Dear Chancellor
Invest in Disabled People
In advance of the Autumn Budget, we write to ask that you break with the policies of the past and chart a new course in respect of the UK’s 16 million Disabled citizens. We already make a considerable contribution to family, community and the workforce and could do even more with the right support and investment.
Over the past 14 years we have experienced: lower social security payments alongside hostile benefit processes; reductions in vital services and support such as social care, health and Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND; disproportionate hardship and death during the COVID pandemic; and deepening poverty, made worse by the cost of living crisis.
We ask that you view Disabled people and those with long term health conditions as valued members of society, whose lives are equal to all other citizens, rather than burdens or cheats, who need to be coerced to do the right thing. Levels of disability and ill health are increasing for a number of systemic reasons, and penalising Disabled people is not the answer.
We urge you not to make cuts to the social security budget that drive Disabled people into greater poverty. Changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) would result in already poor Disabled people being forced onto even lower benefit rates. Changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) that reduce the benefit or restrict eligibility, also need to be resisted. The additional costs Disabled people face far exceed those covered by PIP.
We ask you to invest in social care, to enable Disabled people, young and old, to get the support we need to live dignified and full lives and be part of wider society.
We ask you to invest in SEND, to give Disabled children and young people the education they need, to have the best chance of fulfilling lives in the future.
We ask the new UK Government to stop treating Disabled people as a cost, burden or problem, and instead to treat us as valued and equal citizens, and to tackle the societal inequalities that are holding us back.
Yours Faithfully
Kamran Mallick
CEO Disability Rights UK