PIP cuts will cause further deaths, say disabled relatives of claimants who died due to previous DWP reforms

Three disabled people who lost relatives as a result of past reforms to disability benefits have spoken of their horror at the Labour government’s plans to cut billions of pounds from the system.

Tuesday’s Pathways to Work green paper announced cuts of more than £5 billion from disabled people’s support, with most of that apparently coming from changes that will make it even harder to claim personal independence payment (PIP)*.

The trio of campaigners, who have each fought for justice and for a better social security system since the deaths of their family members**, all told Disability News Service (DNS) of their shock at the government’s proposed cuts.

Dave Smith’s brother James Oliver was desperately ill with chronic liver disease caused by alcohol dependency, as well as other health conditions including scoliosis, hypertension and depression, but he was twice denied PIP following assessments.

Shortly before he died in hospital, in April 2019, he told his brother: “I can’t believe it. I am dying, I am going to be dead, and I’m still not sick enough to get PIP.”

Smith receives PIP himself, and told DNS the proposed changes would make it even harder for disabled people to claim than it was for his brother.

He said: “From what I’ve seen it’s going to be virtually impossible to claim PIP at all unless you are more or less paraplegic and incontinent.”

He said he fears he would not be able to survive if his PIP was removed because of the eligibility changes, and that he could lose £3,500 a year.

He said: “My own health really doesn’t have the energy to deal with such a loss.

“I don’t think I could cope financially without it. And this is without any more draconian plans they have for other welfare cuts.

“Any Labour MP who supports this should hang their head in shame. This will cost lives because many will believe suicide is the only way out to protect their families.”

He said disabled people had been “made to feel like a worthless drain on society” and the government “seem intent on screwing all those with invisible conditions in particular”.

Imogen Day, whose sister Philippa’s death was caused by widespread flaws and failings in the Conservative PIP assessment system, said she believed her sister would have died months earlier if the new PIP proposals had been in place at the time because she “would have felt even more hopeless and demeaned”.

She told DNS she was “absolutely appalled” by the government’s announcements, and said it was clear there had been a lack of co-production with disabled people and their organisations.

She said she believed it was now a “defining moment in our generation about how we treat disabled people”.

And she said it was crucial for the government to acknowledge the impact of the increase in long-term health conditions brought on by the Covid pandemic on disability benefits spending.

Alison Burton, who also spoke at a parliamentary meeting on Monday (see separate story), is the daughter-in-law of Errol Graham, who starved to death in 2018 after his out-of-work disability benefits were removed.

She receives PIP herself, as does her daughter, while her son receives disability living allowance.

She told DNS that she “absolutely” does not trust DWP to implement the cuts safely, and that she had “no doubt” that more disabled people would now die as a result.

She said Labour had decided to strip money from the system and leave “people like Errol as collateral damage”.

Her autistic daughter developed severe anxiety after the death of her grandfather, and it was only through support funded by PIP that she was able to leave the house and attend university.

She told Monday’s meeting: “You take that away, you take the existence of my child away. That’s the reality of it. And that’s what they did to Errol.”

Disabled people and disabled people’s organisations also spoke of their shock and anger this week at the government’s announcements.

The proposals, announced by work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, include plans to scrap the work capability assessment (WCA), rely on the PIP assessment to determine eligibility for the health top-up within universal credit, and cut the rate of that health element for new claimants from £97 per week in 2024-25 to £50 per week in 2026-27, while freezing it for existing claimants until 2029-30.

Tracey Lazard, chief executive of Inclusion London, said disabled people were already much more likely to be living in poverty and had been “pushed to the brink by 15 years of cuts”, and that “slashing support” from disabled people was “a political choice”.

She said it was “shocking and infuriating that these reforms are coming from the same Labour government that promised to end austerity.

“The government have specifically excluded the changes to the PIP and WCA assessments, which are the elements of the green paper that will cause hundreds of thousands of disabled people to lose financial support, from the consultation.

“This is unacceptable: consulting without involving us in the main financial decisions is not consultation.”

She added: “Cutting benefits won’t create growth or help people into work — it will only increase poverty, ill health, and exclusion.

“We know that real change comes through investment — in health, housing, care, inclusive employment support, and accessible workplaces.”

Mikey Erhardt, policy officer at Disability Rights UK, described the cuts as “brutal and reckless” and accused the government of creating “a rhetorical smokescreen around the depth of cuts it’s going to make”.

He said: “The government intends to bar young disabled people from receiving the universal credit health component until they are 22.

“That is alongside their promise to significantly increase assessments at scale without making the assessment process safer for those going through the system right now.

“These measures mark dangerous cuts for all disabled people. Furthermore, altering the PIP award criteria will make it harder for those who need support to qualify.

“Rising claims for PIP reflect not a problem with disabled people but rather reflect successive governments’ failure to do even the bare minimum to create a more equitable society.”

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) said it had been “inundated” with membership requests since Kendall’s announcements, with “terrified and anxious” people wanting to join its Facebook group, and as many as 20 volunteers willing to take legal action against the government over what DPAC’s co-founder Linda Burnip described as the “absolutely appalling” and “despicable” actions of the Labour government.

On Wednesday (26 May), the day of the spring statement from chancellor Rachel Reeves, when further details of the cuts will be announced, DPAC is holding a national day of action in protest at the “pernicious” green paper.

Along with actions in other parts of the country, there will be a protest outside 10 Downing Street, followed by a lobby of MPs and a joint protest with other organisations outside parliament.

Disability Wales said the government’s benefits “crackdown” would “leave many disabled people in Wales considerably worse off without fundamentally tackling the systemic barriers to employment and independent living” and added: “Once again disabled people have been cruelly let down.”

Inclusion Scotland said the cuts would drive disabled people “further into poverty” and “mark a new era of cruel political choices which directly and negatively impact disabled people”.

Heather Fisken, Inclusion Scotland’s chief executive, said: “These cuts are an ideological and political choice that will cause grave harm for Scotland’s disabled people.

“We are opposed to the UK government’s choice to slash the welfare budget by pushing disabled people further into poverty.”

Caroline Collier, speaking for the Campaign for Disability Justice, said: “Disabled people need genuine, accessible opportunities when we’re able to work, and a decent safety net when we’re not.

“Apart from a welcome provision to allow people to try work without penalty, this is a largely destructive and misconceived set of proposals.

“It is not benefits that are keeping people out of the workforce, but inaccessible jobs and barriers from employers.

“The green paper is therefore tackling the wrong problem, and is going to drive worse outcomes by undermining what little safety net we have.

“Also, employment support needs to be delivered by disabled people themselves, not for-profit companies. As a country, we can do better than this, and we must.”

Picture: (From left to right) Imogen Day, Alison Burton and Dave Smith

*See separate story for full details of the cuts and reforms described in the green paper

**All three feature in The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, John Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP, which is published by Pluto Press

*** The following organisations are among those that could be able to offer support if you have been affected by the issues raised in this article:  Mind, Papyrus, Rethink, Samaritans, and SOS Silence of Suicide

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