The Spring Budget
The cuts to disability benefits in the budget will have huge and varied impacts on the population’s health and hence on health and social care. Neither are to receive any new investment.
- The eligibility threshold for Personal Independent Payments has been raised to save £4.5bn over the next five years and the health element of Universal Credit is to be cut by 50% for new claimants and frozen thereafter.
- Cuts to PIPs means 800 000 people will lose entitlement to the benefit by 2029-30, with an average loss of £4,500 per year.
- The government estimates that this will push 250,000 people into relative poverty including 50,000 children, when nearly one third of all children (4.5million) are already living in poverty.
- Overall 3.2million families will suffer an average loss of £1720 per year in their income as a result.
- 150 000 people would lose either Carer’s Allowance (worth £4800) or the carer element of Universal Credit (worth £2700).
BMA responds to the Spring Statement – BMA media centre – BMA
“Health is much more than just the NHS. Today’s harsh welfare cuts – largely falling on disabled people – will be a huge source of distress and anxiety for those affected. Disabled people still face appalling prejudice and discrimination in the workplace. As the Government’s own analysis states, this will potentially push thousands more people into poverty – the health impacts of which are widely acknowledged.
“People who want to work should receive support to do so, not have it taken away. Employers should be making adjustments so that disabled people can be part of the workforce, rather than being forced into unsuitable work by cruel cuts to vital payments.
“These welfare policies are short-sighted and counter-productive, with the physical and mental health impacts potentially driving even more people out of work, piling ever more pressure on health services as doctors and their colleagues are left to pick up the pieces.”
Some indication of the what those ‘pieces’ are is provided by the Child Poverty Action Group which quotes a South London head teacher: “Sometimes children arrive at school wanting two or three of the bagels we provide in the morning– they’re that hungry. …and we have children who are tired because they’re in overcrowded housing and sharing a bedroom with a crying baby”.
https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/mind-reacts-to-spring-statement
The leader of the mental health charity MIND stated: “The extra cuts to benefits announced today are devastating and will push more people into a mental health crisis. People are telling us that they are so worried about the situation they’d be left with no choice but to end their own life.”
CPAG response to Spring Statement | CPAG
The head of the Child Poverty Action Group commented: “Stealth social security cuts bring neither stability nor security to struggling families and will push child poverty even higher.”
CPAG further reported that 44% of all children living in poverty are living in a household where someone is disabled.
Privatisation
A summary of a 2024 report on the privatisation of the NHS commissioned by the Public Interest Law Centre was published in February 2025. It provides very useful reading: Profiteering, Privatisation and Outsourcing in the NHS .
The full report is here: PILC_OS_v3.qxp.
What alternative to austerity 2.0 is there?
The wealthy need to be taxed says Richard Murphy and he proposes various simple solutions such as equalising national insurance rates. Equalising corporation and income tax: