As Rishi Sunak departed Downing Street last summer, marking the end of 14 years of Conservative rule, many across the UK breathed a sigh of relief. There was a palpable hope, perhaps even an expectation, that, as the D:REAM anthem of the Blair era promised, things could only get better. But now, as the new Labour Government announces sweeping welfare reforms, that hope is already beginning to fade, particularly for those who rely on disability benefits.
Under the Conservative Government, we faced years of austerity and cuts, which have had a detrimental impact on communities and families across the country. As they came to power, between 2010 and 2011, just 61,468 people were receiving emergency food parcels from the Trussell Trust food banks across the UK. By the time they were leaving office, that number had risen dramatically to more than 3.1 million in 2023/24.
In her 2015 book Austerity Bites, Belfast-born journalist Mary O’Hara spoke to Jackie Gallagher, a manager at a Citizens Advice office in Derry, who expressed her concern that the cuts introduced by the Coalition Government were driving more families in the city into debt. In truth, across Northern Ireland, it led to an increase in the number of people resorting to illegal money lenders, many of whom have paramilitary connections.
However, Northern Ireland did not suffer the full brunt of the Tories' welfare reforms after the Executive agreed in 2016 to introduce a series of mitigations to alleviate the impact of some of the harshest aspects of the reforms. According to Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, to do the same again in this instance would cost at least £150m, which he insists is a resource that the Executive currently lacks.
Yet, despite welfare being a devolved issue, the reality is that Northern Ireland has always been forced to mirror the UK system, as the Treasury refuses to fund a more generous benefits scheme. And with Liz Kendall’s proposed cuts, this means thousands of disabled and sick people in Northern Ireland now face the very real prospect of losing financial support that allows them to live with dignity.
To understand the true scale of the issue, consider this: 218,000 people in Northern Ireland claim Personal Independence Payment. More than 50,000 of those claims are related to mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. The Government’s new proposals will make it significantly harder to qualify for PIP, particularly for those with mental health conditions.
Under the current system, a claimant needs eight points to qualify for the standard rate of PIP and 12 points for the enhanced rate. Many people with mental health conditions build up these points across multiple categories. However, under the new system, they will need to score at least four points in a single category to be eligible for the daily living component. This seemingly minor technical change could strip tens of thousands of Northern Ireland claimants of their entitlement altogether.
That is tens of thousands of people who will be left with a significant financial black hole and could end up resorting not only to food banks but also to illegal money lenders that have thrived over the last decade.
A common argument for these changes is the idea that more people should be encouraged into work. But in Northern Ireland, economic inactivity has long been a structural issue, not a matter of personal choice. The region has one of the highest inactivity rates in the UK at 27 per cent compared to the UK average of 21.5 per cent. At the end of 2024, 118,000 of the 318,000 economically inactive people in NI were long-term sick. Many PIP claimants are not unemployed by choice; they are managing long-term health conditions that make full-time work impossible.
There is also the misconception that PIP claimants are not part of the workforce. The truth is that many are working, using the benefit to help manage additional costs associated with their condition. Removing PIP from those in employment could force more people out of work, not into it, which would undermine the very goal these reforms claim to achieve.
The Government argues that these reforms will save £5 billion by 2030. But this figure pales in comparison to the £5.5 billion lost to tax evasion in 2022–23, 81 per cent of which was attributed to small businesses, according to HMRC. This begs the question, if Labour is serious about raising revenue, why is it going after disabled people rather than tax evaders?
The UK’s tax gap which is the difference between what is owed and what is collected, has remained stubbornly high. Yet, rather than investing in proper tax enforcement, the Government is choosing to claw back money from some of the most vulnerable in society.
Just as under the Conservative Government, the disabled and long-term sick, who often have no other financial options, are being targeted, while those who deliberately avoid paying their fair share continue to get away with it.
To be clear, not all of the Government’s welfare proposals are without merit. Changes to Universal Credit, aimed at getting more young people into work, are a positive step. But this is overshadowed by the sheer cruelty of the PIP cuts, which will push countless individuals into poverty.
If Labour truly wants to reform the system, it should start by tackling the real drain on public finances, including corporate tax avoidance, evasion and waste within departments. Instead, it is opting for an approach that targets those least able to fight back, disproportionately harming Northern Ireland, which already struggles with high economic inactivity and a fragile social safety net.
Labour was elected on a promise of change. But these proposals suggest that, for many of the most vulnerable, little has changed at all. Instead of moving forward, we risk slipping back into the worst excesses of austerity which was undoubtedly a political choice that has already done untold damage to communities across the UK.
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our politics newsletter here.
English (United States) ·