Government plans for significant cuts to welfare payments

March 2025

The government is planning on ‘significant’ cuts to the benefit system which will affect many people who currently rely on them for their wellbeing. Cuts to benefits are popular among many people who believe that those who receive them are underserving, shirking or not really suffering from a disability. Article 22 of the Universal Declaration says that everyone has the right to social security.

The question for government, faced with funding challenges, is how to manage the ever increasing cost of the social security budget. How it is managed is a political judgement and the government has decided not to cancel the ‘triple lock’ as it’s known (a guaranteed rise in pension incomes) for example, but is planning to cut payments to those with disabilities. Many people in receipt of benefits are in work. The tone of the statements seem to be based on punitive ideas: people need to be, in this view, coerced into work. While it is true that there will be people who are ‘underserving’ of help or cheating the system, many, and probably the majority, would like to work – desperate to do so even – but health or social factors mitigate against them.

The letter below, published in the Guardian (14 March) is from the Chief Executive of Amnesty UK.

“The prime minister is right about Britain’s broken benefits system, but if the country does need to reboot the system, the government needs to respect rights while it does so. Adequate social security is not a political gift, it is a human right. Ensuring people can eat and live safely with their families and in communities is a right that the UK has committed to. However, successive governments have failed to respect and enforce those rights.

“And now, instead of using this moment to address the root causes of out-of-control costs of housing and essentials, and the resulting reliance on food banks and debt for so many people, it looks like this government is playing to the gallery and selling its reform credentials by making threats to reduce the “burden” on society of people who are ill or disabled. For so many in the UK, poverty is a political choice forced upon them. The prime minister can choose to end it”.

Sacha Deshmukh
Chief executive, Amnesty UK