The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has come under fire from a group of experts over its proposed cuts to chronically ill and disabled people’s benefits. They have written an open letter to the government, telling it that these cuts will cause “disproportionate harm” to claimants – even to the point of causing “premature deaths”.
DWP cuts: brutal
As the Canary has documented, there has been uproar over plans DWP boss Liz Kendall laid out in March to ‘reform’, that is – cut – chronically ill and disabled people’s benefits. It set this out in its Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working green paper.
Notably, the paper included a suite of regressive reforms to make it harder for people to claim disability benefits like Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The changes it’s proposing target neurodivergent, learning disabled, and those with mental health disorders. Moreover, disabled people who need help with things like cutting up food, supervision, prompting, or assistance to wash, dress, or monitor their health condition, will no longer be eligible.
And revelations from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has also shown that the changes will disproportionately hit PIP claimants over 50 as well. Specifically, the criteria goalpost shifts will deny 1.09 million (nearly 70% of those who could lose out) the Daily Living component of PIP. Part of this cohort is obviously also people Labour is already hammering with the Winter Fuel Payment cuts.
Labour lies: time to call it out
Overall, Labour and the DWP have already lied about the number of people its Green Paper plans will affect. Research keeps exposing the devastating scale of the governments planned cuts. While its impact assessment calculated 370,000 current claimants, and 420,000 future ones would lose their DWP PIP entitlement, it’s likely to be much higher than this.
Another FOI made by a member of the public unearthed that around 209,000 people getting enhanced rate DWP PIP Daily Living will lose it. On top of this, around 1.1 million people getting the standard rate will lose it.
In total then, nearly 1.4 million people could, on reassessment, lose their Daily Living element of DWP PIP. However, as the Canary’s Steve Topple previously noted, this doesn’t tell us how many could lose their full PIP altogether. This is because the data does not show how many of these people get standard or enhanced Mobility Element of DWP PIP.
Nonetheless, it’s evident that the plans will be enormously detrimental for chronically ill and disabled people. And in early June, parliament is expected to vote on these plans.
Now, Dr Jonathan Paul Jones from Cardiff University has written an open letter to the government and DWP. It has been signed by 37 other social scientists, who are experts in this field.
The letter argues that these cuts will cause nothing but harm and should not be implemented. All of the professionals UK-based or with a strong history of UK-based research, many of whom are esteemed experts on disability, welfare, poverty and related topics. It includes a bibliography of supporting academic texts.
The full text of the letter to the DWP
We are writing to express our concern about the planned cuts to Personal Independence Payments and Universal Credit as outlined in the March 2025 Green Paper and Spring Statement. As social scientists we feel morally obligated to speak out against policy changes that evidence suggests will cause harm. It is our professional opinion that these cuts will cause disproportionate harm to disabled people and accomplish little or nothing in terms of helping the economy or balancing public finances.
As demonstrated by the Bibliography attached to this letter, the existing literature indicates that previous similar cuts to welfare, especially those targeted at disabled people, were ineffective in getting people back into work and instead drove people into deeper poverty, damaged mental health and were associated with high numbers of preventable premature deaths.
Furthermore, the problems caused or exacerbated by such cuts typically end up being even more costly to resolve as they increase the burden on various public services.
Stop the cuts
Policy-makers in the UK Government should already be aware of the social research that has proven the ineffectiveness and harms of such approaches, and have been warned by the UN that they must reverse the disability welfare cuts enacted by the preceding Conservative Government. We urge the government to comply with the UN rather than indulge in further ineffectual and harmful cuts targeting disabled people. These cuts will not help disabled people back into work, bring growth, or balance public finances. They are likely to increase rates of poverty, mental ill-health, and premature death.
We call for all announced cuts to Personal Independence Payments and Universal Credit to be overturned. Should the UK Government proceed with current plans, we implore all MPs to vote against these cuts when they come before Parliament and speak out against continued austerity. Public finances can and should be improved via redistributive measures such as a wealth tax. As once promised, those with the broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden.
The full list of signatures, as well as the bibliography, can be read here.
Featured image via the Canary
