Budget leaves many disabled people ‘anxious about the future’

30 October 2024 – The disability charity Sense has responded to the autumn budget, expressing its concerns about proposed changes to welfare benefits and how this will impact disabled people.

Reflecting on the autumn budget, Harriet Edwards, Head of Policy at the disability charity Sense, said:

“The government’s intention to slash the welfare bill by £3 billion, without yet specifying where the axe will fall, is deeply disturbing. It has left many disabled people, who rely on disability benefits to survive, anxious about the future.

“We’re urging the government to realise that disabled people need more financial support, not less. Disabled households are already living in crisis, their current welfare benefits barely cover the essentials and many are making impossible choices about whether to eat, heat their home or pay for medical care. With temperatures beginning to fall, Sense research has found that a shocking seven in ten (70%) of people with complex disabilities are worried about keeping their home adequately warm.

“To save disabled people from more unnecessary anxiety and harm, we’re calling on the government to immediately rule out continuing with the previous government’s plans to reform the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), which would leave more than 424,000 disabled people, who are unable to work, worse off by more than £400 a month within three years. We also need disabled people’s views to be carefully listened to – and acted on – when the government consults on benefits in the new year.

“More positively, we welcome the government’s £240 million investment in trialling new types of support to help get people into employment. Not all disabled people can work, but those who can face many barriers to finding jobs and progressing in their careers. We want to see £5 million quickly invested in the rollout of specialist assistive technology, like screen readers and braille displays, into jobcentres as a sensible and affordable first step.”