Ten major charities have issued a joint briefing condemning the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill as Labour continues to insist it will go ahead with Tuesdays vote, in spite of a large scale rebellion.
The charities behind the report are: Scope, Trussel, Mind, Citizens Advice, Sense, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, New Economics Foundation, Child Poverty Action Group, Z2K, Turn2Us.
Amongst the finding is the briefing are:
As a % of GDP, the UK government is spending the same amount on working-age benefits as it was in 2015. This stands at around 5% and is not projected to change by 2030. This is because we have seen deep cuts to benefits like Universal Credit alongside the increase in people claiming health and disability benefits.
We spend a similar amount on these benefits as comparable countries in the OECD. Even considering the more recent increase in claims, our overall spend on disability benefits as a % of GDP is similar to or lower than that of countries including France, Australia and New Zealand.
The provisions in this bill would reduce support for over 3.2 million disabled people. They will push between 300,000 and 400,000 people into poverty. They will also drive 440,000 people in disabled households into severe hardship – a measure of deep poverty which captures people likely to need to use a food bank.
Added investment in employment support will, at most, result in between 1-3% of the 3.2m people seeing their support cut move into work.
83% of the public has heard of the planned cuts, with 58% saying they are a bad idea and just 32% saying they are a good idea.
You can download a copy of the joint briefing from this link. Definitely worth sending details to your MP, regardless of whether they signed the amendment. Sadly, unless Labour cancel the vote on the bill scheduled for Tuesday, then there is no reason for campaigners to ease off.
