https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgzexd29xdo
Some politicians from Northern Ireland have warned the UK government against making cuts to benefits.
Ministers are expected to outline plans aimed at cutting spending on health and disability benefits on Tuesday.
The Alliance Party MP Sorcha Eastwood said that to do so would be "balancing the books on the backs of vulnerable people".
The SDLP's Colum Eastwood described the plans as "immoral and unethical".
The Prime Minister has said the current benefit system is discouraging some people from working which is "unsustainable, indefensible and unfair".
Ministers are planning to make it harder to qualify for Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
The government is looking for savings so that it doesn't break its self-imposed tax and spending rules.
The package of reforms is expected to include more help and support for finding work, and the protection of payments to the most vulnerable.
The work and pensions secretary has insisted her planned changes will be fair.
Sorcha Eastwood wearing a white blouse with flower details around the neck. She is looking off camera with a neutral expression.Image source, PA Media
Image caption,
Sorcha Eastwood accused the government of "balancing the books on the backs of vulnerable people"
Sorcha Eastwood has said the move would "drive more people into poverty rather than employment".
"The government should be tackling poverty, not making it worse," she added.
"Disabled people deserve dignity, security, the right support to live independently, and where possible, to work.
"The social security system needs to be improved to make that happen, but not with these absurd proposals no one asked for."
Colum Eastwood said the proposals "will only make it harder for people with disabilities to live their lives".
"Cuts of the scale currently under consideration would always be unethical but at this moment they would be cruel and would cost many families hundreds of pounds every year that they simply cannot afford," he added.
Becca Bor, from the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network said there were "other ways that revenue can be raised".
Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme she said there was a "concerted effort to demonise and malign people who are disabled".
"The way in which you get more people into work is through support, training on the job, working with employers to actually increase employers wiliness to hire people with disabilities."
Department for Communities sign that says Jobs & Benefits. It has a white, purple and blue background with white textImage source, PA Media
Image caption,
PIP is a benefit for people under state pension age who need help with daily activities or getting around, due to a long-term illness or disability
What is PIP?
PIP is a benefit for people under state pension age who need help with daily activities or getting around, due to a long-term illness or disability.
It can be claimed by people who are in work as well as those out of work.
It is not means tested so income, savings or other assets don't affect eligibility or the amount someone can receive.
It has two components, one for daily living and one for mobility. The maximum weekly payment is £184.30.
Will any cuts have to apply in Northern Ireland?
Legal responsibility for social security is almost entirely devolved to Stormont so local ministers have the powers to make their own rules on PIP or any other part of the welfare system.
In practice NI has nearly always mirrored what happens in the rest of the UK.
That is because the UK Treasury will not directly cover the cost of a more generous system in NI. Instead the money has to found from within the Stormont budget.
This currently happens in a limited way in the wake of Conservative/ Liberal Democrat cuts imposed in 2012.
Stormont ministers eventually agreed to mitigate the impact of some those cuts.
In the next financial year those mitigations are forecast to cost just over £47m.
If Stormont ministers wanted to introduce further mitigations for changes to PIP they would have to find the money by making savings elsewhere or raising more revenue.
How many people in NI get PIP?
The most recent figures, from November 2024, suggest just under 218,000 people in NI were receiving PIP, external.
The figures, from Stormont's Department for Communities, show that about 104,000 of those claimants were aged 55 and older.
At the other end of the age distribution there were just over 18,000 16-24 year olds getting PIP.
Almost a quarter of claimants lived in the Belfast local government district.
The most common reason for receiving PIP was "anxiety and depressive disorders" which accounted for almost 52,000 claims. The next most common condition was arthritis, featuring in around 17,000 claims.
How many people in NI don't work due to sickness and disability?
Working age people who are not in work and not looking for work are described as being economically inactive.
As well as people who are sick or disabled this group includes students, early retirees and unpaid careers.
At the end of last year there were around 318,000 economically inactive people in NI. Of that 118,000, or 37%, were long term sick.
NI had an overall economic inactivity rate of almost 27%, compared to the UK average of 21.5%.
A high rate of economic inactivity is a long-term feature of NI's economy.
Has the situation been getting worse?
Since 2019 the number of people in NI who are inactive due to sickness has increased by a third, according to an Ulster University Economic Policy centre analysis, external of official data.
It found that, since 2022, long-term sickness levels in NI have reached record highs, "to the point that over one in ten (11%) of all working age individuals are economically inactive due to ill health."
A separate analysis of people classified as disabled under the 2010 Equality Act looked at the main reported health conditions, external.
It found that at the end of 2021 almost one in five (19%) disabled people reported specifically suffering from depression, bad nerves or anxiety, increasing from 10% a decade earlier.
This is mirrored at the UK average level where depression, bad nerves or anxiety increased from 7% of people with disabilities in 2011 to 18% in 2021.
by heresmewhaa
9 comments
Well the country simply cannot afford it. It’s a case of what should be cut. This facing cuts is better than the NHS.
If a United Ireland happens, down south won’t be covering the costs of the huge welfare wage bill either. Get used to it
I’d wager they’d probably save a lot of money by cutting Zelenskyy’s and Netanyahu’s benefits.
But labour is the party of the people and only the evil Tories would do such a thing!1!1!1!1!!!
Just shows, every one is a different side is the same arse. Cunts the lot of them.
If the health service was functioning properly those numbers would be way lower. This is disgusting of the government to pick on those unable to access help.
You get treatment eventually for physical health conditions if you wait years. Unfortunately mental health services are nonexistent.
>The most common reason for receiving PIP was “anxiety and depressive disorders” which accounted for almost 52,000 claims. The next most common condition was arthritis, featuring in around 17,000 claims
I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. But those numbers will for sure have many taking the piss out of the rest of us. A clamp down is needed. The genuine people should be looked after and it looks like it will be even harder for them to make their case compared to the debacle over the last number of years with the pip assessments.
But where is the balance. How can you weed out the ones who game the system and not hurt the ones who genuinely need it. It’s not a job I would want. Someone has to make the hard and unpopular decisions.
Does this gimp ever suggest any solutions or is it all how bad the tories/labour government are ?
His boycott of Washington was well worth it for the local economy
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The system just isn’t fit for purpose, as usual it’s more stick than carrot at getting people into work.
I’ve a mate who’s been on the sick for a year and hates it, when he was in hospital he couldn’t renew his licence so lost him any steady employment. Benefits office are frankly useless, they put him on a scheme to train him in something that has no jobs, so he requested funding so he could re-licence and try to return to work. The office refused this because it wouldn’t be a “good return on investment”.
He wants to get the licence to get a job, but they demand he has a job to get the licence. And instead of being able to transition back into the work force, they expect him to go from nothing to working full time.
No one wants to see reductions in benefits for disabled people, but the figures reveal that something is off in NI
They say that “just 218,000 people in NI were receiving PIP”
That’s over 10% of the population, but Scotland has 250,000 despite having more than 2x the population at over 5m. England and Wales have 3.3m with a population of 62m
So we have around double the rate of recipients
Broke Britain.
The only saving grace here is that social security stuff is devolved. These cuts will probably affect us in someway anyways though as the UK govt refuses to actually try anything to fix the UK economy.
Things are only going to get worse as the economy spirals. Time to get off the sinking ship.
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