UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities raises welfare proposals with UK government.
The committee has asked a series of questions about the Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill and associated proposals in the Green Paper “Pathways to Work."
The Committee requests clarification on the following:
1. The extent to which an impact assessment has been carried out on the consequences of budget cuts introduced by the Bill on disability benefits.
2. The extent to which the measures envisaged by the Bill will impact, in particular, young persons, new claimants of disability benefits, women with disabilities, persons with disabilities with high level of supports, persons with psychosocial disabilities, and persons with disabilities which require access to mental health care and support.
3. The changes introduced by the Bill to the eligibility criteria of Personal Independent Payment, including changes to assessment thresholds and conditionality and sanctions for benefit recipients.
4. The limitations to the Universal Credit Health elements envisaged by the Bill.
5. Any measures to address the foreseeable risk of increasing poverty rates amongst persons with disabilities if cuts are approved.
6. The consultation to the Government Green Paper ‘Pathways to Work’, released on 18 March 2025, only to 10 out of the 22 policy changes proposed.
7. The extent to which persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, including deaf persons and their representative organizations have been closely consulted and actively involved in the drafting of the Bill and the parliamentary process for the consideration of the Bill.
8. Limited scrutiny of the Bill by the House of Lords as the former has been considered by the Government as a “Money Bill”.
9. Public statements by politicians and authorities portraying persons with disabilities as making profit of social benefits, making false statements to get social and disability benefits or being a burden to society.
10. The extent to which other intended Bills, such as PAFER, would allow the Department of Work and Pensions to monitor the bank accounts of universal credit recipients with algorithms scanning for fraud.
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