UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered the government’s spring budget earlier today , and appallingly will now see welfare payments cut even further, hitting the poorest and the most vulnerable the hardest, and pushing a quarter of a million people into poverty.
At a time over three quarters of people in receipt of Universal Credit and disability benefits are already struggling to afford the essentials like food, and when millions of us are struggling to make ends meet, these cruel cuts are simply indefensible. People who are unable to work because they are disabled, sick or caring for others deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
A tightening of eligibility for the main disability benefit personal independence payment (PIP) and changes to the sickness element of universal credit (UC) last week had already prompted stark warnings from charities concerned over their impact on vulnerable people. But today Rachel Reeves confirmed UC health benefits for new claimants will be halved in 2026 and then frozen until 2030.
The department for work and pensions' (DWP) own impact assessment of the cuts , also published today revealed up to 3.2 million families who are current and future recipients will lose an average of £1,720 per year compared to inflation.
Today’s Spring Statement continuies the legacy of austerity since 2010, which saw the harshest spending cuts in generations. The cruel benefits cuts in Rachel Reeves spring statement aren’t because of her economically illiterate fiscal rules or balancing the books, she’s been gunning for benefits claimants for over a decade.The following is a link to an article from 2013.
Her welfare cuts are driven by ideology, not necessity.
Labour’s justification for the cuts makes little economic sense and is rooted in the kind of demonisation of people who rely on the welfare state that we have seen under successive Conservative governments: a scroungers versus strivers narrative pushed by politicians and the media alike.
A life on benefits is not an easy ride at the taxpayer’s expense. Around five out of six households on universal credit regularly go without essentials such as food and heating, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Making claims is also an arduous task. Many have described the Pip application process as complex and humiliating, while the work capability assessment for disabled people was linked to nearly 600 suicides in the three years following its introduction in 2010.
Far from being about streamlining and improving the welfare state, these cuts are a cynical, penny-pinching exercise, introduced with the sole aim of adhering to the chancellor’s self-imposed fiscal rules.
Before the July 2024 election, Keir Starmer repeatedly promised that there would be no return to austerity. But, from the winter fuel allowance to welfare, that pledge has been needlessly shattered. As it stands, the government is set to unleash the most punishing erosion of disability benefits the nation has ever seen, the highest rates of child poverty since 1998 and our already battered and bruised public services are facing another hammer blow. This is the opposite of what people voted for and many are viewing having cast their ballot for Labour as a mistake they won’t make twice.
Cuts to already precarious incomes won’t help disabled people find work. Instead, they’ll risk forcing more people to skip meals and turn to food banks to get by and push many deeper into poverty. The additional freeze to the health element of Universal Credit will undoubtedly force more people to decide between heating and eating, which is a choice no one should have to make.
It is a simple fact that alreafy many people are not getting the support they so genuinely need. And it's very difficult to see how this government of ours is going to make anything easier.This isn't what voters want. Seven in ten voters across political parties agree the social security for disabled people should at least be enough to cover essential living costs
The idea that the Chancellor’s hand was forced into this by extenuating circumstances is an entirely false economy; there is always a choice. Choosing disabled people to bear the burden of today’s self-imposed economising , a group which already make up 70 per cent of foodbank users, is most certainly a wrong and disgraceful choice of clear deliberate cruelty .
What is making me so angry about Rachel Reeves' cuts is their sheer brazen callousness. The needs and hopes and longing of the people for a better future just slapped away, and all the while billions are given over to war and the wealthy left untouched. This was a chance to introduce a tax on the super-rich and big corporations, to redistribute their extreme wealth and create a fairer society.
Rather than committing to investment in clean energy, housing, schools, nature restoration, culture, things that would meaningfully improve our lives ,the UK government squandered this opportunity.
Instead of targeting the wealthiest in society, the Labour government has chosen shamefully to attack those who are most vulnerable. A simple 2% tax on assets over £10 million could raise £24 billion, r — nearly five times as much revenue as will be gained from welfare cuts. .A meausre that had much public support too,
Rachel Reeves told MPs of the government plans to cut billions from welfare support for the sick and disabled, while diverting funds from the international development budget to increase military spending. finding £2.2bn to give to Big Military. Ensuring we are purveyors of military death and destruction so we can have "economic growth". It's psychopathic, and at the the same time MPs are getting a pay rise, and to me personally the government’s continual obsession with militarisation shows that it is morally bankrupt. .
Rachel Reeves could very easily have issued a Wealth Tax, but choose not too and like the Tories before her continues to treat our disabled people ,mentally ill and the vulnerable with disdain. We don't need more austerity, we need a system that protects not punishes.
It's all very worrying stuff, mny of us are scared and frightened at this present time, as we witness attacks on the poorest and most vulnerable that the previous Tory government would have been proud of. What an absolute bloody disgrace.
Rachel Reeves finds ‘personal criticism’ hard, but as she set out her plans of democide for the disabled.and the poor among us she has revelaed herself to be truly vindictive and evil Rachel Reeves has consigned so many now to a life of poverty or an early grave.
It is in the vital interests of the labour movement as whole to resist these cruel vicious cuts. The poor, disabled people and the sick are part of the working class, even if all of them are not currently in work. The Labour party seems to have forgotten this. Every imposition on them is a disgrace, and has the potential to affect everyone in work, or seeking work.
IF effected by all of this, as am sure a lot are, rhree charities, Mind, Scope and Citizens Advice - have already said they have seen a surge in people contacting them after last week's disability and sickness benefit cuts announcement. remember to be be kind to yourself. We must continue to fight this evil, and if you haven’t already, will you please email your MP urging them to call on the Work and Pensions Secretary to rethink these cruel cuts?
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