Disability Poverty Campaign Group's Statement on Government Welfare Bill

On Tuesday 1st July outside the House of Commons, Disabled people met in the searing heat of London, and made their feelings known about the Universal Credit and PIP bill as it was being debated inside parliament. 

Thanks to supportive MPs and the work of many Disabled people, the Government was humiliated into giving more concessions to this divisive and cruel bill. 

Disabled people across the country were relieved to hear that the arbitrary and dangerous changes to the Personal Independent Payment assessment that were due to be introduced in November 2026 will now not go ahead (the ‘4-point rule’). However, despite this victory for our campaigning, the changes that have been announced do not go far enough.  

We don’t yet know whether the offer to ‘co-produce’ a new PIP assessment will offer a genuine chance for us to engage. If we’re just being asked to make the same cuts through a different route, it is not true co-production. Not only this, but the major cuts to Universal Credit Health – which will hit people who are already among the poorest in the country – are still in the bill, as are discriminatory ‘severe conditions criteria’ that will exclude people with fluctuating conditions.  

Our campaign against the bill will continue as long as the Government refuses to understand the lives of Disabled people and the extra costs we incur daily, just to survive.  

The public do not agree with these cuts, human rights groups do not agree with these cuts, the DPCG and its allies do not agree with these cuts. It is time this ailing bill was left to collapse into the chaos it has created. We will not stop campaigning and calling it out until this happens. 

Written by two representatives of the Disability Poverty Campaign Group

Dan White - DR UK

Julie Modern - Inclusion London