Budget 2025 Disability North East: Fix the Systems, Not the Rules - What This Week’s Budget Means for Disabled People
Budget 2025 Disability North East: For many disabled people across the North East, the lead-up to last week’s Budget came with a familiar mix of worry and uncertainty. Over the past year, government attention on welfare reform has felt increasingly targeted at disabled people, creating deep concern about what might come next. The question hanging in the air was simple but urgent: Will this Budget make life easier or harder?
In the run up to the Budget in October 2025 we wrote to the Chancellor to demand she listen to Disabled People! Demanding that disabled people not pay the price in the autumn budget.
Difference North East's Policy Officer, Charlotte Hall, on the effect of the budget on Disabled People in the North East
“Over the last year the government’s focus on welfare reform has felt targeted at disabled people and caused fear and concern, leaving many wondering what to expect from yesterday’s Budget.
There was some good news.
Ending the two-child limit is a significant shift in the government’s approach to welfare. It’s estimated that scrapping the cap could lift up to 450,000 children out of poverty. For disabled children and their families in the North East, this is an important and long-overdue step.
At Difference North East, we looked to the Chancellor to:
• Protect disabled people’s incomes and support in full
• Work with disabled people before making any reforms
• Be ambitious for disabled people’s futures by funding the support that makes equality possible
Instead, we heard measures that increase assessments and checks, without tackling the barriers that make everyday life harder.
The government's focus must be to fix the systems around people, not tighten the rules around them.
Budget 2025 Disability North East: A Step Forward, But Not the Change Disabled People Need
Ending the two-child limit is a major and positive shift. It will lift many children out of poverty and relieve pressure on families who have been pushed to the brink. It is a decision that will tangibly improve lives, particularly in our region where poverty levels are among the highest in the country.
But a single good decision does not equal a Budget that delivers for disabled people.
Disabled people have been clear about what would actually remove barriers: income security, stability, accessible systems, and meaningful involvement in decisions that affect their everyday lives. Yet again, this Budget leaned towards increased monitoring and tighter rules rather than investing in the support that enables equality.
Why More Checks Are Not the Answer
More assessments and more checks do not create opportunity. They do not open doors. And they do not dismantle the barriers disabled people face in housing, employment, healthcare, transport, or everyday participation.
Instead, they increase stress, uncertainty, and administrative pressure, often for people already navigating complex systems just to get the basics.
The reality is simple. Disabled people’s lives do not improve when systems become tougher. They improve when systems become fairer, more accessible, and properly funded.
A Better Future Is Possible
At Difference North East, our message to government was clear: work with disabled people, fund what works, and be ambitious about equality. Those ambitions did not make it into this Budget, but they remain essential.
And while national decisions matter, so does local action. Disabled people in the North East are organising, supporting each other, and speaking up about what equality should look like. We are pushing for change rooted in real experiences, change that starts with listening.
That work is stronger when more of us are involved.
If You Agree, Join Us
Change does not happen by itself. It happens when disabled people and allies come together, raise their voices, and demand better.
If you agree that the government should fix the systems around people, not tighten the rules around them, then we would love you to join Difference North East.
Join Difference North East as a Member Join Difference North East as an Ally
