Letter to MPs: Impact of Welfare Reforms North East
Below is the letter we wrote to every MP in the North East of England, highlighting the impact of welfare reforms will have on the people in the North East, in their communities and in their constituencies.
The letter
Dear [MP NAME]
We are Difference North East.
Difference fights for equality for disabled people and an end to discrimination on the grounds of disability. We are a disabled people’s organisation, ran by and for disabled people.
There are 16 million disabled people in the UK, the highest proportion of those living in the North East, and for these individuals there are a worsening range of inequalities in terms of education, employment, housing, transport wellbeing and experiences of crime (1). After housing costs, the proportion of working age disabled people living in poverty is 27%. Which is higher than the proportion of working age non-disabled people at 19% (2) . When you factor into this the disability price tag (the funds needed to afford the extra costs of being disabled) mean that disabled people need to find, on average, an extra £1010 extra per month just to have the same standard of living as a non-disabled household (3)
The impact of proposed changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in your constituency.
In March 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced several changes to welfare and disability benefits. One of the proposed changes was that to qualify for the daily living element of PIP you must score at least 4 points, in one of the ten daily living assessed activities. The DWP, following a freedom of information request, has now revealed the proportion of current claimants who would lose out under this rule
- Out of 1,608,000 enhanced daily living awards, 13% (209,000) don’t meet the 4-point requirement
- Out of 1,283,000 standard daily living awards, 87% (1,116,000) don’t meet the 4-point requirement
If the government pushes ahead with these proposals, it will eliminate the standard daily living component of PIP.
In the North East area, 21.2% of people are disabled. A recent health equity report (4) has highlighted that in [constituency name], if PIP reform changes move ahead, the estimated loss per working age person is [£xxx]. This ranks your constituency as the [___th] most impacted (out of 543 UK constituencies).
Over 4 days the benefits and work website (5) gathered experiences of those who would lose their PIP under the new rules. They received 550 responses. One of which I’ve copied below:
“I would lose daily living so approx. £300 for that and if I lose LCWRA as well that will be £423.00, so £723.00 a month. I will fall into absolute poverty, my health will worsen, and I expect I’ll die a lot sooner… Which is probably the point. We won’t survive losing any money. Our quality of life now is not great, but at least we can eat regularly”
The impact of proposed welfare changes on local government
One of the significant areas that isn’t being discussed as part of these proposals is the impact on local councils. Many disabled people use their personal independence payment to contribute towards their care costs. Many give up the entirety of their PIP to the local council to fund the cost of social care packages.
A reduction in PIP of this scale could mean lower individual contributions and therefore higher council contributions. It could also mean an increase in the number of disabled residents who may be unable to afford care charges, impacting on their ability to continue to live independently.
This then has a knock-on impact on other local services as their budgets become stretched to meet this extra demand for care funding.
The local government association in their report said that lack of funding will mean more older and disabled people struggling to access vital care, less support for families in crisis and of course cuts to vital bus and home-to-school transport routes and children left without access to vital special educational needs provision.
Additional impact on local unpaid carers
The North East has the highest number of unpaid carers (10.1%) (6). PIP acts as a passport benefit to carers allowance. If unpaid carers become ineligible for carers allowance, it means they may have to pass their care responsibilities to the local authority. Research from Carers UK (7) shows that 1.2 million unpaid carers live in poverty, and 400,000 live in deep poverty in the UK. These welfare reforms risk increasing these figures.
““Proposals to tighten eligibility criteria for benefits will strike fear into the heart of many carers. Around half a million carers look after someone receiving Personal Independence Payments. Carers already prop up our ailing health and social care system and we cannot introduce welfare changes that leave carers again picking up the pieces.”
Kirsty McHugh, Carers Trust CEO
Impact on local child poverty
A DWP impact statement estimated that there will be an additional 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, in relative poverty because of the changes to benefits. However, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is estimating that these changes alone, when fully rolled out, will push an additional 100,000 children into poverty over the long term (8). CPAG continues “The true impact of these reforms for children and their families is likely to be far greater than the government presented”
A lack of meaningful and accessible consultation across the North East
The Green paper contains 22 policy changes, yet only 11 of these (9) are being consulted on, this means the 1st reading and vote will take place before the consultation has even been completed.
Disabled people living in the North East have not been meaningfully considered in the Government consultation.
- The region has been entirely ignored for in person events, the nearest in person consultation we can attend is Leeds or Glasgow.
- Only six online consultations were announced, places were limited to around 25 people and were filled immediately. Leaving people living in the North east only able to contribute via the online consultation questionnaire.
- It took 3 weeks after the consultation was announced for accessible formats of the consultation to be made available.
Considering the points raised above, and our previous letters and briefings sent, we urge you to speak out and say you will be voting against proposed welfare reforms.
The Green Paper proposals will be catastrophic for your Disabled constituents. They will also undermine growth and living standards throughout your constituency. Making people sicker and poorer will not help them retain, or return to, employment.
Sincerely,
Claire Andrews
Development Manager
Difference North East
An open invitation to meet Difference North East.
We will meet any MP from the North East to discuss welfare reform.
We have held space on Zoom between 2pm and 3:30pm on Friday 30th June 2025. If you would like to meet with us, please email claire@differencenortheast.org.uk and we will forward you a joining link.