People with disabilities and chronic illnesses in the UK face enormous inequalities at every level. People face huge structural barriers trying to access housing, employment, and basic public services. Now, the government is proposing a bill that will cut £4.8 billion of support for people with disabilities, throwing hundreds of thousands into poverty. We need MPs to vote no.

We're asking you to write to your MP and tell them to vote against the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill when it comes before parliament at the end of the June.

How bad will these cuts be?

Personal Independence Payments (PIP) are meant to support people with the extra living costs that you face if you have a disability. It's crucial for allowing people with disabilities to find work, access services, and participate in society.  At least 800,000 people will lose access to PIP entirely, with some set to lose £886 every month.

The government's own estimates indicate that 250,000 people, including 50,000 children will be pushed into poverty by these changes. This seems to be a major underestimate, with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimating that 400,000 will be pushed into poverty and Child Poverty Action Group finding that that 100,000 children will be.

The APPG on Poverty and Inequality ran an inquiry into the impact of these cuts, with evidence from experts and lived experience indicating just how bad these cuts are going to be:

• “The proposals in the Green Paper would be a catastrophic additional blow, increasing ours and other disabled people’s poverty and inequality exponentially” (Lived experience submission)
• “Stopping me – and people like me – from getting daily living PIP is not going to get young people back to work, it’s not going to get people with anxiety back to work, and it’s not going to allow me to get back to work. It’s going to make people sick. Maybe worse.” (Lived experience submission)
• “To be blunt, some people are going to die and some people are going to become homeless” (Crips Against Cuts Brighton submission)

Why is our system failing people with disabilities?

People with disabilities face huge barriers in society.

• Poverty and deep poverty rates are higher for people with disabilities; The poverty rate among working-age disabled adults in the UK is 23%, compared to 17% for those without a disability. For deep poverty, the rates are 15% vs 9%
• This is because of the unavoidable extra costs of being disabled, with the average household facing an extra cost of £1067 a month. These costs come from equipment, transportation, heating, dietary needs, and specialist services.
• The disability employment gap remains high at 27.8% and the disability pay gap is 17.2%.
• One-third of disabled private renters live in unsuitable accommodation, lacking adaptations or accessibility.

While the government has claimed that these reforms are about fairness, the truth is there's no way that cutting £4.8bn of support and pushing hundreds of thousands into poverty won't deepen inequality.

It's clear that other options are available, as indicated by the government's willingness to widen tax breaks for the richest or offer quid-pro-quos to the oil and gas industry. If they can listen to lobbyists, they can listen to us.

Tell your MP to vote against these cuts.