‘Fully atrocious’: Warwick students condemn Labour government’s proposed disability cuts

Warwick students have criticised the proposed disability cuts put forward by the government.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a plethora of welfare reforms in her Spring Statement, which included cuts to universal credit, more strict processes to access personal independence payment (PIP) and difficulty for anyone under the age of 22 to access such support.

According to BBC, the “increased funding will be invested in advanced technologies, including new energy weapons on Royal Navy ships.”

Rachel Reeves also claimed that the reforms would result in an increase of young people in education, employment and training, and would give more “people the chance to fulfil their potential”.

Despite this, a number of Warwick students condemned the reforms as a “huge barrier to higher education”. Announced on March 26th, many disabled students on campus have explained that the cuts will make it more difficult for them to participate in public life how they would like to.

Sydnee Leaver, campaigns and events officer for Warwick Autism Society exclusively told The Warwick Tab how the cuts would affect students. They said: “Autism at Warwick is committed to advocating for the needs and liberation of all autistic students, this includes advocating against the current welfare cuts and reforms around PIP.”

They went on to add: “It is clear these reforms have been created by people who aren’t aware of the reality of being disabled in our current society, nor the additional costs that come with being disabled.”

Many societies at Warwick are equally enraged by the cuts and reforms. Amongst them is Warwick Enable, a society representing disabled and chronically ill students, whose incoming president echoed this. Abi expressed concern for how they would live their lives without such support.

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Other students have expressed concern surrounding the reforms, deeming them as “unfortunate.” Joe* explained to The Warwick Tab how it is “going to lead to some bad situations for some people”, whilst others questioned the labour party itself. Another University of Warwick student, Ollie*, added: “I thought labour were meant to end the austerity” and said it is “fully atrocious, labour isn’t even pretending to care about people anymore”.

According to Community Care, “over three million families will lose an average of £1,720 per year in real terms by 2029-30”. It was also determined after the results of an assessment at the hands of The Department for Work and Pensions that  “370,000 people will lose their current entitlement to the daily living allowance element of personal independence payment.”

Another student, Lucy*, responded to news of the cuts and reforms, telling The Warwick Tab: “I’m disabled myself, there’s a lot of goodwill but so little funds, can only get worse”.