Labour’s betrayal of unpaid carers: Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing ‘mother of all rebellions’ as one in ten people looking after loved ones lose lifeline benefits_Nhy
A furious backlash was growing last night against Rachel Reeves‘s welfare cuts that will see one in ten carers lose their lifeline benefits.
An estimated 150,000 unpaid carers looking after loved ones will have their weekly allowances taken away under the Chancellor’s controversial plan to slash the number of people receiving sickness and disability support.
Some couples will lose as much as £12,000 a year, the Commons was told, and there are warnings many vulnerable people will be pushed into poverty.
The move is expected to save £500million by the end of the decade. Labour was accused of ‘coming after carers’, having previously targeted pensioners and farmers in earlier rounds of cuts and tax raids.
Tory MP Danny Kruger blasted: ‘The Government are balancing the books on the backs of the people least able to take the weight.
‘First they came for the farmers, then for the pensioners, and now it is the carers – the most important people in our society, doing the most important job a human being can do, not for the money but for the love.
‘The least the Government can do is to give them our support.’
Ministers were also warned they face the ‘mother of all rebellions’ from within Labour, leaving Sir Keir Starmer facing the biggest revolt of his premiership if he goes ahead with cutting £5 billion in total from the welfare bill by the end of the decade.
A number of Labour MPs have already declared they will vote against the proposals when they come before the Commons in May. One leading rebel told the Mail: ‘This is, I think, a poll-tax moment. A lot of MPs are saying they will vote against and that this is not Labour. People who have been absolutely loyal are being emboldened to say we’ve got to change direction.’
Rachel Reeves leaves her residence on Downing Street for the Houses of Parliament ahead of delivering the Spring Budget Statement
An estimated 150,000 unpaid carers looking after loved ones will have their weekly allowances taken away under the Chancellor’s controversial plan to slash the number of people receiving sickness and disability support (stock)
Tory MP Danny Kruger (pictured) blasted the move: ‘The Government are balancing the books on the backs of the people least able to take the weight’
The MP predicted the ‘heat’ will continue to build ahead of crucial local elections in just over a month.
Latest figures show more than 1.4 million people receive carer’s allowance – worth £81.90 a week – if they spend at least 35 hours a week looking after somebody with a disability or illness who needs help with washing, cooking, household tasks or shopping.
Others receive the carer’s element of universal credit – worth £198.31 a month.
But an impact assessment published alongside the Spring Statement on Wednesday revealed that ‘150,000 people will not receive carer’s allowance or the universal credit carer element’ as a result of new restrictions on the number of people able to claim personal independence payment (PIP).
This will save £200 million in 2027-28, the document revealed, rising to £500million by the end of the decade.
Last night Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, himself a carer to his disabled son, said: ‘The way this Government is treating carers is appalling. These cuts will be a double whammy to the most vulnerable, hitting disabled people who cannot work while slashing support for the loved ones who care for them. It is not just unfair, it is a false economy.’
In the Commons, Lib Dem MP Steve Darling said: ‘Yesterday saw the biggest cuts to carer’s allowance for decades. Although we need to manage down appropriately the benefits budget, that needs to be done in a way that is caring, compassionate and far from rushed, which is what we saw yesterday.
‘The Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that some couples will lose £12,000 a year, when PIP cuts and carer’s allowance cuts are taken into account.’
Daniel Francis, Labour MP for Bexleyheath and Crayford in Kent, said: ‘Like thousands of others, I carried out my caring responsibilities this morning before I came to this place.
Latest figures show more than 1.4 million people receive carer’s allowance – worth £81.90 a week – if they spend at least 35 hours a week looking after somebody with a disability or illness (stock)
Others receive the carer’s element of universal credit – worth £198.31 a month (stock)
‘Will the minister consider whether we need a plan across government departments to identify the support available to ensure that carers can work, and that they and their loved ones do not fall into poverty as a result of the announcements made?’
Carers UK said that those who look after loved ones are also worried about being told they have to find jobs despite needing to stay at home.
Tamara Sandoul from the charity added: ‘Many have contacted us to say they are shocked, worried and scared about what might happen if they or the person they care for no longer scores enough points in the right areas.
‘Losing PIP means losing carer’s allowance and other entitlements. Families will effectively lose two main strands of financial income at once.’
Asked how she would explain the cut to carers losing out, the Chancellor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The people with the most severe needs, we want them to get more support than what they are getting today. But all the evidence shows that with support more people can be working.’
‘It feels very precarious for us to have disabled children now’
Nicola Holmes, who looks after her disabled son, is afraid she will lose her carer’s allowance if his personal independence payment is cut following tightened eligibility rules.
The 55-year-old was once a professional actress but had to give up working to look after Ethan, 18, who has Down syndrome.
The family relies on her husband Wayne’s income as a self-employed electrician as well as the £184 a week her son receives in PIP and £81.90 a week in carer’s allowance.
Nicola Holmes with her husband Wayne and children Ethan, 18, and Ella, 15
But Mrs Holmes is afraid her son’s benefits will be cut and insisted that although he is technically an adult, he has the mental age of a five-year-old and will never be able to work.
‘My son is a beautiful soul and is just recently out of nappies, but needs full support to eat safely, going to the toilet and washing,’ she said.
‘He would not be safe to even push a trolley in a supermarket, he would need someone to help him.
‘That is the level of need the Government is overlooking – the impact of taking something as small away as PIP. It is for paying for those extra things to support him.
‘My son can’t help it, it’s not my fault he is disabled. It is for the Government to be accountable and get funds from people who can pay and support the most vulnerable.’
If Ethan’s PIP is cut then she would no longer qualify for carer’s allowance, which Mrs Holmes says will push her family deeper into poverty. ‘I would be left with an adult disabled child,’ she said. ‘To demonise the disabled is unacceptable and it feels very precarious at the moment to be the mother of disabled children.
‘We would end up in more debt than we are now if we lost his PIP and the carer’s allowance. We might end up homeless if we couldn’t afford to pay our mortgage.
‘I can’t go out to work because my son doesn’t have the right provisions. It’s not a crime to be poor, it’s not a crime to be disabled.’
Mrs Holmes, whose daughter Ella, 15, has autism, added: ‘Labour has gone back on its whole ethos and ostracised a whole section of society by their economic worth.
‘It is just criminal and we are in a very dangerous position in this country.’
