Anita’s story

Our first blog in the series explains the disability cuts bill (the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill) and why we’re asking MPs to vote against it.

The government’s Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill represents billions of pounds worth of cuts to disabled people’s benefits. If it passes, it will send hundreds of thousands of disabled people (and their children) into poverty. One of those people is Anita*.

Anita is a single woman who suffers from both physical and mental health conditions. She struggles to walk and regularly slips and falls. She needs help preparing food and getting dressed. Her son helps to remind her to eat, shop, take medication, change her clothes and manage her toilet needs.

Without disability benefits, Anita wouldn’t be able to manage her essential costs. If the green paper proposals come into effect, we expect her to be at least £8,100 worse off each year and plunged into poverty.

Right now, Anita can make ends meet

Anita can’t work because of her health conditions and receives Universal Credit (UC), including the Limited Capacity for Work Related Activity element (now named UC health). She’s also in receipt of the daily living and mobility components of PIP, because she struggles to do basic tasks without reminding or help, and she’s not able to walk well.

Thanks to these extra disability payments, Anita is able to make ends meet. She has £152 left over each month after paying for essential costs. This can be spent on things like aids to help her manage her health conditions and taxis to help her get around.

Anita has struggled in the past. When she first came to Citizens Advice for help, she was dealing with a number of issues. She’d lost PIP following a standard review of her entitlement. As a result, she’d built up significant amounts of debt and was struggling to afford her essentials.

Our advisers helped Anita appeal her PIP decision, so she got both the daily living and mobility components of PIP back. They also helped her access crisis support and worked with her to make a budget plan and start paying off her debts.

If the disability cuts go ahead, Anita will be pushed into poverty

Losing PIP had a huge impact on Anita, and our advisers are worried that the proposed cuts to disability benefits may put her in an even worse position.

The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill proposes restricting eligibility for the PIP daily living component to people who got at least 4 points in at least one activity. Currently, almost half (46%) of people who get the daily living component don’t meet this requirement. Anita is one of them. Even after appealing her PIP review decision, Anita didn’t receive more than 2 points in any of the PIP activities.

If Anita loses access to the daily living component of PIP, she’ll also no longer be eligible for UC health once the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is scrapped (as planned in the Green Paper, to be put into legislation in a separate bill). Because the daily living component of PIP will become the sole gateway to UC health, Anita will lose £678 each month — over £8,100 annually. That’s almost 43% of her income. This is despite the small uplift to the standard allowance of UC, which is being brought in alongside the cuts.

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As a result, Anita will be unable to afford her essential costs. She’ll fall behind on her debt repayments and likely build up significant amounts of new debt.

There isn’t any other help available

Our advisers would struggle to help Anita in this situation. A PIP appeal already failed to award her more than 2 points in any one activity. Crisis support can only help with short-term problems. There aren’t any other benefits they can help her apply for.

While the government has said that they’ll offer more support to get disabled people into work, this isn’t a realistic option for Anita. Her significant mental and physical health challenges mean that she struggles to use her hands, move around, and interact with others. She can’t easily use a computer or leave her home.

Without the daily living component of PIP, or UC health, she may struggle to evidence this. Even though she can’t work, Anita may now be expected to search for a job or face sanctions. This could reduce her income even further, putting her at risk of destitution.

Disability cuts will cause significant harm

Anita isn’t alone. We know that at least 3.2 million families will be worse off by 2029/30. Many will face additional losses as passported benefits like Carer’s Allowance or exemptions to the Benefit Cap are affected. At a time when many disabled people (and their children) are already struggling, hundreds of thousands more will be pushed into — or deeper into — poverty.

That’s why we’re calling on MPs to vote against the bill and protect disabled people like Anita.

* Name has been changed to protect anonymity