Steering group members Hilary and Helen have been sifting through the Chancellor’s 2024 Budget over the past 24 hours and have put together a bite size list of what we believe are the key details for disabled people. It has not been easy reading and we agree with the CEO of Sense, Richard Kramer, who said yesterday:
“The government’s decision today is deeply disturbing for disabled people. They have chosen to continue the previous government’s harmful plans to reduce access to benefits. This risks undermining the wellbeing of disabled people, and the consequences could be devastating.
Disabled households are living in crisis, their current welfare benefits barely cover the essentials and spiraling food and energy costs have pushed many into debt and despair. But instead of choosing to give disabled people proper financial support and beginning to transform lives, the government has played into the dangerous narrative that disabled people should be forced to work.”
Work Capability Assessment (WCA)
Unfortunately, this Labour government has decided to continue with the previous Conservative government’s plans to ‘reform’ the WCA to make fewer disabled people eligible for financial support. This will cause further harm to disabled people and their families.
This comes despite the release of an exposé on the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) entitled The Department by John Pring which provides a history of the UK’s anti-disability rhetoric and the hundreds of deaths caused by WCA ‘reforms’ over the past 30 years.
DPAC and other disabled people’s organisations also recently sent a letter highlighting significant issues with the WCA reform plans directly to Liz Kendall MP, Minister for Work and Pensions.
The DWP figures show the numbers of people impacted by these ‘reforms’ will be:
- 163,000 by tightening the criteria on work
- 260,000 by removing the mobility descriptor
- 33,000 by changing the points awarded for people’s ability to leave their homes
Of these 456,000 people to be denied disability benefits, the Office for Budget Responsibility predict that only 15,000 are likely to move into employment. That leaves 441,000 disabled people with no money and no job left to plummet into further poverty.
As part of York Disability Week, we have speakers from Citizen’s Advice York joining us to talk about the changes to WCA: Dignity Denied – the lack of protection of quality of life for sick and disabled people of working age, 3rd December, 1-2pm
‘Crackdown’ on Benefit Fraud
This budget repeats old rhetoric that there is widespread fraud within disability benefits when the government’s own figures are clear that this is untrue – fraud figures 2023-24 were 0% for PIP and 0.1% for DLA.
Nevertheless, the Chancellor set out plans to ‘crackdown’ on benefit fraud with a new Fraud, Error and Debt Bill which will introduce new powers to check benefits are being paid ‘correctly’ and (worryingly) plans to use data shared by banks and financial institutions to achieve this, in a move that follows on from the introduction of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill introduced by the Conservatives.
They will also increase counter fraud and error funding by £110 million in 2025-26 and hire an additional 3,000 DWP fraud and error staff, an increase from the 2,500 ‘agents’ they announced in May this year.
‘Get Britain Working’
The government will soon set out a ‘Get Britain Working’ white paper which aims to ‘test new approaches and collect robust evidence on how to tackle the root causes of ill-health related inactivity’. [One supposes the evidence may conclude that ill-health is the root cause of the ill-health related inactivity, but who could possibly predict such a thing /sarcasm]
The budget provides £2.7 billion for DWP to deliver ‘individualised employment support programmes’ and reduce ‘health related inactivity’. This includes £800 million for disability employment support and £240 million to tackle the ‘root causes of inactivity’.
Disabled people have heard all this before and understand that these measures are more likely to push disabled people into inappropriate and unsustainable employment for their survival than to combat the ableism people face in employment settings, properly fund and support reasonable adjustments, or encourage the government to accept the reality that some disabled people will never be able to work.
Carer’s Allowance
The Carer’s Allowance (CA) earnings threshold has increased from £151 per week to £196 per week meaning carers can earn more before having their allowance completely removed.
This ‘cliff edge’ of CA removal has apparently been acknowledged as an issue and the government plan to ‘look into it’.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
School funding has been increased by £2.3 billion (a 1.8% increase).
£1 billion of this has been allocated to SEND, though the majority of that will likely be used to pay off mounting debts highlighted by the National Audit Office last week.
The SEND system is in crisis and despite rising costs, our children and young people continue to suffer in an outdated education system unable to meet their needs.
Fair Repayment Rate
This budget creates a new Fair Repayment Rate which caps the amount which can be deducted from a benefits payment to repay debts at 15% of the standard allowance. (Before this budget it was 25%).
No change to the sanction policies though, they remain in place.
Other things to note
All ESA claimants will be moved over to Universal Credit starting in September 2024. (This is an acceleration, it was not meant to happen until 2028).
Minimum wage will increase to £12.21.
Universal Credit will increase by 1.7% (£6.69 a month for standard UC single payments).
There was no change made to the winter fuel payment cuts but Pension Credit will increase by 4.1% (£27.80 a month for Basic State Pension).
Despite Autism and ADHD assessments for both children and adults being a constant issue raised by Local Authorities and NHS authorities alike, they do not get mentioned at all in this budget.
Extra money for the NHS appears to have an entirely physical health focus forgetting our crumbling mental health system which is being thrown a measly £26 million for ‘crisis mental health centres’ mainly to take these issues out of A&E departments and getting people ‘back to work’. [Prevention? Never heard of it /sarcasm]
Fight for Disabled People’s Rights
It is clear from this budget that there will be many issues to tackle in the upcoming months from the Get Britain Working white paper to the Fraud, Error and Debt Bill.
Now more than ever, we need disabled people and our allies to speak up and contact their MPs to explain how this rhetoric is detrimental to our lives and increases the ableism we face.
Join us and other disabled-led organisations to show solidarity with disabled people in the UK.
Protest
In response to the budget and the general attitude towards disabled people, we are having a protest:
- When: Saturday 2nd November at 2pm for one hour
- Where: The Eye of York by the Crown Court (Blue Badge parking in Castle Car park & accessible toilets at Coppergate/ St George’s Field)
- Who: All disabled people of all ages, our carers and our allies are welcome.