Yet more cuts to disability benefits doesn't feel like a reform to Cat Wood, it feels like an attack.
Author: Cat Wood
75% of people who use food banks are disabled or from disabled households. Those on disability benefits find it hard to make their money stretch, something the government find hard to understand, as it costs more for a disabled person to live.
Now, I’m not one of those 75%. One of the things that the system's mental health services got right. They helped me get the appropriate benefits. I hear far too many times from benefit help groups- Doncaster Dial, Citizens Advice, Scope Sense, etc, too many people are not receiving what they are entitled to, or it’s too difficult to get.
The government would rather spend £10 million on a door that won't even be open to the general public without someone there to press a button. While also being inaccessible to disabled people, symbolising a perfect metaphor for this Labour government that the doors and the money are not open for everyone, and are certainly not open for the disabled.
700,000 people are already in poverty. 250,000 more will be pushed into poverty. All food banks are already overworked. Community groups like People Focus Group hold “Pay as you feel nights”, which people enquire about regularly. It gets donations from supermarkets such as Morrisons and Marks & Spencer. They are one of the groups that give a lifeline by accepting referrals and giving out food parcels. But can everyone withstand the pressure of more people? We see the Trussell Trust's adverts often enough.
The government has therefore decided to “reform” the PIP system.
A document showed that Labour had two choices: one was to do nothing. The other, which was the preferred choice, was the 4-point PIP system - meaning you have to receive 4+ points on one category on the daily living section of PIP (Personal Independence Payment) to get it. To put that in perspective, you get 2 points if you need someone to help you wash below the waist. It wouldn’t be a qualifying factor, despite it sounding like it should be. The government seems intent on getting disabled people back to work, restricting PIP, not seeing that they can’t have one without the other, if they want the disabled community to have any quality of life, anyway.
Of course, there have been protests as disabled people and carers (paid and unpaid- both will be affected), their families, charities and celebrities trying to say this bill is deadly. MPs started a “Rebellion”. At least from this moment, we have had one Labour MP whip, Vicky Foxcroft, resign over this exact bill, and over 100 MPs have signed a petition to stop a second reading. Which you would hope should send a message.
Illustration: The Houses of Parliament @nightmarecatart
We aren’t going to magically get better, nor are we going to get a lump sum of money to save us from the poverty they are forcing us into. In that respect. The band-aid only covers the bullet hole; the damage will still be done. Labour are the equivalent of Samara/Sadako from the horror movie The Ring; instead of calling up saying “7 days”, labour should be putting a voice recording in the brown envelope saying “13 weeks” before crawling out of our bank accounts.
According to the DWP, 9 out of 10 PIP claimants will not lose out by 2029/30. However, anyone who knows anything knows not to trust the DWP. Sorry, if you work for them. I once had a lovely lady who helped me fill out the PIP form over a year ago, who told me I shouldn’t be afraid to contact them. I wouldn’t be if they stopped trying to kill us.
Even according to the DWP’s figures (Freedom of Information Act), 87% of people on standard PIP do not receive a minimum of 4 points on one category. Suggesting they are currently likely to lose PIP. Putting it more like 1 out of 10 will not lose out on those figures. Overall, it’s looking like there is going to be a massive purge in between now and 2029 to make it possible to get to 9 out of 10, particularly when you look at further documents. Under the document, which states the two options, it admitted that 46% of people who received PIP didn’t score 4+ in any category.
By 2029/30, they expected “behavioural changes” to get them to that 9 out of 10. No evidence on how they were going to do that. I can come up with a few ideas of what those “behavioural changes” could be to get them to 9 out of 10. None are ethical or legal.
They’ve put a lot of toxic positivity out there like, “don’t let your disability define you,” When you should be proud of your differences. There wouldn’t be things like the Paralympics if we didn’t let our disabilities shine! I don’t know if they think the power of persuasion- their whole push “work will make you better” (yes, it might in some people).
They are also threatening financial abuse, which would involve the DWP having access to people's bank accounts, this would force people to turn over benefits and lead people to isolation.
They could be getting more medical professionals to under-score people, too, likely the more reasonable options. (I don’t count that as ethical, but the DWP and those medical professionals seem to have their own rules.)
Autistics struggle to live independently, only 5% do so As one who is doing it, it’s terrifying; everything I have fought for could be knocked down by this.
One option could be to make PIP means-tested, like UC (Universal Credit), the amount you get depends on your income. However, there is one massive flaw in that. Some disabled people cannot work and are living in working households. UC in that case hardly pays anything, meaning PIP is that person’s only income.
The path disability benefits set out for you is a bleak one for the world of romance (trust me, I know). If you move in with anyone, you get a cut; it’s less bad if they are on benefits too. If you move in with a working person, you are setting yourself up to become dependent on them. Making PIP means-tested could not just take money off one person, but take money from the whole household.
People on Minimum wage will struggle to support one another, particularly if one is disabled. It could also open a person to domestic violence. Disabled people have higher chances of experiencing domestic abuse. When you have no financial independence, what other choice do you have but to stay with your abuser? Means test PIP, yes, the government will get money by cutting everyone’s money. People’s mental health will be affected as they may feel like a burden on those around them.
