Benefit cuts will cost the economy.

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/29/labours-benefit-cuts-will-cost-uk-economy-billions-charity-says

Interesting article which repeats what some of us have been saying about the likely consequences of the proposed measures, including increased pressure on services.

@outlanderish is right tho. The study referenced in the article is talking about costs of people not working

Most? How would you know this? There may very well be the hidden cost of disability, that you would know absolutely nothing about.

This. The time when disability meant hauling equipment, a wheelchair and grommets is long gone (apart from for a small minority). It means something quite different now, on the whole. Yet the money remains.

Why are disabled people in the firing line, though?

Do you think there’s a belief that most PIP claimants are malingering NEETs? I know there is a concern that some claimants meet that description (which makes me wonder, if true, why and how those awards are being made), but what did you think the belief is about the rest of disabled people?

Im finding this really hard to understand.

Im wondering, too, if weekday, daytime MN is more right wing than evening and weekend MN. I don’t usually come on here at this kind of time.

People have a perfect right to scrutinise benefits without this being some kind of indication they would be happy to be disabled themselves. We can also criticise military spending without wanting to become soldiers. It’s emotional blackmail and it won’t work. I am disabled btw, and horrified by the spending. I could claim but choose not to (yes- really)

Do you have figures for that, please? I haven’t heard that angle before.

How do you cope with living costs if you're disabled but choosing not to claim?

Well we live in an economy where benefits are essential to maintain a standard of living, including for working people, so it's all part and parcel of the same problem. NMW employers are hardly likely to pay a living wage just because their employees have government assistance taken away. The knock on effects will reduce productivity, not increase it. Coupled with disproportionate rises in business rates and rents, and increases in NI, how do you propose we disentangle this?

Lol at benefit claimants "raking it in! "

You're conveniently forgetting that a person on nmw is entitled to housing benefit, so are people on state pension, I know, I have had my rent paid while working. So that can be added to their income.

Because disabled people are the biggest takers, if you want to phrase it like that. And the profile of disability is very different now and seems to be overwhelmingly self reported and MH conditions.

I know numerous families (5 or 6) who claim over £50,000 per year in benefits, and that doesn’t include the costs of special school, therapies, NHS, and transport. Each family is probably costing the taxpayer somewhere in the region of £150,000 per year, so all together that’s probably just less than £1 million a year. And that’s just on people I know, I don’t even know that many people (have a small friendship circle, wfh, not well known in the local community).

Replicate that across the country and you can see the scale of the issue. Taxpayers aren’t solely there to prop up the disabled and needy, they also want a quality of lives for themselves and that is not selfish.

When councils are leaving rubbish to rot in the street, and public libraries and swimming pools are being closed on a weekly basis, and the roads ruin the suspension in your car because they’re full of unfixed potholes (this happened to my neighbour last week who was left with the bill), yes you’re going to be quietly fuming that 60% of your council tax goes on social care and the benefits bill is increasing by £10 billion per year - where would you suggest we get this money?

I must mention that to my mobility scooter, my service dog, my rollator, my electric bed (so I can get out of it in a morning, amongst other things) etc., etc. Those things are all paid for by me, and in total cost far more than the PIP I get. And that's before the fact that if I don't keep the heating on in winter more than I did previously, I freeze and put my life at risk. Would you please point me to the research supporting your view that disdability does not mean extra costs for the majority of us. Because every single piece of research I have seen says that the additional income some of us get (and I'm "deserving" - worked all my life, still paying income tax) nowhere near covers the addiitonal costs of disability. As someone who could work (and whose work was responsible for my disability in the first instance) I am lucky because I have a small pension in addition to state pension and PIP. And I struggle at times. Take away my PIP and I won't manage - just too much income to get no benefits, not enough to live on with a disability.

I suggest you look at some stats about the numbers employed in the caring sector, about the shortages of staff and about unpaid carers. Also have a look at the uptake and waiting times for disabled facilities grants.

Many do, I can even provide links from this website proving it.

Many of us do. No idea why you think only a minority do

I am always surprised PIP reforms and work are mentioned in the same sentence

Pip is not an out of work benefit. It is paid to disabled individuals whether they’re completely unable to work or earn millions each year. It has nothing at all to do with work.

The only connection between Pip and work is that Pip likely enables some people with disabilities to access work so it’s reform is likely to increase the number of people with disabilities who are not working and who are therefore on out of work benefits.

Oh, you mean the made up stories like the one last night from a landlord who found a fictitious document in her tenant's cupboard?

When is MNHQ going to put a stop to the hatred of disabled people on its site?

You believe all those posts are real, not fake posts designed to stir up hatred towards disabled people on benefits, is everyone really that naive and gullible.

And how much of that £10 million is housing benefits and discretionary housing payments paying greedy landlords mortgages?

Oh please. Don't come on a thread like this and state facts. We only want to know about your neighbour's brother's sister's daughter who claims PIP whilst cartwheeling in the Alps.

How do you pay for it? Loads of people will just sit idly and bank the UBI income as it will have to be set at a relatively high level. No one would bother working as the tax rate to pay for it would be ridiculously high, probably 50% income tax. And you'd still have to pay more for disabled people over and above the UBI amount and probably extras for rent allowance, free prescriptions, etc. on top. It sounds good in theory, but fails in the detail and practicalities. It would also be highly inflationary as lots of people will end up immediately better off and start spending money thus stoking inflation. It would also make the balance of payments deficit worse as a lot of people would spend their money on imported goods!

@TheDisillusionedAnarchist

Pip is not an out of work benefit. It is paid to disabled individuals whether they’re completely unable to work or earn millions each year.

Well that's the first thing to change. Make it means tested so your millionaires can't claim it!

They will have to get in a queue I am afraid!

Don't be ridiculous. It isn't hatred. We're "educating people", don't you know? Or the nasty comments are "sarcasm", don't you know? Which are the ususal two comments I get back from MNHQ whenever I complain. No hatred in sight. Disability isn't the only thing that can be invisible.

That was actual sarcasm, btw.

Nobody in affordable housing would ever have a benefits income of £50k. I’ve seen those kinds of calculations and it’s not possible. The only way it is possible is if a family are paying a private rent of 2k, 2.5k pcm, which is a housing issue not a benefits issue. Very high childcare is cappedon UC, but FT nursery costs can skew a claim upward too. Maybe these people aren’t even telling you the truth when you ask about their incomes?

Im a bit agog that you’re mentioning special school or NHS care as some kind of benefit that families are leaching from the state. Citizens are entitled to use the NHS when they need it. Children are entitled to an education. Those are things that make us a civilised western democracy. How would you like it to differ?

The idea that disability claimants are “overwhelmingly” claiming for MH conditions or that benefits are administered on the basis of claimants self-identifying as disabled is so wrong-headed I don’t know where to start. It’s just not true.