“To target the sick and disabled in particular is incredibly cruel. Raising the bar to claim PIP, while at the same time reducing financial support under Universal Credit for those who can’t work, will do nothing to help people back into work”
Martin Cavanagh, PCS national president
By the PCS Union
PCS Union and MPs have condemned the proposed cuts to benefits and warned of the consequences of the ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working’ Green Paper.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall MP presented her proposals today (18) saying that she believes the current social security system is failing the people it is supposed to be helping. She claimed that the current system incentivises people to define themselves as unable to work, driving them towards incapacity benefits, and announced that the health top-up for Universal Credit will be frozen for current claimants and reduced for new claimants.
She also outlined reforms to Personal Independence Payments, saying that she believed the current increase in PIP claimants is unsustainable.
The £5bn cut in social security spending that she announced marks the biggest cut in support since 2015.
PCS parliamentary group chair John McDonnell MP responded in the Commons by warning of the consequences: “Trying to find £5bn worth of cuts by manipulating, by changing the PIP rules, the criteria, will result in immense suffering and we’ve seen it in the past – loss of life.” He questioned what independent monitoring will be reported and what threshold of suffering it would take to result in an alternative route to supporting disabled people.
Fellow parliamentary group member Ian Byrne MP asked the minister if she really believed it was fairer to balance the books on the backs of disabled people and the poor rather than introducing a wealth tax on the super-rich.
Labour MP and former minister, Dawn Butler described presenting welfare reform proposals as a way of saving money as being “rather crass” also urging the government to tax millionaires instead, saying, “The patriotic millionaires have said that just a 2% on assets over £10 million will bring in £22 billion a year. That’s a better way to bring money in to help fill the black hole that we found ourselves in.”
PCS has long campaigned for a fairer social security system and a properly paid and properly resourced DWP so that our members are able to support claimants and not have to rely on in-work benefits themselves.
Responding to today’s announcement, Angela Grant, president of the PCS DWP group said: “There has been a concerted attack on the poor and vulnerable in this country, with poverty pay, poverty ‘benefit’ payments, a mental health crisis and a broken NHS service. Young people struggling to receive mental health support are now to be punished with a cut to Universal Credit. Forcing desperate claimants into Jobcentres, at the same time as we are seeing a reduction in security provision, is a recipe for disaster.
“The Minister seemed to be speaking positive words to ‘get Britain working’ while being fully aware that working people are claiming Universal Credit. PCS members in DWP, while trying to implement a system of social security, have found themselves on the same side of the table as others living in poverty conditions, forced to claim Universal Credit and PIP. We’ve been around long enough to know that cuts impact the most vulnerable and the devil is always hiding in the detail of government policy.”
Martin Cavanagh, PCS national president and vice president of the PCS DWP group said: “The announcement today by Liz Kendal will have a devastating impact on some of the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities.
“To target the sick and disabled in particular is incredibly cruel. Raising the bar to claim PIP, while at the same time reducing financial support under Universal Credit for those who can’t work, will do nothing to help people back into work, rather it will make many destitute.”
- You can follow the PCS on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
- This article was originally published by the PCS Union on 18 March 2025.
this attack on the disabled is diabolical. i find it utterly anti labour and dispicable. for the first time in my voting life , i’m against voting labour anymore