Lords Committee calls for benefits cuts

Details: Published: 20 January 2025

The cross-party House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee (EAC) has today called for the government to “accelerate its plans to reform health-related benefits”, warning that the country now spends more on incapacity and disability benefits than on defence

The 14 member EAC has four each of Labour, Conservative and crossbench peers and two Lib Dems and includes former Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont.

The EAC claims that 3.7 million people of working age receive health-related benefits, 1.2 million more than in February 2020. They argue that the UK is now spending more on incapacity and disability benefits (almost £65 billion) than defence – and that figure is set to rise.

The committee also says it has seen no convincing evidence that deteriorating health or high NHS waiting lists have been the main driver of the rise in health-related benefit claims

It argues that there has been “a wealth of analysis” of the problems with the benefits system along with credible solutions.

The EAC’s recommendations include

A reform of the fit note system
Individuals who are signed off work for more than a month should undergo additional or ongoing assessments
Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is not rigorous enough and susceptible to error. The assessment should be face-to-face and seek to establish what work an individual can do rather than looking to corroborate what they cannot do.
If people return to work, they should not be at risk of immediately losing benefits; or, if the job proves unsuitable, they should not be immediately faced with having to reapply for these benefits.
Just as unemployed people have a work coach, so should those on incapacity benefit for the first two years of their period on benefits.

The call will add to growing pressure on Liz Kendall to make cuts to benefits, at the same time as last week’s High Court Judgement will oblige her to be honest about the financial effects of those cuts on claimants.

You can read the committee’s call for urgent action here.

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Neil David · 17 days ago
Surprise, surprise, the Lords EAC, dominated by right wing voices talks about crack downs, cuts, and more 'vigorous' interviews, and dismisses out of hand evidence that shows the real problems. The fact it was lied bt Liemont just adds icing to the bitter taste.

It's nauseating listening to Lords and MPs alike dismissing the disabled as human beings with disparate needs, and lumping them together as 'work shy scroungers' which is the clear implication. We are human beings, but you'd never know it the way the govt and press talk about us.

Yes, many of us do want to work. But here's the thing - not all of us are able to do so. Why should they be intimidated and bullied into taking jobs that mean well end in disaster, just so the govt can please the City and hard right voters?

I also love the straw man arguments. We are spending more on benefits than defence. Yes, and? It's not the disabled fault that govt has slashed defence spending over the last decade. Nor is the disabled fault that the govts response to Covid was desperately poor. Hence we have so many needing support.

As ever, the politicians blame anyone but themselves and pick on easy targets to deflect blame. The whole lot should be sacked for wilful incompetence, laziness and corruption.
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Paddy · 21 days ago
Lords are paid £375 A DAY to others they can’t get a few hundred a month. Disgusting.
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Spectralis · 23 days ago
Apologies for a flurry of posts about this issue but it occured to me that maybe many claimant's don't realise that if you are disabled, receive PIP or ESA, are classified homeless by one Council and then rehoused "temporarily" in a different borough you may not be able to claim Universal Credit in that new borough.
This is because housing benefit is paid by the borough that rehouses you while council tax benefit is paid by the borough in which you are rehoused. As Universal Credit includes housing benefit it is borough/council specific. So until you're rehoused permanently in the original borough you can't update your claim to UA.
I found this out when I was rehoused after my cancer diagnosis in a "temporary" ground floor bedsit after my home of 23 years became unsuitable for me to live in. I've been living in this tiny, damp room, miles away from the hospital for over two years now waiting for sheltered housing.
So if any of you are in a similar situation (I hope not!) Is it any wonder then that disabled people claiming benefits get confused by this system and then don't know how to update their claim or don't even realise they need to?
That's not fraud but a despicable Catch 22 set up by the DWP and the government.
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Spectralis · 23 days ago
Ruby, you break the problem down really clearly. That's what we need to do when the Lords and other state funded or profit driven scapegoaters try to attack disabled people.
PIP fraud is zero but for other benefits it's slightly higher. The DWP have a very creative way of calculating fraud that seems to change depending on merging benefits and other sophistry.
Tax fraud, on the other hand, is a serious problem. Revealingly, rich people dodging their taxes hasn't been mentioned by Reeves.
Then we have the Royal family and their recent cancer diagnosis'. Having got cancer, I wouldn't wish that on anyone but do you think they have to wait 3 hours to receive chemo and spend 3 hours in a van travelling home? I think not. All subsidised by public funds.
I amend the quote from my previous post to include wheelchair users and the bed ridden (of which I am sometimes a member.) Better to die on my feet, arse or back than live on my knees (which are incredibly painful at times.)
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Ruby · 23 days ago
Let's break this down. The benefits bill is too high.

Possible causes:

b. Too many people are deemed to be sick/disabled

The cause cannot be a, because the government itself sets the amount people get, and it has been shown to be less than the additional cost of disability. Universal Credit is set at a level which is barely enough to survive on, and represents a poverty level existence. So how are we judging the payments made as being 'too much'? Too much in comparison to what?

If the cause is b, then there are two possible underlying drivers:

a. Too many people are being deemed sick/disabled when they aren't
b. Too many people are sick/disabled

We know it isn't a, because the DWP themselves have said that the fraud rate for disability benefits is ZERO per cent. So nobody is receiving benefit when they shouldn't be.

So it must be b. Why are so many people becoming sick and disabled, and staying that way?

Could it possibly be COVID, poverty, the NHS being on its knees, lack of access to mental health support, lack of liveable work circumstances, the stresses of 'modern life' being incompatible with human wellbeing... Or any combination of these or other factors?

Whatever the underlying driver(s) is/are, stopping people's benefit or making them jump through hoops to prove what has already been proven, or moving the goalposts from the already ridiculously difficult and arbitrary to the practically impossible to meet, are not going to solve the problem.

You'll just end up with more dead people, more depressed people, more sad people and more very angry people.

And with the political temperature as it is at the moment, I don't think any of those is in the best interests of the country, the population OR the government.

Which is presumably why they're trying to whip up the anti 'fake cripple scoungers' fervour ahead of the measures. We live in dangerous times.
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  Patty F · 21 days ago
  
  @Jan You have hit it on the head there. My bubbly, confident happy teen started slipping into a dark place during lockdowns. I took her out of school for home schooling. She went to help look after horses at stables every day after school work. Glad I did this, she bounced back and is now back in school sitting her highers. She hopes to go to university. The children really took it rough. She’s not as mature as she should be. Not seeing friends for 2 yrs does that. Or was it longer here in Scotland?! Time stolen. So sad. 💜
  
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  Jan · 22 days ago
  
  @Ruby Beautifully written and largely accurate. But may I add my own example, please: I fell ill a few years ago but am fortunate to have PIP and am now retired after working for 43yrs. Where I think there does need to be a reset among the additional, 1.2 million, is that since Covid-19, I know of at least 3 young adults, from different families, who proport to have such acute anxiety that they cannot work - they all receive PIP. If these anxieties were looked at more closely by professionals (NOT the DWP), then I feel certain that, these young adults would be foundt to be quite 'normal' and would, with supportive talking therapies, be able to re-engage with society, eventually to find suitable work. All three lost confidence during the pandemic but are now rotting away on benefits without having begun their life's journey. Multiply this accross the country and it is an absolute tragedy - for the country but for those young people, also. All are well educated. What an absolute waste of their talents. No happiness is to be found living on benefits. This is very real problem.
  
