We are a group of 30 disabled people living across Northamptonshire. Our open letter to local MPs is below. If you support us, please sign and share! Please also include your town or village, thank you!

 

Dear Gen Kitchen, Lee Barron, Mike Reader, Sarah Bool, Lucy Rigby, Rosie Wrighting and Stuart Andrew,

We are calling on you to vote against the disability benefits cuts proposed in the Pathways to Work green paper.

Our reasons are:

• Disability benefits are ALREADY well targeted and rigorously assessed. The government’s own report from 2024 shows that the PIP overpayment rate was only 0.4%, and the underpayment rate was 0.4% too.
• Disability benefits are ALREADY only for those with higher needs. Suggesting that only those awarded 4 points per category are seriously disabled is wrong. For example, you can need a carer to help you shower and still get 3 points.
• This is 1,330,000 disabled people losing benefits; a huge, ruthless cut. An FOI request shows that if these cuts go ahead, 87% of disabled people currently in receipt of ‘Standard Daily Living’ PIP, plus 13% of those in receipt of ‘Enhanced Daily Living’ PIP will lose their benefits. Is it really likely a Conservative government made excessive payments on this huge scale?
• If disability benefits are cut, our needs won’t just vanish. These cuts will dramatically increase the pressure on local councils and the NHS, services that are already stretched. Northampton resident Sophie Bradbury-Cox, for example, has shared her battle to get overnight toileting assistance. Many of us will end up in hospital.
• We are already struggling. In 2024, a UN ruling said: “PIP is insufficient and its eligibility criteria are contrary to the human rights model of disability”. The charity Scope estimates the cost of a disability averages £1010 a month. Yet the current rate of PIP ranges from £126.88 to £814.51 for the most severe cases.
• Evidence given to the House of Commons Select Committee for Work and Pensions shows only 3% of disabled people would benefit from the Green Paper’s proposed employment support package.

Overall, we believe the Green Paper is driven by a need to cut expenditure, not a desire to improve the lives of disabled people. 

There is not nearly enough legislative protection for those whose disability and pain makes it impossible for them to work.

For those who can work, we feel the approach is backwards. Change needs to start in the workplace, schools and in wider society, not with impoverishing disabled people. 

BBC News recently reported on the government backlog in making Access to Work payments, widespread across the country, that has left one employer £186,000 out of pocket. This system needs fixing first. 

And to truly support disabled people, we need to start by fixing the major issues with SEN and disability provision in schools to set young adults up for success.

We believe the Green Paper was rushed out, which is why the Office for Budget Responsibility forced last minute changes to the projected savings.

We also believe it is confused in its message. 

Firstly, it suggests cutting PIP to help people get back into work. Yet PIP is NOT a means-tested or work-related benefit. 

As 61-year-old Alex from Daventry puts it: “For me, PIP is vital to help with the additional costs of being disabled; necessary items such as ergonomic crutches, tape, back supports, therapy treatment and a variety of other things not paid for by the NHS. 

“For these reasons, PIP has helped me stay in part-time work and off ESA.”

Secondly, the Green Paper includes irrelevant statistics on a whole raft of young people (aged 16-24) who are not in employment, education or training. These statistics refer to all young people, not disabled young people. Yet they are used to justify denying the Universal Credit health top-up to under-22s. 

Disability benefits are assessed rigorously, whatever your age. Is it not discriminatory to pay a lower rate to younger disabled people, when they face the same costs?

We worry a lot has been forgotten.

For example, many use PIP to employ part-time carers as the Local Authority doesn’t offer enough hours to cover our basic needs like food and hygiene. This means that by cutting PIP, you will force through carer redundancies and create unemployment.

Have you considered that without the lifeline of PIP and UC, we will be more vulnerable to domestic abuse? A 2016 ONS report showed that 16% of women and 8% of men with a long-term illness or disability had experienced domestic abuse, compared to 6.8% of non-disabled women, and 3.2% of non-disabled men.

And don’t forget that many of us volunteer, allowing us to give back to society when we can, without constantly letting employers down when symptoms flare.

This proposal will drive down living standards.

The Government states that its “number one mission is to grow the economy and drive up living standards right across the country”.  

Yet the proposed reforms will impoverish disabled people. The charity Scope estimates that a further 700,000 households will be pushed into poverty.

The Trussell Trust say 43% of people on disability benefits have had to skip meals and 25% are unable to afford pain relief. Of those households referred to food banks, 75% include someone with a disability.

Please see us as people.

Looking around our group, I see a wheelchair user frazzled from the experience of waiting for a bus with a wheelchair space, then being verbally abused by members of the public. He will have to leave early for a catheter change.

I see a veteran, injured in brave service to our country, left to live on insufficient benefits.

I see a young man, visibly distressed because his autism makes being in a large group of people painfully overstimulating. 

I see an older woman injured by the mesh implant scandal, who has been made medically redundant due to her injuries and pain.

I see a childhood cancer survivor still battling the after-effects of chemotherapy, including long lasting immune dysfunction. She’s wearing a mask and taking a risk even being here.

I don’t see anyone taking the easy road and we all stand to lose disability benefits.

None of us wanted to claim benefits. All of us battled a certain amount of shame when we applied. But we didn’t have a choice; we need them to survive.

We also have heavy mental loads. We are in pain while we do everything. Many of us recruit and train our carers, as well as doing their rotas and payroll. Medical admin is easily a day a week. We have to explain everything we need in detail.

We are vulnerable - if our carer burns dinner, we don’t eat. Everything we do, from getting a train, to frequent hospital appointments, requires emails and phone calls to arrange access. This uncertainty over our futures is making life even harder.

Please, make this a defining moment of your career. Turn your empathy up to its maximum setting and tell Keir, Liz and Rachel these cuts are gravely misguided.

If you ever become disabled, you’ll be truly grateful you did.

Kind regards,

Northants Crips Against Cuts, and everyone who signs this petition.

 

Northants Crips Against Cuts is not affiliated with any political party.