People with Disabilities: Cost of Living

Gregory Campbell Excerpts

Tuesday 16th May 2023 Westminster Hall

[Marion Fellows]

That is the most awful fact and the most worrying thing that has been said today. Many of us in this Chamber will have direct knowledge of that from casework and constituents we have had to deal with.

As I said, disabled people tend to spend more on essential goods and services. People with special dietary requirements have been particularly hard hit by food inflation. Statistics from January this year show that households with specific dietary requirements pay up to 73% more for food than those who do not need to buy “free from” products, according to analysis by The Allergy Team.

In December 2022, the Food Standards Agency found that households with food hypersensitivity—food allergy, intolerance and coeliac disease—spent an extra 14p for every £1 compared with those who did not need to buy alternatives. For example, pea milk is £2 a litre—50% more expensive than cow’s milk. Gluten-free penne pasta at Morrisons jumped by 125% in 12 months, from 60p in January 2022 to £1.35 in January this year. I have many other examples.

The SNP urges the Government to use all the powers at their disposal to tackle the cost of living crisis on the scale required. We continue to push them to use their powers to tackle the cost of living crisis, including access to borrowing, providing benefits and support to households, VAT on fuel, taxation of windfall profits and regulation of the energy market. The reversal of the planned increase in the energy price guarantee is welcome, but bills will still be unsustainable for many people. Disabled people and their carers and families across the UK are paying a steep price for the economic mismanagement of the UK Government, with the cost of living forcing many to choose between heating their homes or eating.

Everyone welcomes the UK Government’s increase in benefits by 10.1%. However, the Chancellor has yet again failed to reinstate the universal credit uplift and scrap the unfair benefit cap and two-child limit. Scope stated that a further long-term solution was required to address the crisis of costs that many disabled households now face. Legacy benefit claimants, many of whom are long-term sick or disabled, have been unjustly denied the additional uplift that universal credit claimants got during the pandemic. The SNP has consistently called on the Government to reinstate the uplift and increase it to £25 a week, and to extend it to all means-tested legacy benefits, as well as getting rid of the benefit cap and the two-child limit. The UK Government’s continual refusal to fix the extensive known problems with universal credit is unacceptable and is subjecting vulnerable people to additional unnecessary hardship.

Although a one-off additional payment of—wait for it—£150 to disabled people is welcome, it will not provide the same kind of long-term assistance as a benefits uplift. As I said, Disability Rights UK says that the lack of “meaningful increases” in disability benefits over recent years means that the payment is not enough and does not “touch the sides” of what disabled people, families and carers need. Rising food bank need demonstrates that more and more people are going without the essentials, and the Trussell Trust said:

“The level of benefits, especially benefits for people who are sick and disabled, needs to be high enough for people to live.”

I remember sitting in the main Chamber and listening to a Tory Member who was surprised that sickness benefit was £92-something, which she thought was quite generous. She thought that was a daily rate. It is a weekly rate, and it has not increased by that much. We cannot continue like this. We are punishing the most vulnerable people in our society.

According to a 2020 report from the Royal British Legion and Poppyscotland called “Making the benefits system fit for Service”,

“households containing working age adults in the ex-Service community are over twice as likely to receive sickness or disability benefits as UK adults. Within that increased likelihood there will be veterans in receipt of military compensation who may rely on welfare benefits more than their peers, such as those who are unable to undertake civilian employment due to their injury or disability having left Service ”.

Research participant responses demonstrated common themes, from problems completing applications to difficulties explaining the impact of service-related conditions on wellbeing. The research was conducted prior to the introduction of the adult disability payment in Scotland. I should like to ask the Minister: what are the Government going to do about this scandal? Organisations are telling me that the measures already announced have little or no impact because of spiralling food inflation and energy costs.

According to the House of Commons Library, the Government’s planned expenditure on Trident renewal for 2023-24 is £3 billion. The UK Government are making a political choice to spend vast amounts during a cost of living crisis—an obscene commitment to spend money on the renewal of nuclear weapons in the face of the difficulties being met day and daily by the most vulnerable people in the United Kingdom.

