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Among the raft of welfare cuts the government is expected to announce this week, it was plans to cut personal independence payments (Pip) that prompted the most outcry.
Although it appears ministers may row back on controversial plans for a freeze of the benefit, there are still suggestions they will change the eligibility criteria making it harder for people to access it – leaving the disabled community worried and anxious.
Steph Hughes was unable to work for six years when her health deteriorated due to degenerative disc disease and arthritis, and she was then injured in a severe car accident.
When she was ready to work again, Pip became the lifeline that helped her get a job – with limited mobility, she used the fund to lease a car to get around independently, as well as pay carers who help her at home.
“I would have only been able to return to work with my Pip,” said the 45-year-old who lives in Welshpool. “If it’s reduced or anything like that, it puts me into the position of not being able to afford to go to work.
“And if I can’t afford to go to work, well, what do I do? For me, having my job is more than just earning my wages at the end of the month. It’s my purpose. It’s my sanity, my identity. I add value to society, to the workforce. But you cut my benefit and I can’t do that any more.”
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the welfare cuts are about reforming a system that “discourages people from working” and said his party “believes in the dignity of work”.
But many Pip claimants said any cut to the benefit would have the opposite effect, and could force disabled people out of work.
The benefit is worth up to £184.30 a week depending on the assessed level of disability, and helps cover the extra living costs for people with a long-term physical or mental health condition. There are suggestions that under proposed changes, only the most severely disabled would be entitled to it.
Polling by the disability charity Sense found almost two-thirds of disabled people with complex needs who receive Pip would not be able to cope financially without it.
Steven Morris, 41, who is deafblind, uses Pip to pay for taxis so he can get out of the house and work in his role as campaigns officer at Sense, as well as paying for physical and mental therapy.
“I think it’s no exaggeration to say that it would be life-changing if I didn’t have Pip,” he said. “It would really impact my ability to pay for the therapies that keep me physically and mentally healthy, which in turn would impact my ability to remain in work. And that is obviously at odds with the government’s messaging.”
Morris said the language used by government ministers since the welfare cut plans were leaked last week has been hurtful. “I think it’s been an incredibly difficult time,” he said. “I remember austerity. But for me personally, the messaging here feels harsher. Regardless of what actually gets announced, it’s the way that it’s being spun – I’m being made as a disabled person to feel like a burden.”
Hughes, who is supported by the charity Scope and works as an appropriate adult helping vulnerable people in times of crisis, also said she was shocked at the way the issue had been handled by the government.
“I’ve been a Labour supporter my whole life,” she said. “But right now, I feel as if they are deserting me. If I can’t trust the Labour government that I have defended and supported since the day I was able to put a tick in a box, what more is there?”
“Labour promised to end austerity, but what we are seeing is clearly [that] an end to austerity doesn’t include disabled people,” said Sophia Kleanthous, 32, a disabled rights campaigner who claims Pip to help with transport and basic living costs.
She has a chronic illness, mental health conditions and uses a walking stick to get around, but has struggled to get her Pip applications accepted. “It’s already quite a punitive process,” she said. “I was seen as not having any mobility issues at all, and I get the lowest rate.”
She highlighted that data from the IFS found that in 2019-20, more than half of people receiving a disability benefit were in the most materially deprived fifth of the population.
“Reducing Pip is not going to be the incentive they think it’s going to be to get people into work,” Kleanthous said. “What it’s actually going to do is push people more into poverty, rely more on the NHS, and put even more strain on public services that are already at breaking point.”
Ajay Yadav, a 47-year-old IT worker in London, uses his Pip to lease an accessible car, and to pay for extra bills such as charging his wheelchairs and ventilators. He has spinal muscular atrophy, and without Pip he would be “stuck at home”, he said.
“For many of us, being disabled is hard enough but not being able to get out and socialise or pay bills or live the way you want it, it’s really difficult,” he said.
“When you start taking away finances from disabled people, what you’re doing is you are institutionalising them, leaving them trapped in their homes.
“It feels like nothing really has changed over the decades. The government still don’t really have a true understanding of what disabled people need. This is not going to get people into work, it’s going to isolate them even more.”
