{"id":222236,"date":"2025-06-28T20:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T20:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222236\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T20:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T20:47:08","slug":"the-simple-problem-with-labours-disability-benefits-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222236\/","title":{"rendered":"The simple problem with Labour’s disability benefits bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are seven people not in work and claiming universal credit for every advertised job vacancy, when you include the health portion of universal credit, the JRF said.<\/p>\n

That means there is one \u201cdisability confident\u201d role available for every 121 people on incapacity benefits. In ex-industrial areas, this number is one role for every 333 people.<\/p>\n

Researchers concluded that \u201cpeople on disability benefits who live in places with high numbers of those out of work will have the greatest challenge in finding a job, undermining the government\u2019s wish to drive up employment amongst disabled people\u201d.<\/p>\n

The analysis \u201cadds to the growing evidence that few people will actually find employment as a result of the changes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCutting disabled people\u2019s benefits won\u2019t magically create suitable jobs, particularly in those parts of the country that have long had weaker jobs markets. It\u2019s little wonder so many disabled people are fearful of the impact of the government\u2019s cuts,\u201d said Abby Jitendra, principal policy adviser at JRF.<\/p>\n

Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n

\u201cAs MPs gear up to debate the government\u2019s cuts<\/a>, we urge the government to change course by protecting disabled people from the harm that these cuts will cause and offering a real plan to create good quality jobs across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Cutting disability benefits will not create more suitable jobs\u2019<\/p>\n

MPs are currently set to debate the cuts in parliament on Tuesday (1 July).<\/p>\n

More than three million families were expected to lose out as a result of the originally proposed cuts. Taking Starmer\u2019s latest concessions into consideration, food bank charity Trussell<\/a> estimates that an estimated 430,000 future PIP claimants will lose an average of \u00a34,500 a year. Meanwhile 700,000 new claimants of the universal credit health element will lose an average of \u00a33,000 per year. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, The Learning and Work Institute and the Resolution Foundation<\/a> estimates that up to 105,000 people will find work owing to the government\u2019s package of cuts and employment support.<\/p>\n

Experts added that disabled people face \u201cbarriers\u201d when it comes to employment, and cutting benefits will \u201conly make it harder\u201d for them to find work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government say they want more disabled people to move into work, but 86% of unemployed people with a learning disability have told us they want a paid job but aren\u2019t being hired,\u201d Dan Scorer, head of policy and public affairs at learning disability charity Mencap<\/a>, told the Big Issue.<\/p>\n

Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people with a learning disability feel like they\u2019ve lost out on a job before they\u2019ve even applied -facing barriers with inaccessible application forms, battling negative employer attitudes and a lack of simple reasonable adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scorer added: \u201cCutting disability benefits will not create more suitable jobs or the specialist support needed for disabled people to move into and stay in work. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know with the right support, reasonable adjustments and inclusive workplaces, people with a learning disability can thrive. However, this research shows the huge challenge disabled people face in finding work, and cutting benefits will only make this harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK<\/a> added that the government \u201cshould not pretend that getting work is an easy option\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government should not be inflicting savage cuts to disability benefits, driving hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty and stripping us of our independence,\u201d Hadi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe JRF research shows how little has been done by government, to make employment accessible to disabled people. While the designation of \u2018disability confident\u2019 doesn\u2019t necessarily mean equality for disabled job applicants and workers, the fact that so few jobs are covered by the Scheme is a problem.<\/p>\n

Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, whether or not an employer is disability confident, disabled people regularly encounter discrimination in securing jobs, progressing in work and in retaining jobs. The Equality Act is regularly breached, with our requests for flexibility denied and our applications for reasonable adjustments refused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hadi added: \u201cOn top of all this, the government\u2019s Access to Work Scheme<\/a> is now letting down disabled people who have found a job or are already in work, through excessive delays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Promises are easy to break. Sign <\/strong>Big Issue\u2019s petition for a Poverty Zero law<\/strong><\/a> and help us make tackling poverty a legal requirement, not just a policy priority.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine<\/a> or get the app from the App Store<\/a> or Google Play<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Read more: There are seven people not in work and claiming universal credit for every advertised job vacancy,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[87722,345,51,13626,348,3374,13975,897,11525,12,350,25427,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-222236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-benefit-cuts","9":"tag-benefits","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-cost-of-living-crisis","12":"tag-disability-benefits","13":"tag-employment","14":"tag-health-and-wellbeing","15":"tag-jobs","16":"tag-learning-and-employment","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-pip","19":"tag-social-justice","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}