Labour councillors in area with highest level of disabled claimants call on MP to oppose cuts

Martin Shipton

All 21 Welsh Labour councillors in the council area with the highest percentage of disabled claimants in Britain have called on their local MP to stand against benefit cuts.

An analysis of 2022/23 government estimates by mobility experts at BMAS (The Bathing Mobility Advisory Service) shows that 19% of the population in Blaenau Gwent claim disability benefits – the most in Wales and Great Britain.

Total opposition

In their letter to Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney Labour MP Nick Smith, the councillors say: “We write to you to express our total opposition to the UK Government’s intended cuts to benefits for sick and disabled people, and to urge you to oppose them.

“You will of course be aware that with the highest level of claimants in the UK, Blaenau Gwent will be the hardest hit if these cuts go ahead. People will be harmed and pushed into poverty. These changes threaten the health and welfare of the most vulnerable people in society.

“As Labour members and representatives, we cannot countenance supporting these proposals. We are vehemently opposed to them. We do not accept either the economic rationale, nor the disingenuous narrative that there is a moral imperative to make them.

“As representative of the people of Blaenau Gwent in Westminster we urge you to represent our communities and take a stand against them.”

The Bevan Foundation, a think tank named after Aneurin Bevan, the Tredegar-born politician who founded the NHS during the post-War Attlee Labour government, has its headquarters nearby in Merthyr Tydfil.

‘Concerning impact’ 

In a statement responding to the benefit cuts announced this week by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the Bevan Foundation said: “We are deeply concerned about the impact on people in Wales of the UK Government’s Green Paper on reforming benefits.

“Its plans will have a huge, and concerning, impact on 275,000 people in Wales who receive Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and 110,000 people who receive Universal Credit and have Limited Capability for Work Related Activity.

“The Bevan Foundation is very concerned about the impact of the proposals on people with a mild or moderate disability or health condition. Having previously been deemed by a government assessment to be unable to work and in need of state support, they will now face a new, tougher test.

“All existing PIP and UC LCWRA claimants (except people with very severe conditions) will be reassessed, initially with at least four points being required in one daily living activity to receive the daily living component of PIP ahead of wider changes to PIP to be announced. The effect is to raise the threshold at which someone is considered ill or disabled enough to receive extra state help.

“If someone is considered to fall below the threshold, the financial impact is huge. At a stroke they will lose up to £119 a week (£47 a week in the UC LCWRA payment and £72.65 a week lower rate daily living element of PIP). The Green Paper says that there will be help with their health needs put in place and refers to unspecified transitional protection for people who are no longer eligible. But in the context of £5bn cuts, nobody should expect any protection to be generous. The impact on people’s wellbeing of such big losses could be catastrophic.

“There will also be difficulties for new claimants, who will no longer be entitled to the UC LCWRA payment, while people under 22 years of age could be barred from claiming the health element of UC and from receiving PIP. The transition could be incredibly painful.”

Responded

Mr Smith told Nation.Cymru: “I have spoken to the Labour group leader and responded to the letter. I’ll be meeting to talk with the group soon.”

Mr Smith was first elected as the MP for Blaenau Gwent in 2010, holding it comfortably on three successive occasions.

In the 2024 general election, he won the expanded constituency of Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney with 53.6% of the vote. However, the result was distorted by the fact that the Reform UK candidate withdrew from the contest as a result of allegedly racist re-postings on social media.

Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer, the recently published book by journalists Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, reveals how Mr Smith played a crucial role in the preparations for Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership campaign.

Meetings of a small group including Morgan McSweeney, now the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, took place in the London home of Mr Smith’s wife Jenny Chapman, the former MP for Darlington. Ms Chapman – now Baroness Chapman – lived in Arlington Road, Camden Town, and the core Starmer-backing team, including Mr Smith, became known as the Arlington Group.

The book tells how Mr McSweeney manoeuvred Sir Keir Starmer into the leadership by presenting him as a candidate who was more left wing than in fact he is in order to persuade Labour Party members to vote for him as Jeremy Corbyn’s successor.