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  JDPuss · 23 days ago
  
  @Ruby Well said and completely accurate
  
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Spectralis · 23 days ago
I have chemo twice a week at a well known London hospital. We regularly have to wait two to three hours after our appointment time due to pharmacy problems. Lack of staff, not enough equipment or space to prepare the various drugs needed to treat each patient's specific cancer.
Imagine sitting in the waiting room for three hours feeling sick as a dog just to receive chemotherapy? Depending on where you live, patient transport can take three hours to get there with four other patients. You have to be ready to leave for your appointment three hours before pick up time. Then it takes another three hours to get home.
If that's how us terminally ill cancer patients are treated then I'm sorry to say most other disabled people haven't got a cats hope in hell of getting decent treatment these days. That's the reality of the NHS in a nutshell.
So when I hear or see one of those government lickspittles on TV telling us disabled to pull our belts in I want to drag them to the chemo clinic and make them go through what we have to go through. I doubt they have the fortitude to suffer the indignities so many disabled people go through everyday because treatment and support services have been cut, cut, cut! Stuff more austerity! If I can wait hours for chemo I can blimming well protest for hours outside parliament against more Labour cuts and attacks on disabled people. I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees.
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  Patty F · 21 days ago
  
  @Spectralis I would take you to your appointments if I could. I am so so sorry you and other have to endure this injustice and inhuman treatment. I have chronic health, no c diagnosed, thankfully. I find meditation and studying law of attraction/ assumption really helps me. Have you heard of Neville Goddard and eckhart Tollie. Eckhart teaches how to heal from within. Sending you many blessings.
  💜💜💜
  
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GPS · 23 days ago
Sadly it is the same old story of successive governments using vulnerable groups of people as a scapegoat to blame for the financial woes of the country. They connivingly use black propganda in the media to get Joe (ignorant) Public on side with their plans and scheming. LAZY, LAZY politics! You have the EAC pushing the government to accelerate cuts to the benefit bill, whilst their members are given each day almost as much money as some claimants are expected to live on for a month! They fail to mention the cost to the tax payer for their perks and 'benefits', and their subsidised meals; and all this for a group of affluent people who can easily afford to pay and survive without these handouts.

The one thing I cannot get my head around is why is there such a dire and urgent need to reduce the benefits bill, when the media constantly report that the government sets aside each year for the DWP a sum of £23 BILLION POUNDS for available benefits that go UNCLAIMED?!!!
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J. Fara. · 24 days ago
Let's look at this philosophy about getting people with disabilities back into work. Firstly, where are all the employers who are willing to take on someone with a physical disability e.g. someone in a wheelchair, on crutches or uses a walking stick. I'm not talking about hidden disabilities here. I went to a council meeting over 20 years ago now and they stated then that they know they don't employ enough people with physical disabilities. I volunteered for the council for over 10 years and nothing has changed. When I used to go into the council offices, I only saw 1 person in a wheelchair and 1 person using a stick. If the government want people with physical disabilities to get back into work, then they should be making it compulsory for employers to make sure that 50 per cent of their workforce are people with physical disabilities. They need to stop targeting disabled people and focus on the employers who won't take on physically disabled due to the costs of reasonable adjustments or health and safety issues. But, we all know it's easier to go after the disabled people than actually going after the employers. I tried for over 20 years to get a job with a physical disability. I got interviews but never got one single job. I've experienced the discrimination by employers SO, government sort the employers out, not the disabled people.
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  Jan · 22 days ago
  
  @J. Fara. Very well written and so very accurate.
  
