Labour demands answers on £70m “stealth cut” for disabled people
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On International Day for Disabled People, Labour’s Shadow Secretary
of State for Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds, has called on
the Government to “come clean” about its plans to reform disability
benefits after the fine print in last month’s Budget revealed plans
to cut £70m of planned spending over the course of three years. The
Budget confirmed that the Government will be adopting two proposals
consulted on in its Health and Disability Green Paper over
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On International Day for Disabled People, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds, has called on the Government to “come clean” about its plans to reform disability benefits after the fine print in last month’s Budget revealed plans to cut £70m of planned spending over the course of three years. The Budget confirmed that the Government will be adopting two proposals consulted on in its Health and Disability Green Paper over the summer: expanding the Special Rules for Terminal Illness and replacing the 18-month minimum award period for Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) with “more targeted efforts … to reduce the frequency of assessments”. Government costings show that these changes will cut £70m from disability benefits over the course of three years. Writing to Chloe Smith, the Minister for Disabled People, Dodds accuses the Government of “going behind the backs of disabled people”, given that consultation on the Green Paper closed just a fortnight before these proposals appeared as fully-costed plans in the Budget on 27 October and despite Government commitments in the Green Paper to “explore”, “test” and “consult” on the new proposals. In her letter, Dodds demands that the Government publish more detail as to how it has arrived at these figures, and to make clear that these policies are being designed with the best interests of disabled people in mind rather than cost savings for the Exchequer. Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds, said: “The Government needs to come clean about its plans for a stealth cut to disability benefits buried away in the back of the Budget. “With a vital consultation on these matters having closed just weeks before the Chancellor delivered his Budget, the Government seems to going behind the backs of disabled people and pushing on with its own preferred plans regardless. “We need much more detail about these plans. On International Day for Disabled People, the Government should be acting in their best interests – not trying to sneak yet another cut past them.” ENDS Notes to editors
Dear Chloe Smith, I am writing concerning the Government’s decision, somewhat buried in the fine print of October’s Budget, to go ahead with two proposals included in the Health and Disability Green Paper regarding disability benefits reform and the Government's costing of these. The two changes are namely, to expand the Special Rules for Terminal Illness and to remove the proposed 18-month minimum award period for people receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP). This latter, the Budget explains, will be replaced with “better triaging of cases and testing a new Severe Disability Group”. The Labour Party wants to see the benefits system working as effectively as possible for disabled people, but the nature and costing of these decisions raise two major concerns. First, the Budget scorecard shows the implementation of these proposals resulting in a cut to disability spending of £70m over a three year period (2022-23 to 2024-25). Without any additional detail, it is impossible to know how these savings are calculated and whether they arise because the Department is assuming that some people who currently receive benefits will cease to do so in future. It is also not clear whether short-term cost-saving is the overarching objective driving the proposed reforms – as we know has so often been the case under Conservative governments of the last 11 years, with catastrophic consequences and often the production of additional costs down the line. Secondly, the consultation on the Green Paper only closed on 11 October, just over two weeks before the Budget was delivered. The Green Paper was explicit that the Government intended to “explore” and “test” the new triaging system; and that it will “consult with charities and disabled people’s organisations” and “test the approach” for developing the new Severe Disability Group. These words ring hollow if the Government has already made up its mind about – and fully costed – the policies it intends to bring about as a result of the Green Paper. It looks instead as if the Government is going behind the backs of disabled people and pushing on with its own preferred plans regardless. Can I therefore ask you: · What consultation, exploration or testing of these proposed policies did the Government undertake between the Green Paper consultation closing on 11 October and the Budget on 27 October? · Will you publish the detail showing the basis of the Government’s assumptions that these proposals will save £70m over the first three years of their implementation? · Can you guarantee that the overriding objective of the policies proposed is to improve outcomes for disabled people, rather than short-term cost-saving? · When will your Department publish further information about these proposals and how they will work in practice, and what plans do you have to involve disabled people themselves? · Why was this proposal – which clearly has an impact on a group of people with protected characteristics – not mentioned in the ‘Impacts on Equalities’ section of the Budget, on page 161? Without answers to those questions, it is hard to conclude anything other than that this was a £70m stealth cut to disabled people that the Government was hoping would not be noticed. I look forward to your response, and will be publishing this letter in the public interest. Yours sincerely, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities |
