Disabled and mentally ill people feel ‘broken and without hope’ over Labour’s plans for benefits

As reports continue to emerge about the government’s rumoured plans to cut disability benefits, readers have written to the Big Issue to share their fears for the future.

Nothing has been officially announced yet. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has not released its green paper which will set out its proposals for the welfare system. The Big Issue understands that it will be published this week, ahead of the chancellor’s Spring Statement which will reveal details of spending cuts on 26 March.

However, ministers have repeatedly said that they want to slash the benefits bill and push more people – particularly those who are out of work due to long-term sickness – into employment.

• ‘Being alive is utterly exhausting’: How Covid forced people out of work and onto benefits
• Working from home vital for disabled people to keep a job, DWP told ahead of benefit cuts
• Why are so many people off work sick? Labour told not to forget the pandemic ahead of benefit cuts

A spokesperson for the DWP has told the Big Issue: “Millions of people have been trapped out of work which is why we’re bringing forward reforms to health and disability benefits in the spring, so sick and disabled people are genuinely supported back into work, while being fairer on the taxpayer.”

The DWP has pledged to invest £240m on “the biggest employment reforms in a generation”, with proposals to empower mayors to tackle inactivity, an overhaul of Jobcentres so they focus on skills and careers, and a youth guarantee to ensure young people are either earning or learning.

Benefit claimants and readers of the Big Issue have told us they would “love to work” but that support is “inadequate”. They say the government must first “ensure access to timely and adequate healthcare”, rather than threatening to take away their financial support. Here are their stories.

Distressed people are having to buy into a lie that ‘work will set them free’

Anonymous benefit claimant

I find your piece about impending benefits cuts interesting, not least because I am struggling to understand which employers are actively seeking to employ long-term sick and/or disabled and/or elderly workers. I know that these days no one rules out this type of candidate, but that is not quite the same thing, is it?

I am 65 in May. My total years in work are approximately 42 (started work at 16, time off for study and caring for elderly father and, over the last five years, spouse). My husband died at home at the end of 2023 after two years with terminal oesophageal cancer. I am claiming universal credit and living in social housing. I am subject to deduction for bedroom subsidy but I do get a single person’s reduction on council tax. A small occupational pension is also fully deducted. 

I live simply and can cover most costs. My heating is timed to come on twice a day for a total of four hours at 14 degrees so pipes don’t freeze, my food budget is £20 per week. I consider myself fortunate to receive help via universal credit, which is just about enough to get by. Bus fares to and from interviews and Jobcentre come out of the food budget so I am grateful that my work coach mostly allows me to have my appointments via video link.

I have had several falls, once involving a hospital visit, since my husband’s death. I do not class myself as ill, just a bit wobbly and in a certain amount of pain with legs, feet, knees, hips and lower back most days. I have had three jobs in the last year, two in care and one in an office; all three were highly undesirable jobs in terms of hours, pay and working conditions. Balance and mobility problems and memory issues meant that these jobs did not work out. 

Luckily, my work coach realises that I am doing my best and is happy to let me try jobs until I find the right one, without being sanctioned (so far). I apply for retail, admin and working from home jobs these days for part time work.  I doubt I am physically capable of most retail jobs because of the standing, but I am mandated to apply for 10 jobs per week, so I apply anyway. Sometimes I get interviews. At a recent interview, there was a group of approximately 30 candidates. I was the only one over 35 years old.  We were told that there were 100 jobs to fill and that they had already interviewed 700 candidates. 

We are constantly told that employers are desperate to fill vacancies. Are they truly desperate to fill them with depressed, old, sick, mentally ill, long-term disabled people? Seriously? If the official answer is “yes” we need to dig deeper because this can only be regarded as the truth if the statistics back it up and show that these employers have been actively seeking to employ from these groups.

