Last week, the government published proposals to change disability benefits across Britain — and chancellor Rachel Reeves set them in stone yesterday in her spring statement. Regardless of the rhetoric being used to describe the changes as a moral crusade, it represents the biggest attack on welfare in a generation, with the scale of the cuts to disability benefits affecting over one million people.

No Labour politician wants to see young people unable to fulfil their potential, or disabled people denied access to the workplace. But this is not the same thing as cutting the benefits of the poorest in society, sanctioning those who cannot find a job or restricting the numbers of those eligible for support in the future.

The universalist approach to welfare, which Labour appeared to abandon with its means-testing of the winter fuel allowance last year, recognises that our social security system should be there to protect us when we need it most. But right now it’s failing to meet many people’s fundamental needs, with disabled people already facing an unacceptably high level of hunger and hardship. Recent polling by YouGov on behalf of the Trussell Trust shows that over three quarters (77 percent) of people claiming Universal Credit and disability benefits have gone without essentials in the last six months and one in five (19 percent) were forced to use a food bank in the last four weeks.  

We also know that disabled people face huge barriers when it comes to getting into or returning to the workplace. The latest figures show that 4.4 million people with a disability are out of work and economically inactive. While around 200,000 of those say they are ready to go back to work now, there is little in the government’s proposal to suggest where that employment is going to come from.

Estimates suggest that planned restrictions to the eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) could see at least 800,000 disabled people lose out on support of between £4,200 — £6,300 per year.

Similarly, the plan to freeze the Universal Credit health top up from next April will mean that 2.4 million people will lose out on £280 a year by 2029-30. For those granted the UC health top up after April 2026, the rate will be cut by £47 a week, which the IFS says will mean people losing out by £2,500 a year by 2029-30.

Disability Rights UK has been clear that ‘the depth of the proposed cuts far outweighs positive changes to employment support.’

One of the most striking features of the proposals is that they also undermine other work the government is trying to do. Child Poverty Action Group have highlighted that 870,000 children live in families who receive PIP, and 290,000 (34%) of those are already living below the poverty line. At the same time that these changes could make those families worse off, Labour’s Child Poverty Task Force is busy looking across departments to consider how to end the number of children in this country who are growing up poor. This simply doesn’t align.

The right, and large parts of the media, argue that the benefits bill has emerged because it’s too easy for young people with mild mental illness to make a claim. But anyone who has ever sat down to complete a PIP application form will know how complicated it is. There is actually little evidence to show that the UK is spending proportionately more of GDP on working age incapacity and disability benefits than it was 20 years ago. What is true is that health data shows more people are ill and disabled. On top of that, there is now a 22-year gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas of the country.

The government is right is that there is a moral crusade. But it is to tackle the social determinants of ill health and the causes of poverty — not to cut the benefits of the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. The basic rate of Universal Credit also needs to move closer to covering the cost of the essentials.

Any plan for reform must therefore focus on supporting disabled people into work by enforcing the Equality Act, holding employers accountable for making reasonable adjustments and investing in the Access to Work scheme. In the short term, this will cost money.

That’s why we need to change course if we are to rebuild our economy and put Britain on a more sustainable economic path for the future. This will mean reviewing the Chancellor’s fiscal rules and prioritising a substantial increase in public investment to rebuild our public services and create an economy which supports families, businesses and communities to prosper and thrive.

We also need to start looking at restoring the previous Labour government’s 50 percent income tax rate for the highest earners and levying the full rate of National Insurance on all earnings. Similarly, the current rate of corporation tax is substantially below the average levied under the previous Labour government and needs to be raised. Multinationals should be forced to declare profits wherever they operate, bringing in just under £15 billion a year, and reform of capital gains tax is long overdue. For example, equalising rates with income tax to better share the load between those who earn a wage and the returns on invested wealth could bring in an estimated £12 billion a year. A wealth tax on two percent of assets worth over £10 million could also raise a dizzying £24 billion annually.

Over the last few weeks, MPs have been in touch with constituents who are understandably worried about how the cuts will affect them or their family. One of mine summed up her feelings powerfully: ‘The very party that made sure my grandparents and parents (all lifelong Labour supporters) were cared for in their old age, when they were sick and needing help, is turning its back on those citizens who need it now.’

Cutting benefits won’t create more jobs, it will only cause greater levels of poverty. It’s time the government understood that.