FactCheck: Is Cameron cutting disabled benefits?
“We are not cutting benefits for disabled children.”
David Cameron, 14 December 2011
The background
Labour MP Anne McGuire first questioned David Cameron on the effects of welfare reform on disabled children last month.
She asked the Prime Minister: “Is reducing benefits for disabled children by over £1,300 a year something that reflects the Prime Minister’s often repeated mantra that we are all in this together?”
Mr Cameron’s answer began: “First of all, we are not cutting benefits for disabled children.”
Mrs McGuire popped up again at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, saying the PM’s original answer had been wrong and urging him to have another go.
He replied: “The Honourable Lady is wrong. The money going into Universal Credit for the most disabled children is not being cut. She’s just plain wrong about that.”
That figure of £1,300 seems a lot. Is the government really planning to hit disabled children that hard?
The analysis
Ministers are trying to simplify the benefits system by replacing the long list of different payouts with a single one: Universal Credit.
The overall aim is to reduce the benefits bill and inevitably, some groups of claimants will do better than others.
As the Department of Work and Pensions has made clear, it plans to “align” payments for disabled adults and children, which means some disabled children will get less from now on.
At the moment, families with disabled children who claim Disability Living Allowance can get extra cash through tax credits. A disabled child is eligible for about £53 a week (£2,800 a year) and a severely disabled child receives around £75 (£3,930 a year) a week.
As a DWP impact assessment (here, p28) makes clear, the benefit for less disabled children to fall from £53.84 to £26.75 a week. That’s a cut of £27.09 a week or £1,409 a year.
Severely disabled children will see their benefit go up very slightly, from £75.58 to around £77.
What counts as “severely disabled”? Individual children are assessed on a case-by-case basis according to their care needs. Those who need round-the-clock attention will probably get the full £77. For the first time, children who are registered blind will qualify for the higher payment.
But children who have Down’s Syndrome or are deaf typically fall into the less disabled category now and may well see their benefits fall, according to disability rights groups.
The government estimates that about 100,000 children will be affected negatively by the change.
But, importantly, ministers have made a commitment to the level of payments to existing benefits claimants so they do not lose out in cash terms at the point of transition to Universal Credit.
So it’s not the case that existing claimants will see their tax credits slashed overnight. Campaign groups opposed to the change have not always spelled that out, but they have pointed out three holes in the government’s promise.
First, the protection is in cash terms and will not be uprated in line with inflation, so the value will dwindle over time.
Second, cash protection only applies where there are no “significant change of circumstances”. The government has yet to spell out what that means. Will parents see the benefit protection for their children withdrawn if their employment status changes or they move in with a new partner?
Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, new claimants will get half as much as they would have done before.
The verdict
The Honourable Lady is not wrong. But Mr Cameron was only telling half the story when he said: “We are not cutting benefits for disabled children.”
It’s true that the most severely disabled children are exempt from the cut, and that existing claimants will get some protection, although it’s not the cast-iron promise that campaigners were hoping for.
But the benefit on offer for new claimants is being cut, to the tune of more than £1,400 a year.
By Patrick Worrall
There are 7 comments on this post
IDS is in trouble when he sounds more like a fascist every day!
Petty penny pinching that will ultimately save very little.
Fraud rate on DLA, 0.5%! That’s a mere one in two hundred, the least abused benefit in fact, so why did anyone think this crazy plan will ever work?
Chasing Tax frauds would help more, I suspect!
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Of course they are cutting benefits. The government will lie through their teeth to get the public on board.
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” A measure of any civilized caring society is how it cares/provides for it’s weakest members ” Where does this “reform ” leave us.
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Sadly deficit reduction is also presenting the Tories with their best ever excuse to dismantle the welfare state. Opponents must expect “blue mist” to colour the views of ministers, and so be prepared to defend everything to ensure that suggested cuts are right and proper.
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Did I not also clearly hear David Cameron say that the Government were not cutting the Social Fund during PMQ on 25.01.12?
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The Government are slashing the less disabled children by a massive £27.09 per week. That is cost cutting.No two ways around it.
Yes blind children will now be eligible for the severely disabled payment, but the Government will still make a saving at the expense of the lesser disabled children who will still be losing out by £27.09 per week. That’s a hell of lot of money.
The Government are trying to persuade us that this draconian cost cutting of the lesser disabled child will benefit the more severely disabled children,but the facts and figures speak for themselves.
Like Disability Living Allowance which is changing from a 3 tier payment system to a 2 tier, it is all about saving money.
Saving money at the expense of disabled children. Sounds a bit mean to me.
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Cameron is a despicable liar who is owned lock, stock and barrell by the crony capitalists in the city. He doesn’t mind because he is one himself.
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