I suspect that many jobseekers do not want work but have to say they do in order to receive benefits and I also suspect that many employers do not want to employ a high percentage of benefits claimants but also cannot say so because, after all, age is just a number and everyone should look at what people can do, not at their disability.  This would be fine and dandy if jobs were tailored to candidates and disability employment quotas were mandated to employers.  That is unlikely (and possibly undesirable).  Meanwhile, a lot of distressed people are having to buy into the lie that “work will set them free”.

It is another chance for accusations against people on benefits

James

The news that we are having cuts to welfare benefits and getting disabled back to work is another chance for accusations against people on benefits as being lazy and scroungers. The amount of people who are so hateful to people on benefits is shocking. I am shocked by the working class and poorest peoples who come out with these negative stories about others on benefits.

Being heard would be something

Carrie

It is odd to think that, what seems like a handful of years ago, I was voting for Jeremy Corbyn‘s Labour, filled with a (somewhat tentative, somewhat this-seems-too-good-to-be-true) sense of hope. It did turn out to be too good to be true, and a sense of deflation is gradually turning to a sense of horror as Keir Starmer’s Labour pushes through what I was not surprised were Conservative policies, but I feel very let down to discover are Labour policies too. Corbyn did at least mean well. He did at least have integrity, and that seems to be breathtakingly lacking under Starmer.

I am autistic. I can’t stand the word, it seems to imply a lot of things about me that aren’t true. It’s loaded with baggage. It almost seems like a slur. But it’s a useful shorthand, an official diagnosis, a helpful passport to some level of support, however inadequate. I also have a number of mental health conditions.

I want benefits reforms, but the benefits reforms I envisage would look very different. For one thing, they would give me enough to live on. They would meet my basic needs. I am one of the lucky ones. I am on the higher rate of universal credit. This means that, while I still have a lot less money than someone on the minimum wage (about £800 a month less), I am able, by being very careful, to cover my basic needs – a rented room in someone else’s house as a lodger, clothes, books and music subscriptions, going to the gym on rare occasions when my social anxiety and sensitivity to noise and light allow me to summon up the ability. I am trying to live a happy, healthy, full life.

I tried to volunteer four hours a week and when I did, sometimes I’d be sent home, pale as a sheet, utterly overwhelmed. In a paid job I’d have ended up going off sick, or being fired. Just expecting me to get a job, any job, isn’t realistic. Just expecting me to get a job that would involve enough hours for me to support myself financially is a breathtaking level of unrealistic. 

Ideally I’d like to be able to participate more. If I had more money, I could go out more, attend more cultural events, and be more “included”. In short, a less than ideal situation is set to get worse, and I’m worried. I’d love it if people could read what I think and feel about this. Being heard would be something.

I don’t need help with a CV. I need a cheerleader who has my back

Deborah

I am a person in receipt of adult disability payment (previously PIP in Scotland). I am diagnosed with ME/CFS (15 years) which has become worse since Covid and Covid vaccinations. I also suffer from degenerative disc disease and arthritis as well as an autoimmune disease. I am a highly-qualified person with a first class honours degree and three postgraduate qualifications. I want to work. I could work but the nature of my health issues means that my functional capacity to work is limited. 

Flexible working from an understanding employer as well as not having to begin the process of applying for help every time I must leave a job because of a period of sickness would help. I suggest a ‘pause’ button rather than dismissing us from the system so it’s easier to negotiate help when you need it and not having to reapply, or fight to get help every time. I am a qualified counsellor. I would love to work flexibly and also the opportunity for hybrid working. I don’t need help with a CV or interviewing techniques. I need a cheerleader who has my back and can negotiate with employers and learning institutions.

Labour needs to ensure access to timely and adequate healthcare

Mary 

The government needs to first and foremost ensure access to timely and adequate healthcare. People often end up with physical problems compounded by anxiety and depression due to extensive wait for NHS treatment.

I had a breakdown when I started to work full time

David

My mental illness regularly destroyed every attempt to better myself before diagnosis and treatment. I subsequently spent years unemployed. Eventually, after having to go through tribunals, I got support via DLA [disability living allowance]. After years of voluntary work in the local psychiatric unit a friend offered me a part-time job which I took because of the support available from the tax credit system.

