DWP facing first protests over cruel £6bn of benefit cuts

Chronically ill and disabled people are set to hold the first protest against the Labour Party-led Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) brutal plans for disability benefit cuts. Local group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) Norfolk have organised it under the banner “End Labour’s War on Disabled People”. On Friday 14 March, it will take this demand straight to the constituency Labour Party’s front door.

DWP’s dangerous disability benefit cuts

As the Canary’s Steve Topple previously reported, on Friday 7 March, the DWP leaked its plans for up to £6bn in welfare cuts to ITV News. Notably, this largely revolved around changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit that would hit chronically ill and disabled people the hardest. As Topple laid out:

Under the proposed changes, £5 billion is expected to be saved by tightening eligibility for DWP PIP, which is designed to support those with additional costs due to disability. In addition, PIP payments will be frozen next year, meaning they will not increase with inflation, affecting approximately four million chronically ill and disabled people.

Further alterations include increases to the basic rate of Universal Credit for those actively seeking employment or in work, while reducing support for individuals judged unfit for work. This, along with the changes to PIP, are perhaps the most vindictive of Labour’s plans: intentionally targeting the most chronically ill and disabled people.

Already, prime minister Keir Starmer has vocalised the contempt for chronically ill and disabled people that’s at the heart of his government’s plans. Specifically, on Monday, he called the welfare system “unsustainable, indefensible, and unfair.”

This also came amid multiple recent attacks on DWP disability benefit claimants from Labour MPs. Recently, Kendall suggested that some people are “taking the mickey” – playing into the dangerous narrative that many current claimants are not genuinely unable to work. Just last week, justice minister Shabana Mahmood defended the government’s moves to slash welfare with the hostile comment that:

This is the Labour party. The clue is in the name. We believe in work.

And since then, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has reiterated the same message. Of course, these new ‘reforms’ are the crystallisation of this very rhetoric. So, as the Canary has consistently pointed out, it’s chronically ill and disabled people who the Labour Party intend to bear the brunt of its brutal DWP welfare spending cuts bonanza.

DPAC protest – the fight back against the DWP begins

Given the enormous stakes, DPAC Norfolk is stepping up to resist the DWP cuts.

The group is planning to turn up outside the Norwich Labour Party’s member’s meeting on Friday 14 March at 6.45pm:

#EndLabourWarOnDisabledPeople

Please support Norfolk DPAC
Protest at Labour Party Meeting
Friday 14th March 2025
6.45pm
St Mark’s Church Hall
Hall Road
Norwich
Norfolk
NR1 3HP pic.twitter.com/aglMhsaDtU

— DPAC (@Dis_PPL_Protest) March 9, 2025

There, the group will lay out a series of clear messages to the local party about what these DWP cuts would mean for chronically ill and disabled people. As it wrote on its event page:

No More Deaths from Benefit Cuts!
End 14 Years of Tory Cuts and Austerity!
Tax the Rich Not Disabled People
Tory and Labour Cuts Kill!
Nothing About Us, Without us!

The point DPAC Norfolk will make is that on Labour’s current trajectory, it’s set to pick up the baton of the Conservative’s shameful legacy. This is obviously one of over a decade of the Tory-led DWP’s callous cuts killing disabled people. Now, Labour’s move to nearly double its previously stated £3bn in welfare cuts, will invariably do more of same.

Of course, the group needs as many local allies as possible to turn out and drive this reality home.

Tell MPs #HandsOffDisabilityBenefits

Alongside the protest, DPAC is also preparing to host a parliamentary meeting on Monday 17 March. Representatives of the group will meet with MPs at Portcullis House to spell out in no uncertain terms the devastating impacts of Labour’s DWP plans on chronically ill and disabled people.

As the Canary’s HG reported, less than 20% of Labour MPs have so far said they’re opposed to the cuts.

What’s more, a group of 36 Labour MPs styling themselves the ‘Get Britain Working’ group has also named and shamed themselves in support of the disgraceful proposals. Coordinated by DWP House of Common’s select committee member David Pinto-Duschinsky, the group has penned a letter to back Kendall’s plans:

The 36 @uklabour MPs in the ‘Get Britain Working’ group who have written to Liz Kendall and who will back and argue for forthcoming welfare reforms – co-ordinated by DWP committee member @DavidPintoD pic.twitter.com/HKG8uKt2ql

— iain watson (@iainjwatson) March 10, 2025

DPAC is therefore aiming to engage with as many MPs as possible to urge them to reject the government’s sweep of dangerous so-called reforms.

Ahead of this, its calling on the public to put pen to paper and call on their MPs to meet with DPAC on the day. On its Facebook group, it posted a link to a template letter for constituents to fill out:

#HandsOffDisabilityBenefits

Get busy emailing your MP please
Use this template letter amend it by sharing your worries about disability benefit cuts
Share your personal story how you will be impacted

Invite them to attend DPAC Parliamentary
Meeting on Monday 17th March 2025
4-6pm
Thatcher Room Portcullis house London
Link here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z-UyXXcCBUiMY_2POvCQAhr7srbbodtmnCqEEllCWRQ/mobilebasic?

If you wish to attend the meeting yourself some funding available to help with transport/accommodation but contact DPAC quickly mail@dpac.uk.net

If you are not sure how to contact your MP you can look them up here

https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/

DPAC is encouraging as many people as possible to do so. Crucially, it’s asking members of the public to voice to their MP the impact these horrifying cuts will have on them personally, or on their loved ones.

Time to stop Starmer’s bid for backers for his DWP plans

Not unrelatedly, the Canary’s Rachel Charlton-Dailey has also helpfully put together a list of the Get Britain Working group member’s constituencies. So, in case constituents felt like dragging them for it, that’s here:

Here’s a list of all the MPs who signed this letter supporting Benefits cuts and their constituencies. Because their constituents deserve to be able to oppose them on this https://t.co/JOFicTa9m8 pic.twitter.com/GtXoh92U8b

— Rachel Charlton-Dailey (@RachelCDailey) March 11, 2025

Starmer and his key staffers are calling ministers in for two 30-minute ‘briefings’ about the yet-to-be officially announced DWP plans on Wednesday and Thursday. Ostensibly, its to “win over” MPs for its package of atrocious austerity-driven cuts.

So, DPAC Norfolk will be taking the local Labour Party to task – while the national group is gearing up to counter Starmer’s bid for backers. And of course, this is only the start. In the coming weeks, DPAC and others will ramp up to resist all this. If you can join them, the fight back starts on Friday 14 March, and the following Monday 17 March.

Featured image via the Canary