DPAC Northern Ireland

Who we are

We are Disabled People Against Cuts Northern Ireland and we are part of the DPAC coalition across the UK. Disabled People Against Cuts was set up to highlight and challenge disproportionate and unfair impacts of austerity and welfare reform measures on Deaf and Disabled people. We triggered the unprecedented investigation carried out by the United Nations which found the UK government guilty of grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights. A follow up inquiry in 2024 found no significant progress in addressing the situation and evidence of regression in several areas including social security.

This is part of a series of briefings. Others can be found on DPAC website looking at full scale of the cuts and numbers impacted per proposal, key missing information MPs do not have access to, and setting the record straight on inaccurate statements being repeated by MPs in correspondence with their constituents.

Key concerns

This is a summary of our key concerns relating to the plans to cut social security payments for Deaf and Disabled people outlined in the Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working:

• Increased disability-related poverty on a mass scale. Disability-related poverty already accounts for 57% of all poverty in the UK and rose dramatically even before the cost-of-living crisis. At least another 350,000 – 400,000 households including 50,000 children will be moved into poverty as a result of these cuts.

• Disregard for the lives of Deaf and Disabled people. The proposed cuts will unquestionably lead to further avoidable and tragic disability benefit deaths. They will also lead to Deaf and Disabled workers having to leave jobs while others are moved further from employment.

• Increased pressures on public services. The PIP cuts alone will directly impact 1.325 existing claimants while putting many thousands more at risk of losing our benefits.Even for claimants who do not end up with losses at reassessment or following Mandatory Reconsideration/appeal, this will entail considerable additional anxiety and distress affecting also family, friends, paid and unpaid support workers and professionals.

• Absence of any proven need for the proposed cuts. Welfare spending as a proportion of GDP is lower now than a decade ago and is not forecast to rise for the next five years. What has risen is disability as a proportion of overall welfare expenditure. This is for several reasons, including raising the State Pension age and rising disability prevalence, and none of which justify the individual and societal impact of the cuts.

• Potentially negative impact on the UK economy. The UK economy could potentially suffer from these cuts due to increased additional pressures on public services, loss of employment, reduced retail spend, increased survival crime and increased expenditure on addressing the impacts of poverty.

• Misleading representation of numbers affected and impact of cuts. Media reporting does not make clear that reported figures are based on calculations that are the product of – in their own words – a “highly uncertain judgement” by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) and do not represent the size of the static, on-paper cuts. Some MPs may not even understand this.

• MPs not having all the information before voting. Expected employment outcomes will not be published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) until October 2025. The published impact assessment does not cover the increased poverty impacts of cuts to out of work disability benefits nor of the abolition of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). Information from the Ministry of Justice concerning increased expenditure on additional appeals is not yet available.

• Inadequate consultation and engagement with Deaf and Disabled people. The Government consultation does not include the planned cuts to Personal Independence Payment. 22 of the proposals in the Green Paper are not open for consultation. Pre-election, Labour pledged to co-produce their social security policies with Deaf and Disabled people. Now they are not even adequately consulting on major legislative and policy changes.

• Proposed one billion pound spend on employment support not being a good use of public funds. This spend is being used to justify cutting essential income from Deaf and Disabled people who are unfit for work under current conditions.

• Reliance on unevidenced-based assumptions. For example, that social security payments for Deaf and Disabled people unable earn a living from employment disincentivises employment.

• Failure to learn from an overwhelming weight of evidence built up over the past decade and a half on the impacts of austerity, welfare reform and poverty. New research shows that austerity impacts are the primary factor behind increased numbers of young people who are NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET).

Conclusion

The majority of the public are against the planned changes to disability benefits. The proposals are widely perceived as cruel, unnecessary and purely performative. Significant numbers of constituents will be unable to vote for MPs who vote in favour of, or abstain in votes on, these cuts.