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

The news that the UK government is proposing to cut around £6bn worth of benefits from disabled people whose budgets are already so tightly squeezed won’t have passed you by. The horror and distress that these cuts will bring to so many across Northern Ireland is unimaginable.

While Trussell saw a very slight drop last year in the number of emergency food parcels distributed between April and September, there were still over 34,500 emergency food parcels provided to people in Northern Ireland. If the UK government persists withdriving people with disabilities deeper into poverty, we risk seeing these numbers rise again.

For Northern Ireland, a cut in disability benefits by the UK government will only cause further division and difficulties for disabled people in affording the essentials. As we await the anti-poverty strategy, we understand this cut will disproportionately affect more people in Northern Ireland.

The 2021 census found that 24% of Northern Ireland’s population report being limited in their day-to-day activities by a health condition either a little or a lot. This compares to 17% and 22% respectively in England and Wales. There are also higher rates of mental ill-health in Northern Ireland. These are driven, at least in part, by the long-term effects of the conflict as well as a lack of investment in appropriate support.

We already know that disabled people are more than twice as likely to need to use a food bank than non-disabled people. More than three quarters of people getting Universal Credit plus health or disability benefits are having to go without essentials. More than 4 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 and risk driving more people through the doors of food banks – which are already stretched to the limits.

We need to call on our local politicians, to ask the question that really needs to be asked, is this the kind of society we want to be?

Food banks are telling us that people they support 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 or try and return to work.

Reducing disability support will increase long-term costs for healthcare, local governments, and society as a whole, increasing the barriers disabled people face to employment, education, and independent living. When the previous government proposed similar cuts, the OBR found that around 400,000 would lose significant chunks of their income, but only 3% would move into work as a result.

After 14 years in opposition watching on as austerity was brought in, the Labour government has had the time to come up with a better solution than making short-term savings at the expense of disabled people who most need our collective protection from hunger. These cuts are shameful and short-sighted.

The public don’t want to see more people forced to food banks. This isn’t the kind of society we want to live in, and it’s not what people voted for. We know 85% 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 must urge the UK government to safeguard disability benefits from cuts and put the needs and voices of the disabled community at the heart of its plans. There’s still time for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves to change their minds. Will they listen and act on the evidence?