It’s just hours since the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delivered her spring statement, which slashed disability benefits. Lee, a 43-year-old man with autism, is weighing the damage.
“I stand to lose so much,” he said. “If all these cuts happen, I could end up homeless. I’m going to lose my independence, I’m going to lose basically everything.”
Lee lives alone in his flat in Killingworth with his three cats, and is supported by carers who help him attend health appointments, go food shopping, inject his insulin for his diabetes and ensure he takes his 20 tablets a day. He also has severe acid reflux, so his carers mash up his food and ensure he is able to eat without choking.
He worked in local government as a cleaner for 23 years, before being made redundant in 2020 after struggling to get the support he needed for his disabilities. He has struggled to get work ever since.
Under Reeves’ welfare cuts, he looks set to lose access to the personal independence payment (Pip) that pays for his carer. He uses universal credit to pay for his home, bills and groceries, and if that is cut or reduced he will be unable to keep up the mortgage payments on his flat.
“I’ll have nowhere to live, I’ll be put into poverty,” he said. “I feel so stressed, I can’t sleep with worry – sometimes I feel suicidal due to what the government are planning. I don’t feel good at all, and even worse after the budget.”
Projections show that more than 3 million households will lose money as a result of the government’s welfare cuts, and an extra 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – will be pushed into relative poverty by 2029-30.
Jon Sparkes, the chief executive of learning disability charity Mencap, said: “MPs need to consider the consequences of plunging their disabled constituents into poverty, with little prospect of plans on employment support meaningfully mitigating this disastrous situation.”
Lee said: “It feels like they haven’t thought about it, they’ve just rushed this through. If I don’t have that carer, I’m going to be isolated even more.”
He said he did not have high hopes for being able to get a job to support himself, listing companies that have cut swathes of roles in recent months.
“They’re cutting jobs because the government are taxing businesses, and it’s hard enough to get into a company when you have a disability anyway,” he said. “There has got to be something to fall back on because not everybody wants to take somebody who’s got a complex disability. It’s not my fault.”
