Local Updates on Benefit Cuts

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York Disability Rights Forum peacefully picketed in St Helen’s Square ahead of the Full Council Meeting on 27th March and attracted a large crowd. We had a number of speakers who made clear the likely impact that the proposed cuts will have – and the impact that the threat of them, together with the rhetoric surrounding the announcement implying that claimants are ‘scroungers’ or ‘too costly’ to the state, is already happening. 

The webcast of the council meeting itself is now live. Key points to watch:

  • Public Participation starts at 10.47
  • Council Leader, Cllr Douglas talks about the issue in her report to Council at 33.54
  • The debate on the motion starts at 2.48.10.

Cllr Burton secured important Labour amendments which strengthened the original motion and commits the Council Leader to write to the Prime Minister, Chancellor and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions thus putting the local Labour Group at odds with the national government, a highly unusual step which one can only hope gets replicated in other Labour Councils to put pressure on for change. 

The final motion (which was passed) said:

“Council notes that:

  • The Government is bringing forward a Green Paper on changes to disability and long-term sickness benefits, including Personal Independence Payments (PIP)
  • PIP is a benefit not linked to work that is designed to help people with the additional unavoidable costs of being disabled;
  • Reports have suggested that the Government is considering freezing PIP payments in 2026 and tightening eligibility criteria, including for reassessments
  • Many disabled people use PIP to cover the cost of getting to and from work, for paying for essential equipment and for meeting social care charges
  • The Resolution Foundation has commented that “Freezing PIP next year will result in a real-terms income loss for around four million people, 70 per cent of whom are in low to-middle income households” 
  • The York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation has said that “If the Government cuts disability and long-term sickness benefits it will be unethical, short-sighted and can only deepen hardship.”
  • The fear that many disabled people feel around the impact of any cut to PIP
  • The need for careful language when discussing issues around welfare or disability so as not to unnecessarily demonise those in need or give any validation to those who wrongfully or maliciously characterise welfare recipients as scroungers or undeserving;
  • York Central MP Rachael Maskell has said that “it is right that the Chancellor has oversight over all those budgets but not at the expense of pushing disabled people into poverty.”
  • York Outer MP Luke Charters has signed a letter which states “As MPs, we understand that delivering this new social contract requires hard choices to be made. We welcome the work that has begun to rebuild our welfare system, and we are fully supportive of it.”
  • If reports of a £5bn cut to PIP turn out to be true, this would be greater than the cut that led former Conservative Work & Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to resign from Government in 2016

Council believes that:

  • Reviewing welfare support to ensure all members of society are able to engage with society and live fulfilling lives is welcome;
  • Any review of welfare support should not be predicated on a pre-determined cost saving;
  • Support for disabled people has been severely impacted by years of austerity. Disabled people need better support, not a cut in income.
  • If the Government does decide to make significant cuts to PIP and other disability and long-term sickness benefits, there is likely to be a direct impact on City of York Council and its partners in a number of ways, such as:
  • An increase in demand for council financial assistance through schemes such as the York Financial Assistance Schemes
  • An increase in demand for the council’s means-tested Disabled Facilities Grant
  • Increased demand for advice and support from the council’s Local Area Co-ordinators and partners such as Citizens Advice York 
  • An increase in the number of disabled residents who may be unable to afford care charges, impacting on their ability to continue to live independently
  • Those disabled people currently in receipt of the higher rate mobility component of PIP, who have a Motobility vehicle and whose awards are downgraded would lose entitlement to a Motability vehicle, which would impact significantly on social isolation and create further dependence and could stop them being able to get to and from work. (PIP is not an out of work benefit).

Council resolves:

  • To ask the Leader of the Council to write to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister to express;
    • this Council’s strong belief that welfare reform must not be predicated on financial savings and in particular, cuts to PIP;
    • that as a Council we recognise the difficult financial situation the country faces and believe the correct way to address this is by tackling the enormous wealth inequalities that exist in our society, not by removing desperately needed support from those least able to bear the cost; 
    • the severe impact of austerity on support services and the soaring levels of need; 
    • that following the social model of disability necessitates that National and Local Government work tirelessly to remove barriers – whether physical or financial – to ensure disabled people are able to live socially, emotionally and financially secure and fulfilling lives which puts them on an equal footing with non-disabled people;

To request the relevant Scrutiny Committee to undertake a review via a Task and Finish Group, when detailed Government proposals on disability and long-term sickness benefits are known in order to identify likely impacts on the demand for support from the council and its local partners.”

What can you do:

We are encouraging people to let their local Councillors and MPs know their views, as well as writing to the All Party Parliamentary Group for your impairment(s) if applicable.

Further actions will be shared as planned, but to take part in planning and supporting the campaign against benefit cuts, please join our Discord channel.

All Party Parliamentary Groups

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