Within a year my DLA was reduced and I had to go full time only to suffer another breakdown and was advised by my psychiatrist to go part-time again and my PIP rate was increased again. Covid leads to liquidation and redundancy then a new job. This employer however feels they cannot make adaptations for me due to other staff pressures. With being moved to universal credit, I lost £90 a week support and my eligibility to NHS costs.

It is disgraceful the way the government treats people on benefits

Sarah

The courses that I have been on made me ill and the work programme I was on led me to breakdown, depression and suicidal tendencies. It is disgraceful the way the government treats people. It’s sad that the truth every time someone gets to be the government, they lie. A few years ago, I had breast cancer and still I suffer from the surgery. It is unfair.

It has left me feeling distraught, broken, terrified

Anonymous benefit claimant

I am a survivor of child abuse. I was just about coping before the government decided to threaten my survival and trigger every single one of my earlier traumas by threatening to take my only possible income away-and by using language that is clearly intended to make people like me feel that we are completely without value. I’ve fought to survive so much and for what? Just so that the government can leave me feeling distraught, broken, terrified, worthless and completely without hope in the most cruel, irresponsible and unnecessary ways.

I will try to fight it

Catherine

I’m really scared about the proposed cuts to LCWRA and PIP. I’m autistic, with mental health and chronic pain conditions. I really struggled to work due to lack of accessibility and understanding, while stress often triggered mental health breakdowns to the point of needing urgent care. I’m scared to go back to work because stress is still a trigger. The changes leaked to the media about PIP tightening criteria would mean people like myself with lower to moderate support needs might lose access to this vital resource. Also for LCWRA, reducing payments for those found medically unable to work, while increasing benefits for people who can search for work or moving people into work groups is unfair and discriminatory.

Not all people can work, but the government do not seem to understand this. The rhetoric of economically inactive, and some “taking the mickey” while others call as “scroungers” or lazy. Labour say they’re the party of working people and want those with the broadest shoulders to carry the burden, then why are the most vulnerable being targeted again.

Being disabled costs an extra £1,010 a month according to Scope, and these proposed cuts could mean we lose most of our income that goes towards costs of being disabled as well as bills, food, essentials. So many are already in poverty and struggling. Does the government think people are lazy and don’t spend back into the economy? We do. We can only hope that that the media reports were only speculation, that the green paper reforms are not as harsh as suggested, and disabled people will not be forced into destitution. Either way, I will try to fight it.

Do people think I want to live like this?

Tina

I am 62. I have fibromyalgia, arthritis, am blind in one eye and deaf in one ear. Worst of all I have a balance disorder that means any change of position, such as getting out of bed in the morning, leads to vertigo attacks and vomiting. I can’t leave the house as it isn’t safe as, for example, I can’t see to cross the road, where the curb ends, or walk due to lack of balance. I use a wheelchair. I was still assessed as fit to work by DWP.

The 40 years I worked before being forced to give up my job, during which I paid tax and national insurance contributions, are ignored and invisible. Do people think I want to live like this, or that I wouldn’t sell my soul to the devil to be well again? The long-term sick and disabled will not be instantly cured if their benefits are stopped.

In my personal experience across those 40 years, employers are reluctant to offer roles to the disabled as they are seen as a burden and people who will make their lives difficult and more expensive. Compassion from coworkers wears thin. I was once told by a team member I employed that if there was a fire she would leave me behind and that I shouldn’t expect to be helped out of a burning building. I tried to hide how upset I was and waited until I got home to cry.

I feel envious of people getting on with their lives

Gareth

I have ankylosing spondylitis. I have a stooped posture, severe kyphosis can barely walk. Most recently, my hands are affected. I haven’t slept properly for weeks. l simply can’t work. It’s not a bloody choice. I feel envious of people getting on with their lives. I didn’t ask for my disease. I have always been proud to live in a civilised society, taking care of the most vulnerable. Even the Labour slogans seem like an outright attack to me.

I share concerns over benefit cuts for disabled but I don’t think the government is looking at the bigger picture. Most of us already feel isolated and alone with our various issues but we manage to survive. They want us to magically find jobs, but what happens when they remove the work capability payment?

If those of us with mobility cars have to give them up to make both ends meet, that in turn will make a lot of people (me included) housebound. It will put some disabled out of work. This will then affect the car industry and the revenue the government receives from tax associated with fuel and car sales.

Any changes need to be directed to young people with issues that can be helped and new claims. Never forget not all disabilities are visible. I have mental and physical disabilities, and I’ve been through a lot in life. I am scared of what happens next.

The government is penalising the voiceless like me

Anonymous

There are plenty of people with mild mental health issues that can function on a day to day basis. But those people are the ones that can and will work despite the government rhetoric that those people are the ones draining the system and abusing it.

The ones that are signed off work from a doctor because of mental health are the ones like me. A lot of people will echo the same sentiment that I’m lazy that I’m a scrounger and that I’m just abusing the system but I am not any of those things.

From the moment I was 15, I was in school and working part-time after school and weekends with one goal in mind to be able to one day buy my own home. After leaving school I worked full time as a chef and whilst I always struggled with crowds I found working in the kitchens to be enjoyable.

I worked hard and I loved my job until I faced sexual harassment in the workplace. Eventually I broke down and started having daily panic attacks too afraid to go into work and quit the job I loved. I actively pursued counselling. I became withdrawn from people. Friends and family. Trapped in my own turmoil of how I was going to deal with all of this. I blamed myself.

It was beyond terrifying and I found myself hiding in public toilets or anywhere there wasn’t people to stop my panic attacks from making me pass out. I don’t know if you know what a panic attack feels like but I can describe it to you. It feels like someone is gripping your throat in a vice and no matter how hard you thrash out you still can’t find a way to claw a breath back, it crushes your chest.

When it came to an interview and a man walked out to invite me in, I collapsed to the floor unable to breathe. To them I must have seemed a total basket case and I hate myself for not being capable of pushing through it.

Getting PIP isn’t easy because it involves speaking to people and jumping through hoops that are dehumanising and it involves showing a complete stranger all your issues and being completely vulnerable. I don’t claim PIP despite being entitled to it. Anxiety makes every little thing seem gigantic.

The government is penalising the voiceless the ones like me who are too afraid to speak up because they know that they can rely on systemic hatred from tax payers. With no backlash from us because we are unable to even live a normal life let alone defend ourselves. It’s not that we won’t work. It’s that we can’t because the majority of us can’t even leave our homes.

If I was well enough, I would work

Ange

I have lived with severe depression and generalised anxiety disorder for many years, but since 2007 I have been dependent on benefits. This proved to be a good support to me as I could afford taxis to get around (I don’t drive and can’t uses buses), buy take-out food when I was too ill to cook and use online shopping.

Since a section 21 eviction notice meant I had to move in 2023, my rent rose by £300 a month and in November 2023, despite my mental health having declined over the previous two years, I was moved from the limited capability for work and work related activities group to the limited capacity for work group, a move which cost me another £180 a month (I am currently appealing this decision). So now My PIP payments, instead of being used to support me in my situation are being used to live on, to feed me and get me to appointments.

I live in permanent fear of the ‘what ifs’ of my situation, whilst having to justify my need of, let’s face it, the barely sufficient money I have to survive on, long term. If I was well enough, of course I would work. I was a teacher for 16 years and ran my own business before my mental health became disabling. I am not work-shy.

We as a group are being made into yet another scapegoat, a reason for why life is hard in the UK at the current time. I voted Labour because they promised a change, something different to the austerity of the past decade plus of Tory government but it now looks like all we’re getting is Tory government in a different guise. And that I will be constantly fighting for the right to survive for the foreseeable future, which terrifies me.

If you are struggling with your mental health, call Samaritans for free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit samaritans.org for useful resources and advice on coping.

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