Entrenching Deprivation

Peter Sagar writes:

It was reported in The Guardian on 25th April that the £5 billion programme of disability benefits cuts planned by the Labour government would disproportionately hit people living in North East England, so “entrenching deprivation”, according to new analysis.

It was further said that, “the consultancy Policy in Practice has looked at how the proposed changes would affect individual regions and local authorities, and found the impact across the UK starkly uneven”.

Policy in Practice

Research done by Policy in Practice has shown that by the end of the current parliament:

• 800,000 people are expected to lose PIP worth between £3,800 and £5,700 
• 1.7 million people currently on LCWRA will be impacted by the freeze, worth over £500 per year each in real terms, by 2029 
• 440,000 new recipients of LCWRA are set to be awarded half the current value, losing £47 per week, or £2,450 per year 
• 230,000 people could lose both PIP and LCWRA. Combined, these households could lose over £9,000 per year.

The loss of PIP is accounted for in the first bullet point, but the loss of LCWRA is worth £97 per week or £5,000 per year

Of all the regions in the country the three hardest hit will be the Northwest, Wales and worst of all North East England.

The analysis undertaken by Policy in Practice in a Freedom of Information request showed that in North East England nearly 170,000 people are going to be affected, which is 6.2% of the population, the highest of any region in the country, with £400 million lost.

By way of comparison, only 0,21% of people in the Southeast will be affected and a mere 0.16% of people living in London.

Hardest hit authorities

Additionally, three of the five hardest hit local authorities are in the North East:

• Hartlepool, which is the second worst hit local authority area
• South Tyneside, which is third worst hit local authority area
• Redcar and Cleveland, which is the fifth worst hit local authority area

In terms of the impact of the cuts, Policy in Practice says that, “together this means that deprived areas that have more people on disability benefits who risk losing out also see a greater proportionate impact – impact that hits an already struggling local economy. These reforms will work against efforts to level up local economies unless the cuts to disability benefits are replaced by other forms of investment”.

Newcastle Citizens Advice Bureau

Hannah Cooper from Newcastle citizens advice bureau told me recently that, “the government recently published its impact assessment for the proposed changes. Citizens Advice is extremely concerned that the government predicts 3.2mn families will financially lose out on an average of £1720 per year as a result of these changes.

“We believe that this will particularly impact families with children in contradiction with the government’s stated aim of reducing child poverty. The impact assessment also supports this, suggesting that an additional 250,000 people (including 50,000) children will be in relative poverty after housing costs in 2029/30.

“The vast majority (96%) of families that lose financially have someone with a disability in the household. These families are estimated to represent 20% of all families that report having someone with a disability in the household.

North East Labour MPs

In response to the cuts, it has been reported that the following North East MPs are considering rebelling against the government, when the issue comes before parliament:

• Mary Kelly-Foy, City of Durham 
• Ian Lavery, Blyth and Ashington 
• Emma Lewell-Buck, South Shields
• Andy McDonald, Middlesbrough and Thornaby East
• Grahame Morris, Easington

Why the cuts will harm the North East

Deven Ghelani, the director of Policy in Practice, was reported as saying that local authority leaders needed to understand how people in their areas would be affected, to prepare for rising service demand and to protect the people most at risk.

“These reforms will have an uneven impact on different parts of the country,” he said. “Some parts of the country will get a double whammy because they have a smaller economy and will lose a larger share of it.

“One of the reasons they have a smaller economy is that they have more people impacted so the proposals have a serious risk of entrenching existing patterns of deprivation.”

Yet again, the North East is being hit by policy directed from London, while at the moment we seem powerless to prevent it.

Policy in Practice are holding a webinar about the impact of the cuts and what can be done to mitigate them on 27th August. You can register for it by clicking here.