Over 100 notable disabled individuals in the UK have issued an urgent letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemning proposed cuts to disability benefits. They argue that these cuts threaten the survival of around 700,000 impoverished families, equating the reform to cruelty. The letter highlights the interdependence of benefits that support both disabled individuals and unpaid carers, along with the potential exacerbation of social exclusion and disability-related deaths. Official estimates indicate that these cuts could financially devastate millions, prompting the need for policy reconsideration.
We have already endured a decade of austerity, disproportionate pandemic losses, and life-costing cuts, the letter says of disabled people in the UK. We, the undersigned, will not stand by while our community is sacrificed for the illusion of savings.
The government's plans, set out in a green paper earlier this year, would reduce the eligibility criteria for Pip – a non-means tested benefit designed to pay for the extra costs of disability – for an estimated 1 million people.
For us, Pip is not a benefit – it is access to life.
This is not reform; it is cruelty by policy.
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