Individuals will be hit by up to six different cuts and some could lose more than £20,000 each, research for the Guardian shows
Cash-strapped local authorities are imposing growing restrictions on social care services used by disabled people. Photograph: Alamy
Thousands of disabled people will be hit by up to six different welfare cuts, with the very worst off potentially losing up to £23,000 each over five years, research shows.
The research, carried out for the Guardian, estimates that by 2017-18 about 3.7 million disabled people will collectively lose £28bn as a result of the reforms. Individuals will be hit by one of seven combinations of welfare cuts and small numbers could lose more than £20,000 each.
About 26,000 people will effectively no longer be counted as disabled in the eyes of the welfare system because the cuts will result in the removal of all benefits that identify them as having a disability, according to the study, carried out by thinktank Demos and the disability charity Scope.
Claudia Wood, deputy director of Demos, said households hit by multiple welfare cuts were more likely to get into debt, become reliant on charities for crisis help and face social isolation and mental illness.
The welfare reforms come as cash-strapped local authorities impose growing restrictions on social care services used by disabled people. Charities estimate that 105,000 disabled people will lose support by 2015 as eligibility thresholds for care tightens.
A Guardian survey of councils published this week showed that many councils will introduce charges or increase co-payments for care services from April.
By 2017-18 disabled claimants will be subject to a combination of cuts and restrictions to employment support allowance (ESA) and disability living allowance (DLA), the capping of rises to benefits and tax credits, and the abolition in many parts of the country of council tax benefit.
Those financial losses will be compounded for disabled claimants living in social housing, who from April will face potential reductions in housing benefit amounting to hundreds of pounds a year as a result of the so-called bedroom tax.
A separate study by the research firm CACI says residents of local authority areas in London and the north of England will face most pressure when the welfare cuts come into effect next week. Barking and Dagenham came top of the list with 61% falling into this category, followed by Tower Hamlets (58%) and Southwark (56%).
The Demos/Scope study, which uses official government data to analyse the of the effect of 13 separate welfare changes, estimates that:
• The biggest single group affected – comprising about 123,000 disabled people facing a combination of three benefit cuts – will see a reduction in income of up to £18,100 by 2017-18. A further 88,000 people subject to two cuts will lose £15,500.
• A group of up to 5,000 people will shoulder a combination of six benefit cuts simultaneously, seeing their income reduce by a total of £23,000 each over a five-year period, including a drastic £5,800 decrease in 2017-18 alone.
Richard Hawkes, the Scope chief executive, said: "In 2013 disabled people are already struggling to pay the bills. Living costs are spiralling. Income is flatlining. We know many are getting in debt, just to pay for essentials.
"What's the government's response? The same group of disabled people face not just one or two cuts to their support but in some cases three, four, five or even six cuts. In this context it's a frightening prospect that welfare could be capped in the June spending review, having already been slashed by billions."
Wood said the study's findings were an underestimate because it could not factor in the additional impact of cuts to child benefit, tax credits and the social fund. It also does not measure the impact of cuts to universal local authority services used by disabled people.
The government, which aims to save £18bn a year from the total welfare bill by 2015, has published separate impact assessments for each of its reforms but has refused to analyse the cumulative impact.
Individuals who lose all disability benefits would be unable to access Motability cars, blue badge parking discs and equipment grants, Wood said. "Your disability won't change. It's just that a combination of someone deciding you aren't disabled enough and have claimed for too long means you will lose your benefits."
A previous Demos/Scope study, which tracked the impact of initial welfare changes in 2011-12 on six households with disabled members, found that income losses over the year ranged from £270 for a single disabled woman to £2,100 for a man cared for by his wife. But those losses will accelerate as the reforms starting in April unfold.
"We carry out thorough impact assessments on all our policies, as well as equality impact assessments on any policies that might have a disproportionate affect on disabled people."
The CACI study identifies a group it calls "social adversity" who will be most badly hit by measures such as cuts to council services, reductions to benefits and the bedroom tax. While many councils had 10% or fewer residents in this category, a handful in London and the north had more than 50%.
Liam Smith, leader of Barking and Dagenham council, said the council was doing all it could to support the most vulnerable residents but faced "unprecedented demands".
"Yet again people who are totally removed from normal life are trying to force people to live by the motto of eat or heat. I challenge these people to try to live [like our most vulnerable residents do] and see how far they get."
Guardian
