independence payments (PIP) — a key disability benefit for working-age adults both in and out of work.
Those under 22 with long-term illnesses or disabilities will also no longer be able to claim the health top-up to universal credit under the plans.
Westminster’s own analysis shows the cuts risk pushing 250,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 children.
A letter co-ordinated by St Mungo’s, co-signed by 13 other homelessness organisations, is urging Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall to rethink the changes.
Cuts designed to get people back into work will actually “push people further away from the labour market, increase homelessness and put excessive pressure on statutory services,” the charities warn.
Labour’s disability benefit cuts will impact an estimated 800,000 people, of whom half will lose their PIP entirely
More than half of disabled people with daily living needs in parts of England and Wales could lose their benefits under the government’s welfare cuts, the Big Issue can reveal.
Analysis of data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which was published in response to a written parliamentary question from Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Steve Darling, shows that at least half of all current claimants of the personal independence payment (PIP) daily living allowance in ten constituencies could lose this benefit under the government’s plans, which MPs are set to vote on next month.
These include highly deprived Labour seats such as Tipton and Wednesbury and Wolverhampton South East – the constituency of senior cabinet minister Pat McFadden. Meanwhile the least affected constituencies tend to be those with much lower deprivation levels such as Guildford – although even here, more than a third of PIP daily living claimants are at risk from the cuts.
The most exposed constituency is Boston and Skegness, where 52% of claimants are at risk. The seat is represented in parliament by Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice. Polling for the Big Issue recently found that 68% of Reform voters believe Labour is failing on poverty.
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The DWP’s dataset is detailed, showing what proportion of current PIP daily living claimants with each type of disability scored under four points in all daily living assessment categories, putting them at risk from Labour’s plans:
There are 97 seats where at least 80% of PIP daily living claimants with arthritis are at risk, peaking at 87% in Derbyshire Dales
Almost three-quarters of claimants with cardiovascular disease in North Cotswolds could lose out under the cuts
More than 70% of claimants with multiple sclerosis and neuropathic diseases in Lewisham East and Sheffield Heeley are exposed to the rule change
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published an interactive breakdown of the figures by constituency, though not including figures for the overall PIP caseload in each seat.
Keir Starmer (left) and Rachel Reeves. The decision to push back the strategy comes amid Treasury cost concerns. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Reuters
[Guardian] Exclusive: Flagship policy put back until at least autumn amid fears cost of removing two-child benefit cap will outweigh political benefit
Labour’s flagship child poverty strategy has been delayed until at least the autumn, the Guardian has learned, even though tens of thousands more children will fall into poverty as a result.
The decision to push back the strategy comes amid Treasury concerns about the cost implications of ending the two-child limit on universal credit and questions inside No 10 over the political benefits of scrapping it.
The policy, which is being led jointly by Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, and Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, was due to be published in the spring and had been expected to include a recommendation to scrap the controversial cap.
Keir Starmer has said privately that he wants the option of scrapping the two-child limit kept on the table, and is understood to regard it as a personal priority, as well as a way of demonstrating Labour’s commitment to tackling child poverty and reassuring his backbenchers before a difficult vote on welfare cuts next month. [dizzy: Is there any logic there? How can it be a personal priority if it’s maintained for so long? It’s a fake, manufactured negotiating pawn, something to mollify backbenchers when needed.]
People take part in the People’s Assembly Britain is Broken national demonstration in central London, November 5, 2022
