BREAKING: Labour just told a pack of lies to the UN over its DWP benefit cuts

The government has responded to urgent queries from the United Nations around it’s treatment of disabled people whilst attempting to cut Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits, and once again they’ve told an absolute pack of lies. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (UNCRPD) wrote to the government following concerns of disabled peoples organisations around the way the government had gone about “reforming” disability benefits.

This is the Labour Party government’s first brush with the UNCRDP, though successive former conservative governments have been hauled before the UN before to answer for their “grave” and “systematic” violations of the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People since 2016. In 2024, I was at the United Nations in Geneva whilst a representative of the government blustered their way through excuses and promised that they had disabled people’s best interests at heart.

When Labour got in, it pledged that it wouldn’t be as cruel as the Tories and that they wanted to run the DWP honestly, so it released an ungodly amount of old reports on the same day so as to definitely not bury any skeletons. It said its approach to reform would be a compassionate one, then it did pretty much the exact same things the Tories had planned but gave them slightly different names. So the UN intervened again.

Labour lies, again – this time, to the UNCRPD

The UNCRPD sent the government 10 questions asking for clarification on how the reform policies would basically in any way make disabled people’s lives better and how the government could guarantee that it wouldn’t instead make disabled people’s lives worse. We start straight out the bat with the lies before we even get to its answers to the questions:

The UK Government is committed to helping disabled people to fulfil their potential
and play a full role in society.

It goes on to say that the reforms are “designed to support this ambition” – put simply if you can’t work, we don’t give a shit about you. It also brags about the fact that it has dropped the PIP part of the bill and made significant changes to the UC bill, as if it wasn’t forced to do that under threat of a rebellion.

Across the next 10 questions, the government sidesteps and completely ignores disabled people and the committee’s concerns, instead taking every opportunity to brag and bluster.

Impact? What impact?

The first question from the UNCRPD is about the extent of impact assessments on the consequences of cuts to DWP benefits. The government of course, side steps this by saying it has published “extensive” impact assessments. I’m not sure how true this is when the three assessments in total don’t add up to forty pages and there only had to be so many because the government was forced to chop and change the bill right up to the wire.

It wriggled out of answering specifically if the department had considered how these measures would impact young people, new claimants, women, people with higher support needs or those with mental health conditions by referring back to the bullshit assessments which don’t actually give much in the way of specifics. However, it got out of the part about specific conditions and care needs with his absolute lie:

We do not forecast claimant volumes at primary health condition level, and are therefore unable to accurately estimate how many people are likely to be affected who have a mental health condition

This is interesting because while the government doesn’t forecast it, it definitely keeps and publishes data by primary condition, so could forecast it if it wanted to.

The co-production myth and Green Paper story time

When the UNCRPD asked specifically about the benefits changes, Labour was quick to pat itself on the back for not cutting PIP, stating:

“We have removed the Personal Independence Payment clauses from the Bill, so that this Bill will make no changes to the Personal Independence Payment’s eligibility criteria”

It neglects to mention, however, the Timms review and that PIP cuts could come back on the table following that. The government sidestepped a question about the risk of poverty by talking about investment in employment support, which is all well and good but does nothing for those who can’t work who will be pushed into further poverty.

When asked about the limitations to the DWP Universal Credit Health element, the government felt the need to bring up the fact that it’ll be raising UC standard allowance by above inflation – which as the Canary has reported before, while its technically true, its also not as it will not be monitoring this. It does not mention the change in criteria at all, purely focusing on rates. Though it completely misses out that new claimants will only get half of what existing claimants do.

A truly extraordinary bending of the truth happens when the government are asked about why the Pathways to Work Green Paper only consulted on 10 out of the proposed 22 policy changes:

We included some reforms in the Green Paper that were not part of the consultation so that readers could see the proposals in their wider context and provide more informed views.

This isn’t even remotely what was asked, but it’s nice that it just decided to invent scenarios for a laugh.

Disguising to the UNCRPD disabled protest as them working with the government

When the UNCRPD asked if disabled people and their organisations had been consulted or given the opportunity to be involved in the drafting of the bill, the government bizarrely referred back to MPs, who represent disabled people and their organisations, having the opportunity to debate and scrutinise the bill. Which is not what was asked at all and doesn’t consider that many MPs (such as my own) refused to listen to constituents in order to toe the party line.

The government also fell back on the claim that it listened to concerns about DWP PIP and as a result will make no changes to it. Of course, it doesn’t acknowledge that mass protesting and emailing MPs by disabled people and allies led to a MP rebellion that meant they had to drop it, again. This also is an attempt to soften disabled led protests and make it seem like once again rights were generously bestowed on us.

They further add:

We will now move straight to a comprehensive review of the PIP assessment: co-produced with
disabled people, along with the organisations that represent them, experts, MPs and other stakeholders

Which, if this is the Timms review they’re talking about, will actually only involve the input from 10 people. It also claimed there had been ample time for the House of Lords to scrutinse the debate despite it being a money bill.

The goverment caring about disabled people? Nice joke

Perhaps the funniest (read: biggest lie) of all comes at question 9, where the government is asked by the UNCRPD to take accountability for public statements made by politicians which paint disabled people as scamming the DWP, or a burden to society – like those made repeatedly by Liz Kendall when she said people were “taking the mickey” over benefits. Shockingly, the government said:

We do not recognise this statement. The UK Government strongly values disabled people and is committed to championing them.

Aside from completely ignoring the question politicians, ministers, and pundits are still out there saying dangerous things from that we’re taking the mickey to suggesting we all be killed though aren’t they?

Disabled organisations reject UNCRPD statement

The government’s response to the UNCRPD has, of course, been scorned by disabled peoples organisations. Disability Rebellion told the Canary:

Disability Rebellion rejects the government’s response to the UNCRPD. It shows they have not listened to disabled people or the UN.

Although ministers watered down parts of their benefit “reforms” to get the UC Bill through Parliament, what remains will still cause huge suffering. The government claims to be “helping disabled people fulfil their potential,” but the reality is more barriers, deeper poverty, and growing isolation. This is not about support — it’s about cutting costs.

It continued:

“Officials insist they conducted impact assessments and worked with disabled people. In truth, co-production has been on their terms only. Consultations were limited, inaccessible, and designed to sideline dissent. Disabled people tell us they’ve been ignored by MPs, dismissed with copy-and-paste replies, or even blocked online.

The government also denies spreading negative rhetoric, but we see the opposite: constant scapegoating in politics and media, fuelling abuse and misinformation. One “joke” about starving and shooting disabled people shows how toxic this climate has become.

We don’t accept their excuses. Their response confirms what disabled people already know: this is about saving money, not providing the support we need.”

Same old same old from the government

All in all, the government’s response to the UNCRPD is exactly what disabled people expected, a response that is dripping in insincerity you can practically hear the tone it’s intended to be read in. Patronising, trite, and meant to make disabled people look like they’re causing a fuss over nothing.

This is exactly how the Labour government has been handling disabled people since the very beginning, making it seem like we’re blowing things all out proportion, when really we know from experience that Labour can be even crueller than the Tories. If Labour thinks disabled people are going to let DWP benefit cuts happen without a fight it’s as naive as it wants the public to be.

Featured image via the Canary