Labour Cuts Gravely Impact Disabled People
The controversial £6bn cuts to the Welfare budget will disproportionately impact disabled people, driving them further into poverty.
These cuts will push disabled people further into the ‘trap’ of long-term poverty. The current situation for disabled people is stark; after years of austerity ‘welfare reforms’, COVID-19, and the cost-of-living crisis – all of which disproportionately impacted disabled people – these controversial cuts mark a new era of cruel political choices which directly and negatively impact disabled people. According to the Joseph Roundtree Foundation (JRF), around 70% of families where someone had a disability are already going without essentials like food and heating.
UK Government sources have cited a need to review the benefits budget by pointing to the rise in mental illness claims for signing off from work. The UK government are using these statistics in an alarming way – to underpin the ‘moral and economic case’ for cutting benefits – even though these cuts will harm disabled people and other vulnerable groups such as minority ethnic communities, pushing them deeper into poverty.
However, data analysed by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation (JRF) found that the majority of those with a mental health condition also had a physical condition. JRF found that 30% of disabled people are in poverty. The poverty rate for those with a mental health condition is 50% compared with 29% of people with a physical or other type of disability.
The government rhetoric of pushing those with ‘mental illness’ back into work is damaging and impacts those already experiencing poverty by increasing stigma and demonising disabled people.
While Inclusion Scotland welcomes support from the UK and Scottish governments in helping disabled people get into and stay in work, placing the onus on ‘encouraging’ disabled people is disingenuous and misleading. In Scotland, the disability employment gap (the gap in employment between disabled people and non-disabled people) is 30.3%pt, with 47.3% of disabled people unemployed. A leading cause for this is disabled people facing issues of discrimination and a lack of access to employment opportunities.
The UK Government must mitigate these barriers and improve employer standards to help ensure fair work for disabled people – and if these employer standards are not met, or there are few suitable jobs available, disabled people must not be penalised.
Inclusion Scotland’s CEO, Heather Fisken, said:
‘These cuts are an ideological and political choice that will cause grave harm for Scotland’s disabled people. We are opposed to the UK government’s choice to slash the welfare budget by pushing disabled people further into poverty.’
She added, ‘We also look to the response of the Scottish government and Social Security Scotland and hope they stand by their values of Dignity, Fairness, and Respect for all.
We at Inclusion Scotland will not stop working to protect disabled people’s rights to full and equal participation in all society – including rights to income from benefits and work.’
How these cuts will impact Scotland are still largely speculative. The Fraser of Allander economists have suggested a potential £94 million funding freeze for Scotland because of these cuts, with devolved benefits such as Adult Disability Payment and Scottish Child Payment coming under budget scrutiny. While this is still speculative and depends on how the Scottish government decides to respond, what is clear is that these controversial cuts are both morally and economically indefensible and will only serve to cause hardship and fear.
The UK Government must ensure that disabled people are not forgotten and take urgent steps to protect disabled people from the worst impacts of these cuts. They must also move to decrease, rather than increase, the stigma around disabled people, benefits, and employment.
