Tories and Reform face Scottish voters with manifestos describing plans to slash disability benefits

The Scottish Conservatives and Reform UK have set themselves apart from the other four main parties by pledging to slash spending on disability benefits, in their pitch to voters for next month’s elections to Scotland’s parliament.

Both parties have used their election manifestos to launch fierce attacks on disabled claimants in Scotland.

Of the four other parties, the Scottish Greens are the only party to offer positive action to help claimants of the main Scottish disability benefit, adult disability payment (ADP), with Scottish Labour almost silent on issues around social security, and the SNP and Liberal Democrats offering little detail on how they would support disabled benefit claimants.

The Scottish Conservatives say in their Scottish election manifesto that they would reduce Scotland’s “bloated” benefits bill and “out-of-control benefits spending” by targeting the government’s Social Security Scotland agency.

They say they would particularly “toughen up” eligibility for ADP, the Scottish government’s working-age replacement for personal independence payment.

According to the manifesto, a Conservative Scottish government – mirroring the Tory direction of travel in Westminster under Kemi Badenoch – would particularly target for cuts those who need support due to mental ill-health.

The manifesto – which mentions disabled people or disability just 11 times in its 96 pages – says Scottish Conservatives “do not believe that people should be able to claim taxpayer-funded benefits for less severe mental health conditions, so we would introduce a new assessment system for anyone claiming ADP for a mental health condition”.

This would require a diagnosis of a mental health condition and “proof that it imposes unavoidable, necessary costs on an individual’s everyday life”, a move the party claims would save £2 billion a year by the end of the next parliament.

In further attacks that target right-wing voters, the Scottish Conservatives would end light-touch reviews of ADP, and scrap government funding for “expensive translation services for people in receipt of benefits”.

Reform UK, in its only explicit mention of disability in a 30-page manifesto which is lacking in policy detail, said it would make “savings” to spending on social security in Scotland, which it said was currently “unsustainable”.

It said it would “overhaul the SNP’s new social security [sic]” to “ensure that work always pays more than welfare” – even though it is Westminster that controls out-of-work benefits – and “ensure rigorous face-to-face assessment of claimants to prevent over-payment and false applications”.

Reform said that spending on the benefits administered by Social Security Scotland – more than half of which are disability benefits – was “unsustainable and distorting the balance of incentive between welfare and work”, even though ADP is not means-tested or job-related.

In contrast to Reform and the Tories, the Scottish Greens say in their manifesto that they would launch an “urgent investigation” into why the proportion of successful ADP applications has fallen since its introduction and “is now below the equivalent figure in England and Wales”.

The manifesto – which includes 40 mentions of disability and disabled people, far more than any other party – says that a Green Scottish government would “implement recommendations to address this”.

It would also implement recommendations made by last year’s independent review of ADP, including a review of the adequacy of payments, scrapping the “inhumane” 20 metre “moving around” rule, and “ensuring [ADP] assessments are inclusive of neurodivergent people”.

And, it says, it would ensure older disabled people can receive the same ADP mobility payments as younger disabled people, while ensuring that support in education, work and access to social security benefits is “not dependent on diagnosis of conditions”.

The SNP manifesto, which mentions disability and disabled people explicitly 17 times, promises “regular reviews on the cost of disability and the effectiveness [of] interventions and support for disabled people” which will “inform action at every level of the public sector to improve the support in a targeted way”.

It also promises “winter heating payments to pensioners, families with disabled children and the households struggling the most” and “a compassionate approach to social security”, although that approach appears to focus on child poverty, with the SNP making no explicit mention of ADP in its manifesto.

The party also pledges a “transition to adulthood guarantee for all disabled young people offering them the support they need to plan and achieve their goals”, although it provides no details of what that might entail.

Scottish Labour, which mentions “disability” explicitly just six times in a 94-page manifesto, also makes no mention of ADP or disability benefits, and says only that it would “prioritise the efficiency and effectiveness of Social Security Scotland” and ensure the system “removes barriers for people who want to take up paid work or increase their hours”, stating that “ending poverty cannot be achieved through welfare alone”.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats mention disability and disabled people explicitly only 11 times in their 98-page manifesto, and again make no reference to ADP, or disability benefits.

One of the party’s only references to social security is in relation to veterans, pledging to ensure that “social security staff and others providing financial or debt advice are veteran aware” and to issue guidance on armed forces compensation and means-tested benefits.

But it also backs policies of the UK Liberal Democrats on issues such as removing the benefits cap, scrapping the bedroom tax, and ensuring universal credit “covers life’s essentials”.

Meanwhile, the disabled people’s organisation Glasgow Disability Alliance has published its own Manifesto for a Fairer Scotland for Disabled People, including five key asks for parties across disability poverty, employment, public services (including scrapping care charges), participating in society, and disability rights (including incorporating the UN disability convention into Scottish law).

People First (Scotland) has also published a manifesto (PDF), as has Vox Scotland.

Inclusion Scotland published its disabled people’s manifesto last October.

Picture: Malcolm Offord, leader of Reform UK Scotland, and (right) Russell Findlay, leader of the Scottish Conservatives