Reform UK manifesto suggests huge cuts, threats to disability rights, and risks to safety of benefit claimants

The right-wing Reform UK party has published a manifesto that repeatedly threatens the rights of disabled people, suggests it will pose significant safeguarding risks to benefit claimants, and warns of massive spending cuts to benefits and public services.

Although the manifesto is short on detailed policies and contains just two explicit mentions of disability, the 28-page document is filled with policy suggestions that are likely to alarm many disabled people.

The document repeatedly issues blunt threats about slashing spending on social security and attacking long-established rights.

One alarming policy for those who rely on public services, many of which are already struggling with delivery after 15 years of austerity, is that Reform claims it can save £50 billion a year by telling every government department to “slash wasteful spending, cut bureaucracy, improve efficiency and negotiate better value procurement”.

Reform’s claim that this could be done “without touching frontline services”, and other tax and spending claims, have been widely discredited.

On social security, the manifesto is again short on detail but suggests that a Reform government would launch a new attempt to push disabled people into employment, suggesting that it would save £15 billion a year by forcing “1 million plus back to work”.

Although it does not explicitly say it would target disabled people, the document says it would “ensure those who can work do work” and adds: “Employment is critical to improving mental health.”

There is another alarming threat for those on out-of-work benefits, with the manifesto stating that “all job seekers and those fit to work” will have to find employment within four months or accept a job after two offers. Otherwise, it says, “benefits are withdrawn”.

The manifesto also suggests that all assessments for personal independence payment and all work capability assessments should take place “face to face”, a policy that would likely have dangerous consequences for many disabled people unable to cope with such situations.

The manifesto also says a Reform government would “require independent medical assessments to prove eligibility for payments”, although it has yet to explain how this would differ from the current system of assessments provided on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions by private sector contractors such as Capita and Maximus.

In one of the two mentions of disability in the manifesto, Reform says that those registered with “severe disabilities or serious long-term illnesses would be exempt from regular checks”, although again there is no further detail.

The party had not explained by 11am today (Thursday) whether any disabled people currently seen as not fit for work would be forced off benefits, and how it would avoid repeating the countless tragedies linked to past welfare reforms if it did so.

It had also failed to clarify if the threat to withdraw benefits from those not finding jobs would apply to any claimants found not fit for work, and whether it would force disabled people not well enough or too distressed to cope with a face-to-face assessment into attending such a meeting.

On dealing with the social care crisis, Reform argues that a “national plan” is “critical”, but then fails to explain what that plan might be.

Instead, it suggests that there should be a royal commission into the social care system, but agrees that “more funding” – although it does not say how much – will be needed.

It says the social care sector needs “flexibility, tax incentives, VAT breaks and less waste”, but provides no further details or evidence of why this is needed.

It also calls for social care to have a “single funding stream, instead of the split between NHS and Local Authorities”, but it has yet to offer any further detail.

Among a series of attacks on rights – many of which would have a significant impact on disabled people – it suggests leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, reforming the Human Rights Act so it “puts the rights of law-abiding people first”, and creating a British bill of rights.

It has failed so far to provide any examples of which rights it would like to remove from the Human Rights Act.

It suggests that such a bill of rights would ensure that the government could never again order a national lockdown, an emergency step taken during the pandemic to stop the spread of the Covid virus and protect millions of disabled people who were particularly vulnerable to serious illness if infected.

The Office for National Statistics repeatedly found during the pandemic that nearly 60 per cent of those who died Covid-related deaths were disabled people, and most academic studies found that lockdowns were successful in reducing the spread of the virus and the number of deaths.

Disabled people’s organisations have publicly supported the use of lockdowns, and they and others have argued that they almost certainly saved tens or even hundreds of thousands of lives.

The manifesto also suggests that a Reform government would replace the Equality Act – which it mistakenly refers to as the Equalities Act – but doesn’t explain why, other than highlighting that the act “requires discrimination in the name of ‘positive action’”.

It has yet to explain what parts of the act would be scrapped.

The party also promises to scrap “Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) rules that have lowered standards and reduced economic productivity”, but again provides no details on which rules it objects to or any evidence for its claims.

On criminal justice, the manifesto suggests a Reform government would make it even harder for disabled people to persuade police forces to investigate a crime as motivated by disability-related hostility, by changing the definition of a hate crime to ensure that “members of the British public must not be investigated because ‘any’ person ‘perceives’ that a hate crime has been committed”.

The current definition of disability hate crime used by the police and Crown Prosecution Service is that it is any criminal offence “which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice” based on the person’s “disability or perceived disability”.

It is not clear what a Reform government would replace this definition with.

The other explicit mention of disabled people comes in a policy suggestion that a Reform government would scrap all postal voting, except for “the elderly, disabled or those who can’t leave their homes”.

Picture: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage

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