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Spectralis · 24 days ago
I think there are a few trolls on here peddling lies about people claiming without medical reports or a diagnosis. They're also claiming that people exaggerate their condition.
If you read B&W regularly, it's clear that the opposite is true. Claimants with a diagnosis and medical documents to back it up are being turned down or are not receiving the correct rate because their condition is wrongly assessed.
Don't believe government hype about benefits. They have an agenda to cut government spending by any means necessary. Unfortunately we are the target for Labour's Austerity V2. The unelected Lords should have no role in deciding our future.
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Gazilla · 24 days ago
I'm worried about this , I have bulimia and depression and I self harm all because I contracted HIV through being raped and each day to me can be a struggle or a massive struggle ... yet we are expected to be okay with this foul treatment ?
It's making me even more hopeless and suicidal
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Sarah Tranter · 24 days ago
These people don't live in the real world. The reason more people are out of work because of illness and or disability is owing to the fact that the NHS is broken. We are all struggling to get GP appointments and then waiting lists can be up to a year or more, even then they might not be able to do much because of funding treatments etc. Then there is the fact that there aren't decent/suitable jobs for anyone who is fully able let alone for those who are disabled or ill, many of whom are only capable of working part time anyway. On top of that the transport systems are broken, especially if you live in small towns and rural areas (like me) so how are people who are unable to drive or afford a car supposed to get to work?
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Gazilla · 24 days ago
How about making it fair and cutting their £350 per day allowance?
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Kathyl · 24 days ago
Instead of cutting benefits for disabled people, how about the House of Lords STOP getting £361 a day just for showing up and going to sleep in the chamber! this alone would save the country millions over the course of a year. Constant assessments for sick/disabled doesnt help it makes their health worse due to the constant stress they have to endure. Genuine people will have medical evidence, accept Doctors know more that physio's, who often lie in reports..
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tintack · 29 days ago
From the Disability News Service:

"The cross-party economic affairs committee based its report on just six oral evidence sessions, held last October, November and December, and it took no written evidence.

It took no evidence from any disabled people’s organisation, or from anyone who claims out-of-work disability benefits.

Instead, the committee heard from thinktanks, ministers, civil servants, academics and the Office for Budget Responsibility."

Is anyone surprised?
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  Neil David · 17 days ago
  
  @Andy Who, apart from ministers trying to please the Tory press and the spiteful element of the electorate, says our welfare spending is 'unsustainable'? Certainly not the economists. Nor anyone who's compared the UKs welfare spending compared with other nations. Indeed, our welfare spending either as per head of population or per GDP isn't anywhere near the top spenders.
  
  The UK is actually extremely miserly compared to its major competitors. Don't fall for the lies. Benefit cuts are purely for votes, not because the govt 'ever' needs to make them.
  
  Not to mention of course the 'sweeteners' to keep the centrists off their back, of 'job coaches' and 'support for employers' is in itself miserly. To get the numbers they are talking about back into work and providing adequate support needs millions more than the sum offered by Reeves.
  
  Govt also flogs the lie that employers are just desperate to get the disabled into work. My last job was in HR, and I can tell you for a fact the opposite is true. If I had a fiver for every time an employer said, 'when can we sack this person, we just can't accommodate them', (and no, as long as the employer can prove they've made reasonable adjustments it isn't illegal), I'd be sunning myself on my own private Island...
  
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  Andy · 26 days ago
  
  @tintack I agree with you completely that's not an adequate exercise of research or analysis in terms of excluding individual claimants or their organizations. But the numbers of people on disabled benefits myself included and those expected to be added to that may well be unsustainable. They don't need our involvement with their deliberations to understand the scale of the financial challenge or indeed that unquestionably jaw dropping numbers of people end up poor or relatively poor and socially isolated long-term if not for life. Something needs to be done about it but not at the expense of well-being or safety.
  
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  Elizabeth Vidler · 29 days ago
  
  @tintack tintack in a word no in that way they get the answers they want to hear, and we can expect to be penalised, what a great 2025.
  
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Robin · 1 months ago
The changes are set to be that those who do not have an official diagnosis will not qualify for disability benefits.

The argument now is that what deems a good proof of needs, is it a simple letter from a GP or a consultant stating the diagnosis or more detailed one?

Personally, I think that they are going to bring DLA back with tiered system, low, middle and high rate depending on the severity of the condition, the limitation of this condition on the patient, and the duration of it.

To be honest any GP or Consultant knows how the condition affects daily life activities of the patient even the DWP used to know that and you can check on the medical guidance for DLA decision maker (Adult).

So I am not worried that much from the coming changes not because I do have well documented conditions but because they signalled that they want to save £3 billion over 5 years and that amount is tiny if compared with the total amount paid for disability benefits.

