A cruel cut: How Labour’s budget pushes disabled Britons further into despair

26 March 2025, 07:33

When Rachel Reeves announces her Spring Budget on Wednesday, it will feel like a death sentence for millions of this country’s most vulnerable residents.

UK residents in receipt of sickness and disability benefits are set to face cuts of £1200 a year to their income, which risks plunging an already struggling community into destitution - a state that belongs in the Victorian era, not 21st Century Britain.

In my work as an anti-poverty activist and founder of the charity Church On The Street, I see the harrowing effects of deprivation every day.

I see fathers weeping because they have no food to give their children that week, mothers broken with the stress of fighting to provide basic necessities for their families in a system that punishes them for existing with needs, and children who say to me: “Don’t be silly, we don’t eat at home!”. Most of all, I see the stark link between poverty and disability.

30% of disabled people live in poverty, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation - 10% percent more than non-disabled individuals.

Yet, it is disabled people who are set to face cuts of billions to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) that - despite a long, exhausting and demoralising application and appeals process that seems designed to punish people for living with disability - is the only source of viable income for many.

When you take somebody off PIP, you also take away their right to access other vital benefits, including council tax reductions and – if they have a spouse or family member caring for them – unpaid carer’s allowance, cutting off multiple sources of income from one household.

Working in Burnley, one of the poorest areas of the UK, we have witnessed a severe increase in destitution over the past five years of welfare and public services cuts under the Conservative government.

And now, with Labour introducing these new cuts, I fear we will see disabled people degraded even further. And the question is, why?

What is the point of squandering the talent, intellect, resourcefulness and creativity of millions of people who live with a disability, by forcing them into a subsistence level existence that will only further damage their physical and mental health, when we could be making actual financial, educational and workplace accommodations that would allow them to thrive?

This does not mean simply introducing ‘work coaches’ as though the only thing stopping people with disabilities working is attitude or confidence, but truly understanding how debilitating it can be to live with a condition that significantly affects your life, and offering genuine support to bring out the best in every human being.

The civilisation of a society can be measured by how it treats its most vulnerable members. It grieves me to say that at the moment, Britain shows little more than contempt for the people the government should most protect.

Bishop Mick Fleming is the author of Walk In My Shoes

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