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Advice NI Urges NI Executive to ‘Keep an Open Mind’ on Protecting Sick and Disabled from Welfare Cuts

Advice NI highlights potential local impact of recent Government proposals affecting sick and disabled people & calls on the NI Executive to ‘keep an open mind’ on what could be done to mitigate the impact on the most vulnerable.

Advice NI Briefing Paper highlights:

  • Estimated financial impact of between £100m - £150m in cuts
  • NI Assembly has agreed that withdrawing or cutting social security support for those most in need risks exacerbating poverty
  • Figures highlight that 25% of claimants have already lost their disability benefit during DLA to PIP reassessment
  • Over 82,000 PIP claimants (38%) are in receipt of the lower Standard Rate Daily Living and so possibly more likely to be affected by the proposed new rule (a minimum score of four on at least one of the daily living activities)
  • Loss of the Daily Living component will also impact on carers as this component is a key eligibility criteria for Carers Allowance
  • Over 58,000 UC claimants (37%) claim the limited capability for work element and so will be impacted by the freezing of this element for existing claimants (will be halved and frozen for future new claimants)
  • Over 51,000 income-based ESA claimants are set to move to Universal Credit in the coming months and so will be affected by the limited capability for work element freeze
  • Over 77,000 ESA claimants (84%) have been on benefit over 2 years, which evidences the potential detrimental impact of time-limiting on future new contribution-based ESA claimants

Kevin Higgins, Head of Policy Advice NI said:

“Our position is very clear. Having endured over a decade of social security cuts and freezes under the thin veil of welfare reform, we are once again seeing need fall victim to financial expediency. Despite no additional social security cuts in the Spring Statement, the Government has already set out a raft of cuts in the Green Paper ‘Pathways to Work’ amounting to £5billion primarily affecting people with disabilities. 

Advice NI calls on Government to stop this attack on social security benefit claimants; stop abusing and exploiting vulnerable sick and disabled people. We call on anyone who is worried about how these announcements might affect them to get help from the independent advice network – either your local advice provider or contact Advice NI.”

Proposals contained within the ‘Pathways to Work’ Green Paper, which will not come into force immediately, include:

  • Scrapping the work capability assessment with effect from 2028, instead linking the universal credit health element to eligibility for PIP;
  • Reintroducing reassessments for people on incapacity benefits who have the capability to work to ensure they have the right support;
  • Targeting Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for those with higher needs by changing the eligibility requirement to a minimum score of four on at least one of the daily living activities to receive the daily living element of the benefit, in addition to the existing eligibility criteria.
  • 'Rebalancing' payment levels in universal credit by freezing the value of the health element for existing claimants until 2029/2030 and reducing it (and freezing it) for new claimants, while providing for an above-inflation increase in the standard allowance and an additional premium for those with the 'most severe, life-long health conditions';
  • Delaying young people's access to the health element of universal credit until they are aged 22 on the basis that the savings generated could be reinvested into work support and training opportunities;
  • Ending the indefinite entitlement to contributory ESA for those assessed as having limited capability for work-related activity (for new people claiming);

Kevin Higgins continued:

“Our Helpline and frontline members across the network are telling us that people are already distressed and frightened by the prospect of cuts to their benefits. Therefore we have produced this Briefing Paper to try to firstly set out clearly what the proposals may mean for claimants here and secondly to set out what we can do locally to mitigate the harshest impacts on our most vulnerable people.

Importantly our MLA’s have agreed that these cuts risk exacerbating poverty in NI but more than that, our Ministers and our NI Executive need to keep an open mind in terms of what might be possible in terms of mitigation. Obviously, we need more evidence in terms of the impact and we call on the Department for Communities to produce this information as soon as possible. We also need to explore what options might be open to us locally for example bolstering support for independent advice services; increasing resources to help people in crisis via the Discretionary Support scheme; and exploring whether mitigation payments could be put in place, in particular for people who lose their PIP award entirely and so risk the double whammy of loss of PIP and loss of their Universal Credit health element from 2028, when the universal credit health element will be linked to eligibility for PIP.”

The Advice NI Briefing Paper is available Potential impact of ‘Pathways to Work’ Green Paper in NI | Advice NI

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