Counting the Cuts – Report

Counting the Cuts is a new report by Dr Simon Duffy, Director of the Centre for Welfare Reform. The report is based on analysis of the latest statistics from the Government.

There have been large cuts in public spending, and these cuts have targeted on people who are already disadvantaged.

• People on low incomes face cuts twice as large as average
• Disabled people on low incomes face cuts four times larger than average
• People who need help form social services face cuts six times greater than the average

This report is released in advance of a key debate in the House of Commons, on the 27th February 2014. This debate was forced on the Government by the WOW Petition: Over 100,000 people called for the Government to make its own calculation of the cumulative impact of its policies on disabled people. Although the Government has refused to carry out such a calculation the Counting the Cuts report demonstrates that a reasonable estimate can be provided. The real reason for the Government’s reluctance may simply be that the findings would be so negative.

The author of the report, Dr Simon Duffy said: “It is shocking to discover how unfairly these cuts have been distributed. Our sense of fair play seems to have vanished. Even more worrying has been the effort to disguise these cuts by the use of shameful rhetoric, directed at disabled people and other minority groups. This is a very worrying time for democracy in the UK.”

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion said: “This is yet more evidence that the Coalition’s utterly heartless austerity agenda is hitting the most vulnerable the hardest. The welfare state is under sustained attack and local services are being starved of vital funding.

“All around us we see the devastating impact of an agenda that sees people living with sickness, disability and poverty suffering the most. In Brighton and Hove alone the Bedroom Tax has pushed over 200 people with disabilities newly into debt. People who were already desperate are being pushed into the hands of pay day loan sharks while the services they depend on are pared to the bone. Or they are forced to wait for months in distress while private companies carry out work capability assessments – which frequently turn out to be wrong.

“So much for those with the broadest shoulders bearing the greatest load. If the Government doesn’t really believe its policies are targeting the most vulnerable, it should be willing to carry out an impact assessment.”