Burnham ‘must pay heed’ to new research which shows public do not back cuts to disability benefits

The Labour government risks alienating voters if it ignores new research which shows the public strongly oppose cuts to spending on disability benefits, disabled people’s organisations warned the prime minister this week.

Disabled activists are now set to brief MPs about the research and show them that the hostile “political narrative” on cuts is “totally out of step with public opinion” and is also “wrong on the facts”.

The research could be hugely influential over the next six months, as Andy Burnham’s government is set to make key decisions on spending on both personal independence payment (PIP) and out-of-work disability benefits.

The results are included in a new chapter of the British Social Attitudes Survey*, published by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), which found that only seven per cent of those questioned said there should be less spending on disability benefits, while 49 per cent said there should be more spending, even if it would probably lead to higher taxes.

It also found 57 per cent support among Labour voters for more spending on disability benefits, with only five per cent favouring a reduction.

The authors** conclude that any attempts to cut PIP – with the Timms PIP review reporting its draft recommendations last night (Wednesday) and final findings to come later this autumn – would confront “widespread, cross-party support for extra-cost benefits for disabled people with impairments that affect their daily living”.

They also found that support for spending on disability benefits “remains strong across the political spectrum”, with just seven per cent of Conservative voters and 11 per cent of Reform UK voters supporting cuts to disability benefits spending.

They found that 40 per cent of right-leaning voters support more spending on benefits for disabled people who cannot work, and only 10 per cent support less spending, despite continued calls for cuts by right-wing parties and commentators (see separate story).

Even among people who oppose more “welfare spending” overall, only small minorities (10 per cent or less) want to see cuts to spending on disabled people who cannot work, NatCen found.

Although support for spending on disabled people who cannot work has fallen since 2021, NatCen said the public remain “very strongly opposed” to cuts to spending on this group.

The survey was carried out last year, and the report published this week.

Its authors warn that the absence of detailed data on what people mean by “disabled people who cannot work” means there is possibly some support for cuts in benefits to particular groups of disabled people, but they say that overall there is “strong and continued support for spending on disability benefits”.

The report was widely welcomed by disabled people’s organisations this week.

DPO Forum England said the results confirm the findings of other researchers who concluded that “hostility towards social security is led by the political and media class, who incite negative views in the public and then point to this vocal minority – they have created – as proof government need to cut benefits”.

Rick Burgess, the forum’s co-chair, said Burnham “should pay heed” to the new research, with policy announcements on social security due over the next few months following reviews and reports for the government by Sir Stephen Timms, Alan Milburn, Professor Peter Fonagy and Sir Charlie Mayfield.

He said: “Our job now will be to make sure as many MPs as possible are briefed on this reality, that people do support disability benefits.”

He added: “This data now shows the democratic will of the country supports spending, and any political initiative to enforce further cuts will be a vote loser for the government.”

Julia Modern, Inclusion London’s senior policy and campaigns manager, said the report was clear that Labour risked “alienating their base” if its ministers attacked social security for disabled people.

She said: “The political narrative is totally out of step with public opinion.

“It’s also wrong on the facts: the report shows that spending on social security for working-age people as a percentage of GDP*** remains stable, at a similar level to what it was in the 1990s.

“In fact, it has actually reduced since the early 2010s.

“Attacks from politicians and the media threaten disabled people’s livelihoods and independence, and sometimes our very lives. They need to stop, and stop now.”

Caroline Collier, from Inclusion Barnet’s Campaign for Disability Justice, said the research “exposes the gap between the public mood and recent political posturing”.

She said: “It shows that most people understand that social security helps disabled people to be part of society – work where possible, contribute to our communities, and have control over our own lives.

“The public is sending a clear message – politicians cutting off support are out of step with public opinion.”

Dennis Queen, co-chair of Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, also welcomed the research and said it was “a great sign that further campaigns on this topic may be supported across the board”.

She said: “It’s clear that there is no real swell of support for attacking social security from any political group. It’s just a financial choice of governments.”

She said that “just a few bad actors” had been trying to persuade the public that their financial struggles were due to spending on social security and not because of their gas, rent and electricity bills.

She said: “We pay national insurance from our wages to make sure that people are looked after when they cannot do it themselves, in the awareness that we could end up being one of them ourselves.

“Nobody wants to remove that safety net because it turns out that it was a really good idea and has prevented a lot of abject poverty, widespread homelessness and starvation, which filters down problems to everyone else, too.”

Sophia Kleanthous, policy and campaigns officer for Disability Rights UK, said the survey “shows yet again that the public is very supportive of benefits paid to disabled people, despite unrelenting hostile political rhetoric on the supposed growing welfare bill”.

She said the findings “should give the government significant pause for thought” if it is considering cuts to benefits to disabled people after the Milburn and Timms reviews report this autumn.

She said: “The findings of the British Social Attitudes Survey should make the government, opposition parties and the media think again about their hostile and punitive approach to disability benefits.”

*The British Social Attitudes Survey is the UK’s longest-running survey of social and political attitudes, conducted annually by NatCen since 1983

**The chapter’s co-authors were Dr Robert de Vries, senior lecturer in quantitative sociology at the University of Kent, and Professor Ben Geiger, professor of social science and health in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s College London

***Gross domestic product, the size of the country’s economy in a particular year

Picture: (From left to right) Caroline Collier, Dennis Queen and Rick Burgess