3 weeks Ago
Residents have contacted a local MP ‘in terror’ due to the proposed government disability benefit cuts. In an exclusive interview, Sian Berry, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion slammed the government’s proposed £5 billion of savings through welfare reforms, as she says it "rips away" vulnerable people’s ability to live. She told the Argus that 31 per cent of her constituents are living with someone who is disabled.
“Why are they [the government] cracking down on the people who are already struggling so much?” the MP said. “They said they want to grow our domestic product but then they're cracking down on their people. “If their goal is to have more people being economically active, entrepreneurial and going to work, taking away PIP [Personal Independence payment] is not the answer.
“It is the thing that enables disabled people to go into work, which has nothing to do with whether or not you're in work. It's literally the thing you need to survive and to make your life equitable with other people. “To go after that is just terrifying.
” Green Party MPs (left to right) Sian Berry, Adrian Ramsay, Carla Denyer and Ellie Chowns outside HM Treasury, London, with scales to show the unfairness of targeting disabled people for government cuts (Image: Stefan Rousseau) The initially proposed £5 billion of savings on March 18 was largely based on changes to eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip), but also from a reduction of the health element of universal credit. The change to a single assessment under Pip could leave some 600,000 people who currently qualify for the health element of universal credit at risk of moving onto the standard rate and being worse off by at least £2,400 a year from 2028, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said. The MP added: ”I say terrifying, because I've literally had constituents getting in touch in terror.
“Benefits terror was a subject line for one person. “I've had someone come to my surgery really scared, thought I might be able to reassure them a bit, as they were worried the changes could come into effect immediately. I'm having to tell them no; it's not going to happen tomorrow.
“It's as if people's security, their ability to live, could be ripped away at any moment. “Why is a Labour government doing this? Why didn’t they tell us they were going to do this? It's a big shock to people and there's a lot for us to do.” In the Spring Statement delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on March 26, further changes to the welfare reforms were announced.
Protesters gathered at Hove Town Hall (Image: The Argus) One was that the health element of universal credit for those with limited capacity to work was initially set to be halved for new claimants to £50 a week in 2026-27, then frozen. In the statement, the government has said existing claimants will have their entitlement frozen at £97 a week until the end of the decade. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that the impact of the measures as a whole will reduce spending by £4.
8 billion by 2029-30, rather than the £5 billion the government estimated. The Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) assessment of the impact of the changes found that by 2030 more than three million families will lose out financially as a result of the welfare cuts, an average loss of £1,720 annually. The assessment also said the changes will leave an estimated quarter of a million more people, including 50,000 children, in relative poverty after housing costs across Great Britain by the end of the decade.
Sian added: “There is prejudice and stigma against claiming benefits. This also deters people from going and claiming benefits to which they're entitled, and I think underclaiming is as much of a problem as overpayments.” Disabled people protest against welfare reforms in city centre (Image: Ramy Abou-Setta/ The Argus) When the welfare reforms were announced in March, supporters of Crips Against Cuts Brighton (CACB), a disabled-led pressure group , demonstrated at the Clock Tower, Brighton and then in front of Hove Town Hall.
The demonstration aimed to raise awareness of the “devastating impact” that the recently announced cuts will have on local residents. The Green MP told The Argus that around a third of households, roughly 31 per cent, in Brighton Pavilion live with someone who is disabled. In a recent report published by the DWP, it found that 44 per cent of all children living in poverty are living in a household where someone is disabled.
“People who are disabled, who have issues that society, and barriers that society puts in the way because of their disability and that need help to remove it,” Sian said, “we should be providing a safety net. “Particularly if the reason there's a barrier that they face is not something to do with them, it's their genetics or an illness they've got or some accident in life. Something they can't control.
“There is still majority support for social security. I'm absolutely convinced. "And the job of a Labour government is to build up that feeling of community and togetherness and support for each other.
"That's supposed to be the whole ethos, isn't it? "They're for the people, by the people – so far they have not been doing that.”.
