Labour benefit reforms ALREADY fatally flawed, by banging on about saving £3bn

Labour Party plans to get more disabled people back to work must ensure that the risk is not carried solely by the individual if they take steps towards work, new research from Scope and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) concludes. Planned benefit reforms to health and disability social security from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) prioritise cutting costs by £3 billion, but meeting arbitrary savings targets will drastically limit the policy’s effectiveness.

A fresh approach to DWP benefit reforms is needed

Ahead of the imminent expected release of the “Get Britain Working” white paper, JRF and Scope are urging the government to take concrete steps to reduce the jeopardy attached to disabled people engaging with work:

• Put in law a “Work Transition Guarantee” to prevent reassessment for benefits within 18 months for those who participate in job support and to reinstate benefits if work doesn’t work out.
• Replace the Work Capability Assessment with a fairer system developed with disabled people.

These recommendations have been informed by research with disabled people and will unlock work for people who receive DWP health and disability benefits as well as addressing hardship.

The government’s current approach to economic inactivity and ill-health

The “Get Britain Working” benefit reforms white paper will include details on how the government intends to support people with disabilities or long-term health conditions into work and is set to be published this month.

Reforms to the DWP health and disability benefits system, which aim to make £3 billion worth of savings, are set to be announced in early 2025.

When over half of families in poverty contain someone who is disabled and almost two thirds of people in destitution have a long-term health condition, Scope’s survey findings reinforce that benefit reforms to a health and disability system that are primarily designed to cut costs will lead to further distrust rather than supporting disabled people into work, as well as causing significant increased hardship.

Iain Porter, Senior Policy Adviser at JRF, said:

Developing a policy that works doesn’t start with a demand to save £3 billion, an arbitrary figure chosen to match the plans of the previous government. The system for supporting disabled people into work does need reform. That reform should be based on effective, long-term policy which recognises that disabled people shouldn’t be bearing the bulk of the risk. It might take several attempts to get a job that works if you’re managing a complex health condition.

Without a guarantee of support through the process this risks leaving our society’s poorest and most vulnerable people taking the leap into work while fearing they’ll lose out on vital benefits if things don’t work out. These fears are well-founded, as people who receive disability and health related benefits already face disproportionate levels of hardship.

These cuts also won’t help more disabled people find work. A harsher system that stems from cutting costs would deepen distrust and fail to address real employment barriers for disabled people. Instead, the government should rethink these cuts and design support alongside disabled people to encourage steps towards employment without penalizing those for whom work doesn’t work out.

James Taylor, Director of Strategy at disability equality charity Scope, said:

We all want to get more disabled people into work, and it’s clear from this research that the WCA and back to work support both need massive upgrades.

The upcoming Get Britain Working white paper, and investment in localised employment support for disabled people are welcome. We know that at least a million disabled people want to work and could with the right support. But in the budget the government also announced their intention to take money out of our welfare system.

We have a government that is pulling in two different directions at the same time. They want to get more disabled people into work, and to cut back on the financial support that allows disabled people to live in the first place. Ultimately, this approach could make some disabled people more fearful of the government’s back to work schemes.

Benefits system acts as a barrier to disabled people getting into work

New research from disability charity Scope highlights the overwhelmingly negative outcomes experienced by disabled people within the existing DWP system, demonstrating that benefit reforms with savings as the primary objective would be the wrong approach, and should instead focus on improving the experience of those interacting with it.

Scope surveyed over 900 people with lived experience of disability, 382 of whom currently claim a work-related disability benefit, in fieldwork running from February to July 2024.

Disabled people said that the risk of losing benefits prevents them from engaging in employment support:

• Over three-quarters worried about engaging with employment support because they worried it could trigger a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) reassessment in which they might be found ‘fit for work’.
• Seven in 10 worried engaging could trigger a WCA reassessment at which they might lose extra financial support.
• Almost two-thirds worried that if they came off benefits but a job didn’t work out, they wouldn’t be able to reclaim all their previous entitlements.

Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates from last year predicted that similar levels of savings from reforms to the WCA benefit reforms announced by the previous government would lead as few as 15,000 recipients into work, despite 424,000 people being denied extra financial support by 2028/29.

Disabled people already face disproportionate hardship – without benefit reforms

New JRF analysis shows the already high levels of hardship facing disabled people – without Labour’s planned DWP benefit reforms:

Three quarters (75%) of recipients of health-related elements of Universal Credit experience material deprivation, a government poverty measure derived from a lack of items and activities deemed necessary for an acceptable standard of living. For working-age adults receiving non-health-related Universal Credit this figure is two-thirds (66%).

Almost half (48%) of adults in a household where someone claims health-related Universal Credit are also in a household without reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious, healthy food, compared to 11% of all working-age adults.

Almost a quarter (24%) of working-age adults in a family receiving health-related Universal Credit have had to use a foodbank in the last year, compared to 3% of all working-age adults and 17% of working-age adults receiving non-health-related Universal Credit.

Featured image via the Canary