The UK’s recent spring Budget was another missed opportunity for the Government to take meaningful action to boost income and support households, including disabled people—really, you have to do better. The changes to UK benefits and the wider support to better meet the needs of disabled people are welcome, but the effect of those changes must not force more people into low-paid and insecure employment. The disability pay gap must be looked at seriously by the Government. Will the Minister tell us what they are actively doing to end it?

The health and disability White Paper introduces a new universal credit health element, with eligibility through PIP that could be much more restrictive than the work capability assessment. Around 45% of “no work requirements” universal credit recipients in Scotland are not in receipt of either a disability benefit—such as attendance allowance, disability living allowance or personal independence payment—or carer’s allowance. Once the policy is enacted, divergences between PIP and ADP could result in diverging conditionality and spend on universal credit. As the Minister will no doubt acknowledge, I have already raised this issue with him. Can we have an update on what is happening there? Disability organisations are concerned that the changes are likely to see fewer sick and disabled people getting the support they need.

The new in-work progression offer to help people into work, increase their earnings and move them into better-paid jobs will inevitably mean that disabled people are exposed to the sanctions regime. By September this year, 600,000 people claiming universal credit, including disabled people and those with physical and/or mental health conditions, will be required to meet a work coach to increase their hours or earnings or risk being sanctioned. We know that sanctions do not work; the Government admitted that in the paper they kept hidden for quite a long while.

The health and disability White Paper is a missed opportunity to implement much-needed changes. The MS Society has outlined how the Government’s White Paper does not include substantive plans for how the PIP process will be improved or any information on how the criteria may be reformed. Those are real issues right now and there is not much hope, looking forward, for people with disabilities.

The Scottish Government have taken action, within their devolved powers and fixed budget, that will help disabled people facing the combined effects of higher energy bills, rising inflation and UK Government policies. In Scotland, the Government believe that disabled people should have freedom, dignity, choice and control over their lives, and they want to remove barriers that prevent disabled people from enjoying equal access to full citizenship.

The Scottish Government have therefore introduced things such as the fuel insecurity fund. They also work with Fuel Bank Foundation, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, Advice Direct Scotland and the Wise Group. Similarly, core staff costs will be provided to Energy Action Scotland, as Scotland’s national fuel poverty charity. The Scottish Government are trying their best; I do not see that level of commitment and action from the UK Government.

Throughout February and March this year, almost 400,000 low-income households in Scotland automatically received £50 in financial support towards their energy bills, in addition to what the UK Government have done. The Scottish Government are also doing a lot of other things, including increasing carer’s allowance. They are doing their best but, without the full powers, including borrowing powers, it is impossible for them to do much more. I should also point out that partnership working is much more normal practice in Scotland. No Government policy is introduced without taking into account the lived experience of people affected by that policy, and I urge this Government to take the same approach.

I realise we are short of time, so I would like to close by pleading with the Government once again to exercise some empathy and compassion for those with disabilities and to try to embody the sense of humanity demonstrated by Kevin Sinfield towards his friend Rob Burrow on Sunday. We must remember that each and any one of us can become disabled. The Government must act now to offer greater support to those with disabilities to offset the additional costs during the cost of living crisis.

[Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)]

The hon. Lady alluded to the moving and emotional scenes of Kevin Sinfield carrying his friend over the finishing line. Does she agree that that eloquent video spoke more to the heart of the nation than any moves by any Government could ever do, unless they put money where their mouths are?

[Marion Fellows]

I could not have put that better myself; that is so true. I had help writing this speech, as many of us do, and my young researcher put in that reference; I did not see that event, because I did not watch any TV over the weekend—I completely switched off. It is true that something like that brings a nation together to understand how we must be more caring. It is not about being nice to people; it is about enabling them to live full lives as full citizens.