Sunak accused of ‘complete attack on disabled people’

Rishi Sunak is considering withdrawing major disability benefits from some people with mental health problems, sparking claims he has launched an “all-out attack on disabled people”.

The Prime Minister announced new restrictions on disability benefits on Friday and said he wanted to explore whether some cash payments to claimants with mental health conditions could be replaced with treatment or access to services.

In a speech on wellbeing, Sunak said he was launching a consultation on the Personal Independence Allowance (Pip), a non-means-tested benefit paid to disabled people to help with the extra living costs caused by long-term disability or ill health.

He said that as well as reviewing payments to people with mental health conditions, the government would look at whether other people with disabilities should receive help with one-off charges rather than ongoing payments.

The announcement sparked outrage from disability charities, who said the number of people becoming unemployed and claiming benefits was being driven by crumbling public services, poor quality jobs and high poverty rates among disabled households. Mind, the mental health charity, said services for mental health problems were “at breaking point”.

There are 1.9 million people on a waiting list for mental health treatment in England, meaning the treatment they should be able to access through the NHS is not currently available to them.

Sunak said Britain is proud to have a strong safety net of social benefits to those who need them, but he also said the country has a “culture of disease” that needs to be addressed.

He said “something has gone wrong” since the pandemic that has increased the number of economically inactive people suffering from long-term illnesses, especially with mental illness.

“The most worrying thing is that the majority of long-term illness cases are coming from young people… who are on welfare,” Sunak said.

He said the country could not afford the £69 billion “spiraling” disability bill, which was now more than the basic budget for schools, and claimed the Pip budget was expected to rise by 50% over the next four years.

Other measures he outlined included:

• Shifting responsibility for issuing fit notes, previously known as sick notes, from GPs to other “work and health professionals” to encourage more people to return to work.

• Confirmation of plans to legislate “in the next parliament” to cut off benefit claims for anyone who has been claiming for 12 months but does not meet the conditions for accepting available work.

• More people on Universal Credit who work part-time are asking to find more work by raising the income threshold from £743 per month to £892 per month, meaning people paid below this amount will have to find extra hours.

• Confirmation of plans to tighten work capacity assessments so that more people with “less serious conditions” have to seek some form of work.

On Pip’s assessment, Sunak said it may be right to pay one-off costs for adjustments, but the payments may not need to be ongoing.

The Prime Minister said the Government would look at whether more medical evidence about the conditions should be provided as some payments were made on the basis of “subjective and unverifiable claims”.

He said some people with mental illnesses may be better served by treatment and access to therapies than by out-of-pocket payments.

Sunak also warned of “the risk of over-medicalising life’s everyday challenges and concerns” when it comes to paying benefits to people with mental illness.

His comments were echoed by Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who told Sky News on Friday: “If you go to the GP and say you’re feeling a bit depressed and you’re signed off 94% of the time, , a box is checked indicating that you are unable to work at all.

“What we want to do is change the system so that that person is referred to – the government is setting up something called Work Well – where they not only get the healthcare support they need, but also a work coach involved will be either helping them stay in work if they have work, or helping them stay in work if they don’t.”

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “Millions of people are stuck on NHS waiting lists, unable to get a GP appointment or struggling to access mental health care. Rishi Sunak is trying to blame the British people for his own government’s failures on the economy and the NHS, but that just won’t work.”

Matthew Pennycook, the shadow housing secretary, said Sunak was pursuing a “cheap headline” on his claims that Britain has a “sick letter culture”.

“There has been a rise for many, many years under this government in the number of people on long-term sickness benefits because they cannot get the treatment they need through the NHS, which is on its knees after 14 years . Years of Conservative government, otherwise they won’t get the right support to get back to work,” he said.

Charities warned that the benefit cuts would make people’s problems worse. James Taylor, strategy director at disability equality charity Scope, said the speech “feels like a direct attack on people with disabilities”.

“These proposals are dangerous and risk leaving people with disabilities destitute,” he said. “In a cost of living crisis, cutting the income of disabled people by hitting Pip is a horrifying proposition.

“Calls are pouring in to our helpline from concerned people with disabilities. Life costs more for people with disabilities. Threatening to remove the low income Pip offers to disabled people who incur £950 a month in extra costs will not solve the problem of economic inactivity… Much of the current record levels of inactivity are due to the fact that our public services are crumbling. , the quality of jobs is poor and the poverty rate among households with disabilities is growing.”

Dr. Sarah Hughes, the chief executive of Mind, said the mental health charity was “deeply disappointed that the Prime Minister’s speech today continues a trend in recent rhetoric conjuring up the image of a ‘mental health culture’ that has ‘gone too far ‘. .

“This is harmful, inaccurate and contrary to reality for people across the country,” she said. “The truth is that mental health care is at a breaking point after years of underinvestment, with many people becoming increasingly ill as they wait for support. The latest figures from the Care Quality Commission on mental health care in the community show that almost half of people (44%) waiting for treatment found their mental health worsening during this time.”

Iain Porter, senior policy adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said the Prime Minister has started an “irresponsible war of words against people who already don’t get enough support, which the government would rather not talk about”.

“Many people want to work, as the Prime Minister says, but their hopes are being dashed by dismal health and social care support and job centers that are not fit for purpose,” he said.