Understanding Disability Rights and Available Support in the UK

Understanding disability rights and support in the UK – inclusive illustration with a wheelchair user and BSL signer on a colourful background.

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was written by

Zoe

What is Happening With Disability Rights In The UK?


On March 18th 2025, the Government published its Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper consultation. The Green Paper proposes the most significant cuts to disability benefits in British history since their introduction. The cuts will disproportionately penalise Disabled people and further marginalise already historically oppressed communities. 

The Government estimates that the cuts to benefits, including PIP and Universal Credit, will save them £5 billion in 2029 and 2030. Instead of them taxing wealth to save the government from economic ruin, they’re targeting communities already marginalised by over two decades of austerity -policies that slashed public services and raised taxes on working- and middle-class people, causing living standards across the UK to plummet. 

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) own assessment has predicted that the latest round of cuts to disability benefits will drive 300,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 children. The plans will restrict eligibility for Personal Independence Payments (Pip) and remove the health element of universal credit for new claimants. Alongside this, the Government have announced a new £1 billion disabled employment package to support disabled people finding work, stating that this should help people avoid poverty.

However, the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has not been able to say how effective the proposed employment measures are, citing a lack of policy or analysis details from the government and insufficient time. Instead, the OBR will publish their labour market assessment in the autumn statement. 

MPs are expected to vote in July for the new legislation, i.e., the proposed cuts. This means that Parliament will be expected to vote on a piece of legislation that hasn’t undergone a complete analysis of the policy’s effectiveness. There will also be no formal consultation on the main cuts themselves. However, the government has opened up consultation on “transitional” protection for those impacted by cuts to Pip. 

According to the Disability Policy Centre thinktank, the cuts could cause Councils and NHS to face £1.2 billion in extra costs. This is because, without the financial support of Pip, some people’s disability could worsen to the point that they require council-funded care services. At the same time, their unpaid carers could face becoming ineligible for the carer’s allowance benefit. Carers in this position may then have to pass on their care duties to the local authority, which has also reduced.

Ultimately, these plans under Keir Starmer and Liz Kendall have resulted in widespread dissent from MPs within the Labour Party, disability rights organisations, campaigners and activists alike. Liz Kendall has claimed that these reforms are to encourage employment among disabled people and fix the “broken social security system.” However, these measures seek to penalise disabled individuals and are nothing short of ableist as they promote harmful narratives around people who rely on welfare.

By assuming that disabled people don’t work because they simply don’t want to, the Government is playing into the age-old narrative that disabled people are lazy. However, this could not be further from the truth. The majority of disabled people on welfare have conditions that render them physically unable to work, or the work environment itself disables them either because there are no measures in place to support psychological and physical safety. We have a separate guide on some of the most common myths of people on benefits here.

What Benefits Are Being Cut?

  • Personal Independence Payments (Pip) Eligibility: Particularly affecting people with mental health disabilities and what the government considers less severe physical disabilities. Changes include:
    • A shift to face-to-face assessment 
    • A new eligibility requirement to ensure that only those who score a minimum of 4 points in at least one daily living activity will be eligible for the daily living component of Pip. This requirement would need to be met in addition to the existing Pip eligibility criteria.
      • This will apply to new claimants and existing people who claim; future eligibility will be decided upon at their next award review.
      • You can find out how the points system works here.
  • Universal Credit Adjustments: Reducing health-related top-up payments for new claimants and removing incapacity benefits for most individuals under 22 to prevent a direct path from education to benefits.
    • The new measures will impact new claimants, who will receive £50 rather than the usual £97 per week by 2026/27. 
    • The top rate for those the government considers to have severe disabilities will also be cut, as announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement.
  • Work Capability Assessment (WSA): The WSA will be scrapped in 2028, and a new single assessment system will be introduced.
    • Under the new system, any extra financial support for health conditions, including PIP, Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit regarding health will be assessed via a single assessment based on the PIP assessment. This will consider the impact of disability on daily living, not on the capacity to work.
    • Reassessments for Universal Credit and ESA will be resumed until the WCA is scrapped, with exceptions for those who will never work and those under special rules for end-of-life care. Reassessments have been mainly switched off since 2021.
    • A “Right To Try Guarantee” will be introduced, guaranteeing that attempting work will never lead to a benefits reassessment.

Who Will This Impact?

The cuts to welfare will significantly impact:

  • Disabled people, including those who are chronically ill and with ill mental health
  • People already experiencing financial difficulties
  • 1.2 million unpaid carers will be impacted, who are already in poverty or living in deep, persistent poverty
  • Black and racialised communities who are statistically more likely to experience poverty and, consequently, have a higher reliance on benefits and tax credits and who already experience barriers to employment.
  • 300,000 people will be pushed into poverty, including 50,000 children. However, this is a conservative estimate, and the numbers may be higher.
  • Children in one-parent households who are statistically more likely to rely on welfare, especially those who live with a disabled parent.
  • 370,000 current Pip recipients who will no longer qualify
  • 430,000 future  PIP recipients who will get less than they would previously have been entitled to, with an average loss of £4,500 per year
  • 2.25 million current Universal Credit recipients who will be affected by freezing the incapacity top-up with an average loss of £500, although the increase in the standard allowance of Universal Credit will partially offset this
  • 730,000 future Universal Credit recipients who will lose an average of £3,000 per year.

