“Disabled people who need help cutting their food, washing themselves & going to the toilet could see their PIP taken away.”
By Vincent Conquest for Labour Outlook
Last Wednesday, disabled people from across England, Scotland, Wales, and the North of Ireland converged on Parliament to discuss the proposed cuts to disability benefits with their MPs face-to-face.
The mass lobby, organised by Coalition Against Benefit Cuts, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Disability Rights UK, and Well Adapt, saw around 40 MPs hold meetings with disabled constituents. Placards were held by supportive Labour MPs claiming “I will vote against the cuts to disability support” and disabled people held placards that read lines such as “I support disability benefits.”
The welfare reforms were announced in March of this year. As both campaigners, and constituents to their MPs directly, on the day explained, in tightening the eligibility to Personal Independence Payment, disabled people who need help cutting their food, washing themselves, and going to the toilet could see their PIP taken away.
The Office of Budget Responsibility estimates that 800,000 people would lose their PIP, but a Freedom of Information response from the Government estimates it could be an astonishing 1.3 million people. At a time of a deep cost-of-living crisis and increasing poverty and destitution, he reforms are likely to further impoverish disabled families, with the Government’s own impact assessment saying that 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, could be pushed into poverty.
The lobby came at the same time as the Work and Pensions Committee published a letter to DWP Secretary Liz Kendall, calling for the welfare cuts to be delayed, particularly that of the changes to PIP eligibility and the freezing of the Universal Credit health element.
Neil Duncan-Jordan MP, who sponsored the event with fellow Labour MP Richard Burgon, told Disability News Service that he believed momentum was growing against the cuts among Labour MPs.
He said: “I think you’re getting more and more MPs feeling uncomfortable about what they are being asked to vote for, particularly because they are probably going to be asked to vote for it prior to actually having any real detail in front of them about the impact of that.
“Let’s get disabled people in front of MPs, let’s get the arguments out there, let’s see the MPs respond and see whether or not they are persuaded. I hope they will be.”
He added: “It’s important that disabled people meet their MPs directly and lay out in front of them what these cuts are going to mean on a day-to-day basis, how it’s going to affect them, how it’s going to affect their lives.
“Being an MP in Westminster, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the real world; it’s important that we start connecting again with ordinary people and that they tell us how our actions affect their daily lives, and that’s what I think this lobby is about.”
DPAC’s Andy Greene said he believed Labour’s plan in Government had been “just not to engage” with disabled people, but also said it was “really encouraging” to see so many new faces among the disabled people who attended the event, which “bodes well for the struggle ahead.”
And a struggle ahead there will be. Up to 150 Labour MPs are said to have signed letters saying that they cannot support the cut to PIP without a proper consultation of the changes and an independent assessment of the impact.
Recently, the Government has indicated that it will review its controversial cut to the Winter Fuel Allowance, which it announced in July 2024. Many believe that the Government should go further, both fully reversing that cut and halting the cuts to disability benefits now.
The pressure on Labour MPs on the next few weeks leading up to the vote in Parliament in June will be immense; many MPs have majorities smaller than the amount of PIP claimants in their constituencies.
The Government should do the right thing and drop these cruel proposals. It must work with disabled people for a system that really helps them, as part of a progressive approach to the economy. This means ending austerity for good, investing in our future and redistributing wealth and power, including through adopting a series of wealth taxes as proposed by many on the left.
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I’m disabled I have a bad heart heart among other health issues which ate life threatening if I loose my pip I will end my life that’s 100% I can’t live with pip support I’m also epileptic diabetic, sleep apnea ashma bronchitis spdsd borderline personality disorder as I was raped and shot as a child I also have osteoarthritis both in my toes and knee which I’m waiting for full knee replacement, I don’t want to die but this cruel 4 point rule attack on pip will kill me I won’t cope ,please I beg you labour mps to fight against these evil pip cuts and scrap the 4 point rule I’m 58 years old I’m scared to death . Please help us please fight for me .
There are issues which should never arise in a Labour Government, or any civilised government.
Starmer’s failure to condemn Israel for the mass murder of children and civilian adults, continuing to supply arms to Israel, and his refusal to acknowledge this is ethnic cleansing, it’s appalling.
Starmer has inherited a horrendous mess from the previous government, no doubt about that – but he seems to be totally devoid of “Labour Values” and greatly lacking in “Common Sense”.
I’m very glad that more Labour MPs are starting to wake up to this.
What happens next is in their hands; worst case scenario is that they do nothing.
It’s an absolute farce that we’ve got a “Labour” Prime Minister removing Pensioners’ Winter Fuel Allowance, and making cuts to disabled people’s benefits, and at the same time failing to implement a fair tax increase on the Super-Rich to help address long-term underfunding of schools and the NHS.
When Starmer became Leader of the Labour Party, his first spiteful act of removing Jeremey Corbyn from the Party resulted in many thousands of Members leaving.
Surely that should have set alarm bells ringing?
And more recently he’s tried to do the same kind of thing with Diane Abbott.
It’s worth noting that despite the idiotic smear campaign against Corbyn, he got more actual votes in the 2017 GE, than Starmer did in the 2024 GE… Starmer became Prime Minister by default, the “least worse” option, it was Starmer or more lies and incompetence from Boris Johnson.
There are still many good real Labour MPs, there’s still hope to save the Labour Party from extinction… but not with Starmer as Party Leader, and they need to act sooner rather than later to replace him.