Former Conservative Chancellor Rishi Sunak said on 26 May 2022 that -
“I can reassure the House that next year, subject to the review by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, benefits will be uprated by this September’s consumer prices index, which on the current forecast is likely to be significantly higher than the forecast inflation rate for next year.”
There is legal protection for disability benefits such as disability living allowance, personal independence payment, and attendance allowance being increased annually by inflation.
In addition, Prime Minister Liz Truss has said that she is “committed to the Triple Lock” protecting the state retirement pension.
However, she has repeatedly refused to give the same guarantee for other benefits in April 2023, saying only that the issue is “under review” by Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith.
There is now speculation that rather than raising benefits for millions of people next April by about 10%, in line with the convention that the uprating should follow the previous September’s CPI inflation rate, the Government will instead raise them by only 5.4%, in line with September 2022 earnings.
Research by the Institute of Financial Studies (IFS) in July this year shows that those on disability benefits have much higher rates of relative income poverty than working-age adults in general (29% versus 20% in 2019–20).
The IFS also found that disability is strongly related to material deprivation. With close to half (44%) of those in the most deprived tenth of the population being Disabled people, compared with 18% of the whole working-age population.
Ken Butler Disability |rights UK’s Welfare Rights and Policy Adviser said: “Around half of all people living in poverty are either Disabled people themselves or have a Disabled person in their household. More than half of people who use food banks are Disabled people.
While all benefit claimants would suffer by not receiving a rise in line with cost increases, disabled claimants will be especially hit hard.
In April this year, benefits rose by just 3.1%. Inflation is now three times that rate and shows no signs of decreasing.
All those on benefits are already suffering the effects of this, with a dramatic rise in food bank use.
Disabled people face increased energy bills.
Disabled people often need more hot water, more heating, and more energy to run specialist equipment than non-Disabled households.
There is not just a compelling case that benefits need to rise by inflation from April 2023, a rise is needed now.”
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