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We are urging MPs to vote against proposed cuts to health and disability benefits today. Even following recent concessions, our Financial Shield project indicates that the cuts will contribute to worsening health and higher levels of over-indebtedness. Far from reducing overall costs, these will simply be shifted onto other services; notably the NHS and local authorities. They will also likely make it more difficult for people to move into, and sustain, employment.
As a charity working with people with long-term health conditions and disabilities through our Financial Shield project, we are extremely concerned that government does not appear to have considered the implications of its proposals for the management of health conditions or for levels of over-indebtedness. We call for the cuts to be stopped and for a full assessment of these wider issues.
Analysis by Trussell suggests some 400,000 future PIP claimants, over the course of the Parliament, will lose out by an average of £4,500 per year even following the recent concessions. 700,000 future UC claimants will lose around £3,000. Analysis by Citizens Advice suggests some claimants will face a ‘double whammy’ losing out by as much as £11,000.
Losing these entitlements will make it harder for people to manage their long-term health conditions and live with dignity. Over the past four years, we have been leading the delivery of the ‘Financial Shield’ project in Lambeth and Southwark, for people with long-term health conditions and disabilities, who are in financial hardship. The programme is built on a preventative ‘spend-to-save’ model of public health. This has provided us with deep insights into how increased income and debt support are vital to tackling underlying health conditions. Working in partnership with over 30 GP practices, local authorities, and advice agencies, the project is showing how accessing financial support reduces poverty, and in turn health inequalities, and leads to reduced pressure on the public purse.
Our project has helped around 1,200 people with long-term health conditions and disabilities to unlock existing entitlements and support worth millions of pounds. It has also provided people with a fast-track ‘local breathing space’, protecting people from local authority debt enforcement while incomes are maximised. Our forthcoming report, submitted to the Department for Work and Pensions in response to its recent Green Paper, shows the importance of existing benefit entitlements. By helping people to obtain these, Financial Shield has improved people’s health and reduced the use of primary healthcare services. It has also helped reduce rent and Council Tax arrears.
The positive impact of Financial Shield has only been possible because of the bedrock of PIP and UC health support. Many, who have not previously accessed these benefits, are in a desperate position when entering the project: making multiple visits to GP practices with worsening mental health due to the inadequacy of their incomes. If the cuts go ahead, they will inevitably lead to a greater use of primary healthcare and a further rise in rent and Council Tax arrears.
Even at current levels of support, it is proving impossible for many to afford the basics, and tackling the worsening health of our nation requires much more to be done. Report after report has highlighted the socio-economic determinants of health inequalities and government needs a joined-up approach to tackle these. Instead, it appears that the proposed cuts have been driven by a rushed requirement to meet self-imposed fiscal rules. Those rules - seeking to ensure current spending is in balance or surplus by 2029/30 - are far too tight given the costs of the recent pandemic and the damage wreaked by austerity in the years prior. We urgently need investment, not just in capital projects, but in our people too.
While therefore welcoming proposals to provide improved employment support, it is important to recognise that people will be less able to move into or sustain employment if they are unable to afford the basics and their health is worsening. Cutting social security support is counter-productive to the aim of increasing employment rates.
A joined-up strategy is needed, backed with long-term investment to address the damage caused by the pandemic and subsequent cost-of-living crisis. The current Bill fails to address the real challenges that people with long-term health conditions and disabilities face, and we urge MPs to vote against the government's proposals today.