At the end, I wish I could secure 16 hours a week job to get myself out of that grinding situation and I really admire those who have a secured job.

best of luck to all
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  jc · 24 days ago
  
  @Robin I'm glad I have a diagnosis from consultant hopefully that will help with future assessments (psychotic illness)
  
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  Bert · 26 days ago
  
  @Robin I doubt they will bring back Dla if they have just transferred us onto Universal Credit
  
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  Rik · 1 months ago
  
  @Robin All the noise thus far does suggest going back to a DLA type benefit i.e one that is primarily one for physically disabled people. As for proof, I had great fun in the 1990s getting official proof for DLA. My consultant, literally one of the best in the country at the time, wouldn't give me a letter confirming my condition. He got very funny about it, and I was made to feel dirty that I was essentially asking for the letter so I could claim a benefit. Presumably with everything digitised nowadays, they will directly access your NHS records.
  
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Harry · 1 months ago
These heinous disability cuts are getting noticed
On Good Morning News this morning

https://youtu.be/6EbBOTuZiPg
?si=POy6JJR1lxfXf5Vs
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Rik · 1 months ago
So Alison McGovern told Good Morning that the WCA and PIP "aren't working". Expect the Green Paper on this to be worse than the Tory plans. Mark my words.
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  Rik · 1 months ago
  
  @Onyx123 This has been mentioned a lot, but not by politicians. Means testing causes more questions than answers; if the benefit cap isn't raised than very few would qualify, and it would essentially turn it into an out of work benefit, defeating the whole point.
  
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  Onyx123 · 1 months ago
  
  @Rik They will means test PIP is my bet. Close millions of claims in a stroke. Pensioners winter fuel payments cut from 10 million to 1 million with this tactic. Reduce ESA and PIP claims by 90% must be tempting. Doubt Labour will be prepared by the fall out they will get.
  
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rtbcpart2 · 1 months ago
The Lords committee has some great ideas, right? So where's the costing, where's the money coming from to implement them? Sink extra billions into actioning UC managed migration, work coaches, health assessors, consultations, enquiries, 'a wealth of analysis', anything but give the money to the sick and disabled, better to spend it on guns.

I know, cut benefits and boost defence at the same time: make all disability claimants join the armed forces. That would make us... paramilitaries.
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  Jan · 22 days ago
  
  @rtbcpart2 My significant experience of a. Work Coaches, and b. 'Health Assessors', is that both are unable to fullfill their brief. Ergo, both - are a complete waste of tax payers money! WHY, were USA hedge fund companies ever, allowed to become involved with the DWP? Does the UK not have qualifies professionals - agh . . . it is all a shameful waste of public money.
  
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Harry · 1 months ago
I posted this previously in another Benefit and Works thread.

The main Disability Charities now need to step up.

I've put this here as I believe it's relevant.I fully agree with the DPO,why haven't the Main Disability Charities not applied more intense pressure on this Government to halt or slow down the process to UC or stop the cuts to disability benefits,and other heinous measures that are causing severe human suffering to disabled people.

Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) have made a plea to the government to listen to their “authentic” voices rather than disability charities that are not led by disabled people, which they say are “actively harmful” to their movement. In a response to the […]

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/disabled-peoples-organisations-tell-government-big-disability-charities-are-actively-harmful-to-our-movement/
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  Matt · 1 months ago
  
  @Harry I can only comment in regards to RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People). They are currently undertaking an organisation wide consultation in relation to staff numbers. The charity is £10 million in the red (this is public knowledge via In Touch, Radio 4). Assuming that other charities are in an equally parlous state financially, and the costs of mounting judicial reviews (good lawyers are expensive) I wouldn't hold out much hope that the disability charities will be able to assist greatly. They'll complain etc but actual action....?
  
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John · 1 months ago
As a disabled person I feel we should be left alone if we can’t work . It’s very scary. But I try to get on with my life . But I still worry at times .
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