Disabled people shouldn’t bear the brunt of the challenges our country faces

A mother recently told us she was struggling to afford the right kind of pads for her disabled son because she had so little to live off already. She also couldn’t afford the ointment to relieve pain caused by a stoma bag. Life costs more for disabled people and more are pushed into poverty as a result.

News that the Government is proposing to cut around £7bn worth of benefits from disabled people whose budgets are already so tightly squeezed, is unimaginable. Already, 75 per cent of people referred to a food bank in the Trussell community live in a household where someone is disabled. 

More than three quarters of people getting Universal Credit plus health or disability benefits are having to go without essentials. More than four in 10 are already missing meals to try and keep up with other essential costs. A fifth have had to turn to a food bank in just the last month.

It is truly extraordinary for the government to look at this situation and choose to respond by making huge cuts to the incomes of people already facing such severe hardship.  These cuts will cause immense harm to individuals, families and communities and risk driving more people to need to use food banks – which are already stretched to the limits.

Now, people we support have already told us they are ‘terrified’ of how they might survive cuts. For many disabled people, health and disability payments are the difference between being able to afford food, pay the bills, run medical equipment and afford the bus fare to hospital appointments. Or being trapped in a cold, dark home, hungry and scared, seeing debt pile up and feeling cut off from their community, services, friends and family. Plunging more disabled people into deeper hardship is likely to lead to health conditions worsening and people being less able to engage with support, training and trying to return to work.  

The public don’t want to see more people forced to food banks. We know 85 per cent of us agree that people receiving social security payments should be provided with enough money, so they don’t face hunger. 

We all agree the system should work better – there are more effective and compassionate ways to do this, to benefit current and future generations. We can update social security so it’s able to be there for everyone who needs it and support people who can work, to stay in work.  

Over the next four years, we need to see a new model of long-term employment for disabled people and carers, so anyone able to work is genuinely supported to stay in work. This means joining up work and skills schemes with better access to healthcare, action from employers to reduce barriers disabled people face at work, and overhauling job-seeking rules.    

The UK government is demanding disabled people bear the brunt of the challenges our country faces at home and abroad. This is both cruel and counterproductive. We urge the Government to safeguard disability benefits from cuts and put the needs and voices of the disabled community at the heart of its plans.