With the suggested rules for LCWRA (Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity), the government are going on a witch hunt, weeding out those who have mental illness, are neurodivergent, or have fluctuating conditions. To take advantage of the “good days.” The DWP, adamant that 200,000 disabled people are “work ready”, I doubt a lot of people will have a choice. Particularly when there are 1.8 million people on LWCRA. The DWP seems hungrier for money than I was for sugar when I was on quetiapine. I understand why anxiety and anger in a lot of people are rising; it feels like the LWCRA rules are purposely set to exclude almost everyone. A lot of those will stand to lose PIP in the changeover too, as 510,000 claimants are already in work.
There aren't enough jobs or work coaches for non-disabled individuals. To invest £1bn is optimistic, particularly if that’s the long-term budget, work coaches will have to be trained, environments will have to be altered (job centres and places of employment, etc), employers will have to be trained, and equipment will have to be bought. That’s just off the top of my head. £1bn sounds like a lot of money, but as a disabled person, it does add up.
There is also the issue of discrimination. It’s horrible to think about, but most of the time, an employer will go for someone without disabilities, hence someone with disabilities refuses to disclose them. As someone who was late diagnosed autistic and was different to their peers, bullying is therefore something I don’t want to experience again. However, it’s not a surprise when I hear the numerous stories about work coaches not understanding a disabled person, forcing them into work they aren’t suitable for. Or when in employment, they were made to feel like they had to resign or worse. Is the £1bn to brainwash people? I think everyone who has experienced bullying knows that if they experience discrimination, tell HR/whoever is in charge, even if they do something, it still can leave them with the mental toll.
Labour brags about shortening the NHS’s waiting list. However, one of the things they won’t mention in this boast is that 37,000 were deemed as not “needing treatment.” Meaning, they were kicked off the list. Even if this didn’t happen. How are they expecting to keep up with likely the one good thing they have said to have done, when they are stripping £900+ a month? The vulnerable will get sicker. Labour refuses to do the welfare bill assessment to predict how much harm it could do, which may show this.
Put that into perspective – these are just some examples:
You can’t necessarily get paid or keep a job if you are always struggling to keep your symptoms under control, if you, like me, have multiple illnesses, are sick most of the time, or are even struggling with homelessness. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible. On the other hand, I wouldn’t like to be working in something like an office environment (or god forbid, retail, you guys have my full respect) when withering in pain with my cluster headaches, needing oxygen for treatment or a high on life with a hypomanic episode. I doubt any “Job security” this government comes up with will sympathise with any individual’s needs, as she obviously doesn’t get it.
If the Government wants money, another more popular approach would be to tax the super-rich. Meaning Labour has to stop picking on the vulnerable. Benefit fraud, compared to tax evasion anyway, is significantly lower. Why should we live in fear of persecution when the rich get to live in their ivory towers, when all we have done is be different?
When the government is forcing the disabled back to work, realistically, they are sprinting a marathon before they can walk the 20 meters they determine we can walk in our PIP assessments. The “£1bn” could be going into prevention. Sure, not every illness is preventable. The government says the “system encourages sickness”, when in fact, they trigger sickness. They make the population stressed and anxious, which can lead to chronic diseases. The mental health service will likely be flooded with service users because of this bill, chronic pain sufferers will likely be having flare-ups, etc. Children will be picking up on their parents’ stress. The government trigger illness by not giving people and children appropriate health care and affordable nutrition, which can affect them later in life. As an autistic, it is said I have the tendency to lack common sense. However. It seems pretty obvious that we should protect the vulnerable and the children, right?
How about putting that money into services?
Things to take care of: people and children’s physical, intellectual, emotional and social health are often on our doorstep. Community groups such as peer support groups, eg Places for People, parent and child groups, art groups and sports groups. They can offer social support, as well as offer advice, eg The Point, Doncaster holds an Art Group - Creative Directions, which is for those who have Mental health issues. Sports groups can offer physical motivation, which can be important for those who don’t get out a lot or weight issues, or even nutrition advice. Parent and child groups can offer that much-needed encouragement and support, or they could even safeguard a child in the more grey area cases. The same can be said if the money is also shared for education.
If people grow up with the knowledge of health, mental health, and get the chance to grow up in a healthy environment (family or in a community family), the effects might be seen later in their health, particularly if they have the encouragement to further themselves too. Particularly, adolescents and young adults, Places for People have a younger sibling - Better You for 18–25-year-olds, so young adults don’t have to feel alone in that important time in their lives. It’s currently about making sure people have a safe space to go to, where they can get help, eg at a time when so many people are in poverty, they shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help at these places. One point is, Benefit spending went up by £20billon after the pandemic, sure no one could have predicated the pandemic but if the mental health service was better equipped, people felt less isolated and were able to get active (or were made confident to do so) when lock down officially ended maybe less people would be off for their mental health and some for their physical.
Overall, Labour used to be the party for the people. Now they’ve narrowed it down to the party for the “Workers”. However, what workers have benefited from them, particularly if you are a worker with a disabled member in your household or carer (paid or unpaid) of a disabled person?
You have been forgotten about.
As a disabled person, one thing I fear is being a burden to those around me. It's bad enough with the limitations of my disability and the fact that those around me have to carry me so much. Like many, the day the DWP send that brown envelope, it’s a mental health trigger, it symbolises they could strip everything from me, and an exhausting battle begins, one that has taken many lives.
Knowing that the next battle is final, sending many into the black hole of despair. I’d ask how do they not see this. But it’s clear. All they see is the money the black hole will spit back out.
The publisher is Citizen Network. The Welfare Bill: A Disabled Person's Perspective © Cat Wood 2025.
Basic Income, disability, politics, social justice, tax and benefits, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Article
