Universal Credit Bill

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

2nd reading & Committee negatived & 3rd reading
Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Lister of Burtersett. I thank the many disabled people and organisations who have written to us all. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Shawcross-Wolfson, on her maiden speech and look forward to hearing her future contributions. Along with other noble Lords, I look forward to hearing the valedictory speech from the noble Baroness, Lady Bryan, and I wish her well. We will miss her.

Other speakers have outlined the changes in the Bill following the outrage from disabled people, and the major Labour rebellion in the Commons, but there are still concerns about this reduced Bill, as well as the Timms review looking at personal independence payments. The Secretary of State’s tone in her speeches was very worrying right from the start. The premise that all that disabled people and those with serious health problems need is support to get a job was, to disabled people, quite extraordinary. Worse, there was an implication that many of them were workshy. That is not the problem. I entirely agreed with the noble Lord, Lord Elliott, when he set out that more needs to be done to encourage business to offer proper jobs and support disabled people in them.

In referring to changes to PIP, the Secretary of State repeatedly implied that PIP was an in-work benefit—it is not. It is there to help disabled people manage the extra costs of life, as the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, outlined. At the Work and Pensions Select Committee last week, my honourable friend, Steve Darling MP, who is visually impaired, had repeatedly to challenge the Secretary of State’s assertion that cutting PIP would help people get into work. Kemi Badenoch MP, the leader of the Opposition, said last week that it was possible to claim PIP by self-certification, as well as suggesting that every disabled person in the country claims disability benefits. She also asserted that it was possible for someone with a food intolerance to get a Motability vehicle. Not one of those statements is true. It is alarming that senior people in the two main parties in the Commons appear to be demonising disabled people, but it is really good that the Minister and the noble Baroness, Lady Stedman-Scott, do not use this approach and this tone.

The definition of a disabled person is someone with a condition or illness that lasts 12 months or more, which limits their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. The one in four statistic includes the elderly: 40% of the elderly fall into the disabled bracket. Perhaps demography is also increasing the number of disabled people.

I turn to what remains of the Bill. On the changes to universal credit, principally the limited capability for work-related activity—the health element—the proposals will create a two-tier benefit system, as others have said, and may breach the Equality Act. It is extraordinary that the Government believe it is acceptable to halve and then freeze the UC element. People with disabilities and health conditions will find their costs far harder to manage, despite having to live with severe conditions. This may mean that they have to resort to the NHS or social care, with increased costs to those public budgets. What assessments have the Government made of the additional costs that are likely to be transferred to the DHSC, other departments and local authorities? The impact assessment on the UC element says on page 5:

“Nearly three million people are not working or looking for work due to ill health, a significant increase of nearly 800,000 since early 2019”.


The noble Baronesses, Lady Andrews and Lady Browning, both mentioned Covid. As the health spokesperson for the Lib Dems during that time, I am interested in the statistics. The ONS data published last year showed that the number of people in England and Scotland with long Covid had increased by 2 million and, of that number, around 381,000 had serious life-limiting Covid. Worse, many doctors are now reporting significant increases in certain serious chronic diseases, such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis—caused, it is thought, by triggering the immune system following Covid. Have the long-term direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic been taken into account in these increased numbers? Has advice been sought from the Chief Medical Officer and the NHS?

Finally, will Ministers please truly consult and work with disabled people? Decades ago, disability campaigners created the phrase “nothing about us without us”, but the publication and announcements for this Bill have destroyed whatever tiny amount of hope the disabled community had that this new Government understood disabled people and their lives. There is much rebuilding of trust to do.