Labour's disability cuts branded ‘disgraceful and sick’ as Derry & Strabane reps warn of devastation

Last week Labour’s Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, announced that, as of November 2026, the eligibility test for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will be tightened, resulting in fewer eligible claimants. British Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed welfare cuts totalling £4.8bn in her spring statement this week.

More than 3.6 million people with physical or mental health conditions in received PIP receive PIP in the north of Ireland, England, Wales and the north of Ireland.

PIP payments are based on two factors: daily living and mobility, and claimants are currently asked to carry out activities, such as washing their hair or body, which are measured against a set list of activities. Changes in assessment criteria mean claimants must score four points in at least one daily living component of the assessment.

At this month’s Full Council Meeting, People Before Profit Councillor Shaun Harkin proposed writing to the British Government in opposition to the proposed changes, which he said were “an attack on the vulnerable and a continuation of austerity policies by a Labour Government elected to end years of Tory austerity”.

The proposal added that “Council agrees this is not an attempt to help people back into work but is a cost saving measure, following [Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s] announcement of a £13.4 billion increase in military spending”, and called upon the Government to increase taxes on “billionaires, corporate profiteers, and the super-rich instead of once again launching punitive measures that will push many vulnerable people, including many in our district, into deeper poverty, hardship and isolation”.

The Council will now write to local MPs, the Stormont Executive and the Secretary of State calling on them to resist the cuts.

Councillor Harkin said the cuts were part of an ongoing “class war” by Labour, preceded by the removal of the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners and the refusal to remove the two-child limit for Universal Credit recipients.

“Now they’re demonising people on benefits and attempting to dismiss the mental health crisis that we have in our society,” he added.

“Starmer talks about saving £5 billion by reducing the amount of money that people are able to access, [and] I think that this is disgraceful.

“A Labour Government is carrying out these attacks on vulnerable members of our society, and at the same time Starmer has announced massive increases in military spending.

“So they’re taking money that people need, that allows people to have a life, and they’re ploughing that money into arms that will allow more corporate profiteering by warmongers.

“What the Starmer Government is doing is disgraceful and sick.

“We want to make sure, given our residents will be disproportionately impacted by this, that we fight back as a council and make sure that our MPs are fighting back.”

SDLP councillor Rory Farrell noted that 25,000 people across the district were in receipt of PIP and made an amendment to the motion, for council to contact the entire Northern Ireland Executive and ask what actions they plan to take.

The amendment also asked council to contact the Minister for Communities, Gordon Lyons, asking how many of the 25,000 recipients would be affected by the scoring changes.

Councillor Farrell said: “These changes have the potential to decimate household finances, destroy our local economy, and have an absolutely devastating impact on our advice sector.

"So it’s absolutely shameless from the Labour Government. These cuts should be resisted, and they should be overturned.

“We need to understand how many people are going to be impacted by this, because it is going to be absolutely massive.”

Independent councillor Gary Donnelly said recipients already go through a “horrible, stressful process” and were being subjected to further punishment.

Sinn Féin councillor Sandra Duffy described the cuts as cynical, shocking, cruel’, adding: “This is a political choice that the Labour Government are making and the only way to stop being a casualty of fortune in an English game is to pursue constitutional change on this island, where decisions can be made by and in the best interests of the people here.”

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter.