“The UK poverty rate for disabled people is shamefully 30%, compared with 20% overall. It is even higher among those with a limiting mental condition.”
By Barry Rodin
The government cites the unsustainable cost of ‘a broken’ benefits system when justifying the recent Green Paper’s benefit reforms and cuts. Another reason given is the relatively high numbers of people claiming benefits, including those with poor mental health, which makes the UK an outlier in comparison with other European countries.
However, the proportion of UK gross domestic product (GDP) spent on disability benefits (3.2%) is only just above the EU average and comparable to Germany and France. Moreover, the UK spends a significantly lower proportion (20%) of GDP on all social spending, including health, benefits and social care, compared with between 25% and 30% for neighbouring advanced economies, such as France and Germany (Source: OECD).
Consequently, is current government investment on welfare and health services sufficient to overcome the enduring UK crises in mental health and chronic conditions including obesity, diabetes and heart disease? Also, do disabled people receive enough support to participate as much as is possible in society? The evidence is very concerning.
Firstly, the UK poverty rate for disabled people is shamefully 30%, compared with 20% overall. It is even higher among those with a limiting mental condition (source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation). Reasons include additional costs due to disability and ill-health, and barriers to work for disabled people.
The recent pandemic, with isolation and lockdown measures, significantly worsened the longstanding mental health crisis. Depressive symptoms among those aged 16 to 39 increased from 11 per cent before the pandemic to 29 per cent, according to the Office of National Statistics. A London School of Economics (LSE) report following the pandemic indicated mental health issues cost the UK £118bn annually, equivalent to nearly 5% of GDP.
Moreover, the nature of work has changed significantly; for instance, the Gig economy has generated greater stress, insecurity and anxiety for many, particularly among the young. Another concern is the growing number of people (over 2 million) who have been stricken with the disabling effects of long-COVID. Many suffer from fatigue, brain fog, and pain resulting in the inability to travel and work.
Scandalously, successive governments have abandoned almost every strategy to meet this challenge. Given the complexity of long-COVID and other post-viral conditions there needs to be more co-ordinated support within the NHS, especially with regard to managing the physical symptoms.
Likewise, more investment is vital in supporting neuro-diverse people throughout life: not just during school years. Nearly half of all inmates in prison are neuro- diverse and restricting benefits such as Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and the support it gives will make autistic people even more vulnerable.
For narrow fiscal reasons, this Government has put ‘the cart before the horse’, prioritising benefit ‘reforms’ before improving health and social care and employment support infrastructure. It should focus now on how best to make society healthier. Measures include reducing NHS waiting lists, improving GP and social care services and providing long-term support for disabled and neuro-diverse people both at work and socially, to avoid disengagement and isolation.
Improvements to public transport support are also vital, including better access for disabled people at some railway stations and bus stops. In addition to improving workers’ rights, the government must also eliminate any employer discrimination against disabled employees, including recruitment.
For example, a recent survey conducted by Universities of Cardiff and Liverpool found significant discrimination against disabled applicants, with disabled candidates having a 15% lower callback rate compared to non-disabled candidates.
Prioritising these objectives together with implementing the “right to try guarantee” is surely more likely to encourage disabled people to seek employment. Furthermore, the government must reassess the devastating financial and stressful impact for many claimants of changing the eligibility criteria for benefits, including PIP.
The government should instead give greater priority to increasing productivity growth through new green technology and redistributing wealth to reduce unacceptable inequality, social deprivation and improve the welfare state.
One option is a wealth tax. For instance, according to a recent report by the LSE, a ‘one-off’ moderate wealth tax of 5% on accumulated total net wealth of over £10,000,000, spread over 5 years, would raise over £43 billion. This is the equivalent of 8 years of proposed savings from benefit cuts.
How can these cruel government proposals, with estimated savings of only 0.5% of total annual government expenditure, be justified given the resulting hardship and mental anguish for disabled people? The vulnerable must not be made to pay for economic volatility and failure.
- Barry Rodin is an activist in Orpington CLP.
- This article was originally published in the May 2025 edition of Labour Briefing magazine.
