Nearly half a million people in disabled households will be forced into severe hardship if UK government goes ahead with cuts to social security

The analysis has found that 440,000 people in disabled households will be forced into severe hardship and at risk of needing a food bank in 2029/30, if the UK government goes ahead with planned cuts to social security.

It also shows that the UK government's planned increase to the basic rate of Universal Credit will move 95,000 people out of severe hardship – which Trussell says is clear evidence this welcome step cannot possibly make up for the sheer scale of the damage of cuts. The net impact of reforms will be 340,000 more people facing hunger and hardship*

This new analysis comes just weeks after Trussell revealed that almost 3 million emergency food parcels were distributed across the UK during the past year. This is equivalent to one parcel every 11 seconds and a 51% increase compared to five years ago.

Trussell warns that UK government’s proposed £7 billion cuts to support for disabled people are likely to undermine its goal of increasing employment and will drive higher costs for public services. Trussell and WPI Economics have shown that even before these cuts, the ongoing failure to tackle hunger and hardship leads to the UK government spending an additional £13.7 billion a year on public services alone, like the NHS, schools and children’s social care.

As MPs prepare to vote on legislation to introduce the cuts, Trussell is urging the UK government to think again and halt these damaging cuts to support for disabled people. They will be condemning hundreds of thousands of people to severe hardship and piling the pressure on food banks across the country, which are already stretched to breaking point.

As well as axing the proposed cuts, Trussell is calling on the UK government to bring forward the planned increase to the basic rate of Universal Credit so it comes into full effect from April 2026, rather than April 2029.

Helen Barnard, Director of Policy at Trussell, said: “This UK government was elected on a promise of change, and with a commitment to end the need for food banks. If the government goes ahead with these ill-considered and cruel cuts to social security, this promise will not be kept – and instead, they will risk leaving behind a legacy of rising poverty and hunger.

“Tackling fiscal challenges should not be done at the expense of people already facing hunger and hardship. These cuts will force 440,000 people in disabled households into severe hardship and leave them at risk of needing a food bank. We urge the government not to continue down this damaging path.

“We support the plan to reform employment support and help more people into work, where their health allows this and accessible jobs are available, but these proposed cuts will utterly undermine this goal. Slashing support will damage people’s health and reduce their ability to engage in training and work.”  

Zoe Nixon, director at Newquay Foodbank, said: “We see disproportionally high numbers of food bank visitors who either have a health concern or disability, or have caring responsibilities for someone with a disability in their household. Life simply costs more for disabled people.

“Though not unique to Cornwall, people across our area are faced with landlords forcing unjustified and ever rising rents on people, a lack of public transport to allow people to get to medical appointments, and people cannot access shops and supermarkets beyond convenience stores which often means higher prices due to lack of competition.

“Social security payments do not allow people to afford the essentials, and this is amplified when you live in a rural community. We fear that once these cuts are forced through Parliament, we will see more households being forced to access our help.”

Find out how many emergency food parcels were distributed in your area, and write to your MP to express your concerns at these cuts.

Notes

*Numbers may not sum up to totals due to rounding and the hunger and hardship threshold shifting slightly due to the impact of reforms.

• People face severe hardship if they are more than 25% below the Social Metrics Commission's poverty line. This captures both people who are likely to need to turn to a food bank now and people who are at high risk of needing food bank support in the future.
• This modelling was conducted by WPI Economics using the IPPR tax-benefit model. The model is owned by the Institute for Public Policy Research and is maintained by researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University.