Half of disabled people who claim disability living allowance (DLA) and have jobs would be forced to stop working or reduce their hours if they lost their entitlement to the benefit, according to a new survey.
The survey, being carried out by Disability Alliance in response to a government consultation on its controversial DLA reforms, has prompted a huge response from disabled people, with more than 1,000 replies so far.
Interim results of the survey show that, of roughly one in four respondents who said they worked, half said they would have to cut back their working hours or quit their job if their DLA was taken away.
The chancellor, George Osborne, announced in June that the government would cut the 1.8 million working-age people claiming DLA – as well as spending on working-age DLA claimants – by 20 per cent by 2016.
Last month, the government warned that spending on DLA had become “unsustainable” and “poorly targeted”, and published plans for widespread reforms. It will start to reassess all working-age claimants of DLA in 2013, through a new assessment. A consultation on its plans ends on 14 February.
Disability Alliance (DA) believes the government will have to remove DLA from 750,000 people if it wants to achieve planned savings of £1 billion a year. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it did not recognise DA’s figures.
But Neil Coyle, DA’s director of policy, said 750,000 was a “conservative estimate” and the total impact would be “much higher”, with the numbers rising even higher if the government extended its cuts to older people and children.
Many respondents to the DA survey said they would “lose the will to live” if they did not have the financial support DLA provided.
One said: “If I lose my lower rates of DLA, I will lose my car, I will lose my own job and I might well lose my own life.”
Another said: “DLA makes a difference between having a tiny bit of independence and life not being worth living.”
While another said: “I wouldn’t survive and would end it all.”
Coyle said the government had “wildly under-estimated” the impact of cutting DLA.
He said many people who responded to the survey described DLA as their “lifeline”.
He said: “Disabled people are incredibly anxious and fearful about what change will mean.”
The DWP disputed DA’s conclusions. A DWP spokeswoman said its reforms – which will see DLA renamed the Person Independence Payment (PIP) – would “help us protect DLA for the future and ensure that the £12bn we spend on it goes where it is needed the most”, while it would continue to be non-means-tested and paid to people in and out of work.
She said: “At the moment, 80 per cent of people on DLA do not work and we want to make sure that disabled people who can work get all the help and support they need to do so.”
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Government cuts to spending on disability living allowance (DLA) and other benefits and support for disabled people could reverse the progress towards equality revealed by new official figures, say campaigners.
Statistics from the government’s Office for Disability Issues (ODI) show the proportion of working-age disabled people in Britain with jobs rose from 47.4 per cent in 2009 to 48.4 per cent in 2010. The proportion of non-disabled people in work fell slightly over the same period.
The figures also show that the wage gap between disabled and non-disabled workers – the difference in their mean hourly wage rates – fell from £1.01 in 2009 to 52p in 2010.
And the proportion of working-age disabled people with no qualifications also fell, from 23.2 per cent in 2009 to 20.1 per cent in 2010, while the percentage of disabled people with degree-level qualifications rose from 12.7 per cent in 2009 to 13.4 per cent in 2010.
Marije Davidson, RADAR’s public affairs manager, said progress was “still way too slow” and that “stronger action is needed to close the gap between disabled and non-disabled people”.
She said the “slight sign of progress” could be reversed if cuts to public spending meant disabled people no longer received the support they needed, with less investment in accessible buildings and transport, and cuts to public sector staff and funding of user-led organisations.
Planned cuts to DLA spending, she said, could make it harder for disabled people to fund the extra costs associated with working, such as transport, and to stay healthy as they struggle with poverty.
Linda Burnip, a founding member of Disabled People Against Cuts, also said that cutting DLA and other support for disabled people risked reversing the gains, and added: “If they don’t get DLA they will not be able to work or do all sorts of things.”
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) welcomed the new ODI figures but denied that spending cuts risked reversing the progress made towards equality.
A DWP spokeswoman said: “Since taking office in May 2010, the coalition government has set out an ambitious programme of employment support to ensure that people get the help they need to find and keep jobs.
“Our aim is that government programmes such as Work Choice and the Work Programme should support more disabled people than ever before into sustainable employment.”
http://www.dls.org.uk/rights/News/2011/January/13.html