The prime minister’s official spokesperson said there was a clear case ‘for fixing our broken social security system that’s holding our people back, and our country back’. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/Reuters
Changes could deny benefits to people who need help to wash or to remember to go to the toilet
Keir Starmer will unveil drastic cuts to disability benefits on Tuesday, despite deep opposition from Labour MPs and poverty campaigners, and warnings from economists against making kneejerk savings to hit fiscal targets.
In the government’s most controversial move yet, it will announce a package of changes expected to affect some of the UK’s most severely disabled people.
The measures could deny benefits for people who need some help washing themselves, preparing food or remembering to go to the toilet, as ministers attempt to overhaul the welfare system and balance the books.
However, Downing Street has denied the plans to cut between £5bn and £6bn from the welfare bill were purely the result of the UK’s difficult fiscal situation, arguing there is a “moral and economic case” for reforming benefits.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall arrives in Downing Street, London, for a Cabinet meeting, March 11, 2025
ALMOST two-thirds of disabled people on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) “will not cope” without it, a charity has warned, amid reports that the government will reduce the benefit.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is expected to unveil reforms aimed at reducing welfare costs that ministers have described as “unsustainable.”
Reports suggest that PIP, the main benefit for working-age adults both in and out of work, could be frozen rather than increased in line with inflation, delivering a real-terms cut for 3.6 million claimants.
A new analysis from Sense has found that 38 per cent of PIP recipients with complex needs are already behind on energy bills. Almost half — 46 per cent — are struggling to afford essential costs such as council tax and water, while 41 per cent are living in debt due to benefits failing to cover the cost of essentials like food.
Fifty-eight per cent of those polled reported significant ongoing extra costs due to disability and 53 per cent said their PIP payments were insufficient to cover those expenses.
Sense chief executive James Watson-O’Neill said PIP “exists because living with a disability means facing higher costs, from increased energy bills to specialised equipment and specific diets.”
“These additional expenses won’t disappear if eligibility is tightened. It will only plunge more disabled people into poverty.
“Making it harder to access benefits won’t help disabled people find jobs either. It will only deepen the struggle.”
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
LEFT-WING campaign group Momentum has begun lobbying Labour MPs to block cuts to welfare spending.
A Commons vote is expected after the government’s proposals to reduce spending on benefits sparked an angry backlash among Labour’s grassroots.
Sir Keir Starmer, who has described the benefits system as the “worst of all worlds,” was jeered at this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions as he insisted that Labour had a duty to reduce social security costs.
Labour MPs urged him to “provide compassion” to those who cannot work, stressing that disabled people have become “frightened” after hearing their party use the “language of tough choices.”
Ministers have already pledged to cut £3 billion from the welfare budget over three years and next week are expected to announce in a green paper that billions more will be axed from the main disability benefit, the personal independence payment (PIP) and funding to help those with long-term illness to return to work.
Cutting PIP could push 700,000 disabled people into poverty, disability charities have warned.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Reducing the gap between the basic and incapacity rates of universal credit could mean billions more in cuts for ill and disabled people
The government is downplaying the true scale of planned cuts to social security, according to analysis from the New Economics Foundation (NEF), out today. NEF has calculated that planned overall savings of £6bn from the social security budget could actually result in support for ill and disabled people being slashed by between £7.5bn and £9bn a year by 2029 – 30.
Government proposals leaked last week contained a range of measures totalling over £6bn of savings. These included one major “cost neutral” measure that did not contribute to the total savings figure: increasing the basic rate of universal credit (UC) while cutting the additional rate received by people unable to work due to disabilities or poor health. This is intended to reduce the £400-a-month gap between the two rates. However, NEF analysis of Resolution Foundation figures shows that this would likely mean much greater cuts than the £6bn savings figure suggests to support for 1.7 million households with an ill or disabled adult.
Today’s NEF analysis has found that:
Closing the gap in monthly payments by £100 would result in cutting an extra £1.5bn in payments to ill and disabled people – equivalent to £73 a month for each person.
Halving the gap would result in cutting an extra £3bn in payments to ill and disabled people – equivalent to £146 a month for each person.
When combined with other planned cuts to personal independence payments (PIP), this could result in a total loss of support for ill and disabled people of between £7.5 and £9bn.
This figure does not include the £2bn of cuts to be achieved through changes to the work capability assessment, which were announced by the previous government and included in the autumn budget figures. If the government also proceeds with these changes, it could take the total cuts to around £10bn a year by 2029 – 30.
Tom Pollard, head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation (NEF), said:
“We urgently need honesty from the government about the scale of the cuts they have planned. We have seen a very real increase in the scale and complexity of poor health and disability in the working-age population, compounded by a cost-of-living crisis, crumbling public services and poor-quality, insecure work. We should be tackling these underlying causes and supporting more people to work and live independently where possible. But slashing the incomes of people in this situation will fail to deliver sustainable savings and will make millions of people’s lives even harder than they already are.”
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
… Keir Starmer’s Labour government has just declared war on some of the most vulnerable people who live in this country – that is, disabled people.
According to leaked proposals to ITV, there will be cuts of £6bn to the social security budget, and £5bn will come from an attack on Personal Independence Payments – that is, PIP. That’s the main disability benefit for adults of working age, providing support of between £1,500 and £9,610 a year.
The eligibility criteria for receiving it will change so that some people with disabilities and long-term illnesses will no longer receive these payments at all.
…
There has been a longstanding widespread campaign of demonisation against people claiming benefits, portraying them as scroungers, as people who aren’t really eligible. Well, this government policy will cut the amount of support being given to disabled people who nobody disputes need support.
Even those with extreme disabilities in the unfit to work category are likely to lose money under new government plans.
PIP isn’t an out-of-work benefit – it goes to people who are disabled or have long-term illnesses who are in or out of work to help cover the extra costs imposed by disability or ill health so that they can live as independent and fulfilling lives as possible – for example, paying for care or mobility needs.
As it is, last year it was reported in the Observer that the government was rejected more than 40% of applications for PIP from people with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and arthritis, and one in four applications from amputees, along with other thousands of applicants from people with cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder and emphysema. They even reject 30% of applicants with Huntingdon’s disease and Parkinson’s.
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.