What Benefit Support Are Available To You?

Benefit support depends entirely on your circumstance and whether you meet the criteria. Pip and UC will still exist; however, they will be restricted and face caps regarding how much people can claim. At the same time, a new system will replace WCA. 

Finding out what benefits you are entitled to can be tricky, and navigating the system can be challenging. However, some services and organisations have provided ways to ensure you can find the correct information and support you’re after.  You can find out what benefits you are eligible for by using the following services:

Understanding the Equality Act

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and broader society. It’s a legal framework outlining the unlawful ways in which you can treat people. It defines and breaks down the different types of discrimination that are considered unlawful; these are often called protected characteristics and include:

  • Age
  • Gender reassignment
  • Being married or in a civil partnership
  • Being pregnant or on maternity leave
  • Disability
  • Race, including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
  • Religion or belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

You’re legally protected from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 if you’re:

  • at work
  • in education
  • as a consumer
  • when using public services
  • when buying or renting a property
  • as a member or guest of a private club or association
  • you’re associated with someone who has a protected characteristic, for example, a family member or friend
  • you’ve complained about discrimination or supported someone else’s claim

Disability Under The Equality Act

According to the Equality Act 2010, you’re disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ adverse effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

What ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ mean:

  • ‘Substantial’ is more than minor or trivial. For example, completing a daily task like getting dressed takes much longer than usual. 
  • ‘Long-term’ means 12 months or more. For example, a breathing condition develops due to a lung infection.

There are specific rules about recurring or fluctuating conditions like arthritis. You can find out more about this here. 

Understanding The Social Model of Disability

The Social Model of Disability was developed by disabled people to identify and take action against ableism. It is a way to think about disability and shows the world how to include disabled people.

It doesn’t define a person as being disabled by having an impairment or health condition or being different as determined by a doctor. Instead, it focuses on the root causes that make a person disabled, particularly the barriers that make them less able to do things. It looks at how the world is constructed around non-disabled people, making it harder for disabled people to navigate.

Barriers can include bullying disabled people by saying or thinking harmful things, which leads to harmful actions. Especially regarding bias, exclusion and discrimination. Barriers can also be physical, including not providing alternative ways of accessing or navigating a building, such as lifts, ramps or adequate signage. When we understand and can identify the barriers that are in place making it harder for disabled people, then we can work towards inclusion. 

The social model was created by disabled people to describe their experience accurately and to challenge the Medical Model of Disability, which rested on the assumption of what a disabled person ‘can’t do’ because of their impairment or health condition. The Medical Model for Disability individualised health problems and puts the onus on Disabled People, as if their disability was a problem and theirs to fix, rather than how the world was constructed without disabled people in mind. Absolving society of responsibility and further marginalising disabled people. 

The Social Model of Disability puts the onus on society and looks at how to collectively ensure that disabled people are included and can live independently. It identifies the barriers, whether systemic, institutional, organisational, or cultural. The social model is what we should all be using when discussing disability and supporting disabled people. It centres on those who have a lived experience of disability and is in place to equip rather than disempower communities when it comes to organising for disability rights.

Organising For Disability Justice in the Workplace and Beyond

There are many ways to organise for disability justice in the workplace and beyond. Even if no one appears to have a visible or non-visible disability, it’s still important to identify and address existing barriers. Proactively doing this creates an environment where disabled people feel considered and welcomed.

If barriers aren’t acknowledged, it can discourage disabled people from getting involved – not because they don’t want to, but because they were never included in the first place.

When advocating for disability inclusion in the workplace, consider asking the following questions:

  • Is there physical, digital and communication accessibility in place? This can include:
    • Step-free access, lifts, disabled toilets
    • Signage with clear pictures, large font, and use of Plain English language
    • WCAG-Compliant websites, accessible internal tools
    • BSL interpreters, ‘easy-read’ documents, captioning
    • Provision of assistive technology 
  • Do people understand the Social Model of Disability?
  • For the workplace, is there a disability policy in place? What does the policy include?
  • Is there mandatory disability awareness training, and is it led by people with a lived experience of disability?
  • Are there staff networks for disabled people?
  • What support systems exist for people with ill mental health and who are neurodiverse?

Grassroots Organising Against Disability Benefits

Various local and national groups in the UK are organising against the cuts to disability benefits. The following organisations have set up campaigns to get involved for allies and people directly impacted by the cuts. The call to action can be done either remotely or in person:

This piece was written by Zoe Daniels.

Zoe Daniels, they/them, is a wearer of many hats. A Brand and Marcomms and Racial Justice consultant for Spark Insights and JMB Consulting, a baddy writer, hopeless romantic poet, community organiser and stand-up comedian when they feel like it. Connect with them on LinkedIn; they would love to meet you!

This guide was developed for Spark & Co. in April 2025. It will next be reviewed in April 2026.



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