Appalling welfare cuts will devastate the most vulnerable
- National Pensioners Convention
- Mar 26
- 2 min read
The National Pensioners Convention is shocked and appalled at the scale of the austerity measures in today’s government spending review which will undoubtedly see an increase in poverty across the generations.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Spring Statement announced even more brutal cuts to welfare and other public spending than anticipated, which will badly impact the most vulnerable in our society.
The idea that these measures will plug a fiscal hole in the economy completely ignores the problems and costs they will inflict, not to mention the downright suffering they will cause to those least able to cope.
The government’s own Department of Work and Pensions impact assessment* of today’s Spring statement found:
3.2 million families will lose £1,720 a year from their income.
370,000 people claiming PIP (Personal Independent Payment) will lose it - on average they will lose £4,500 a year. (another 430,000 who would have been eligible in future will not get PIP at all).
150,000 people will lose their access to carer’s allowance – equivalent to one in 10 unpaid carers.
NPC Comment on Chancellor’s Spring Statement 2025
NPC General Secretary Jan Shortt said: “Unpaid family carers looking after our oldest and most vulnerable save this government and country hundreds of billions each year. Now they may lose their care allowance because they are looking after someone who no longer receives part of their PIP payments. We remind the government that these caring people save you between £162 and £193 billion a year.** Without them, those with care needs would be forgotten and forsaken.
“If the government made a much more robust attempt at resolving the crisis in the NHS and social care, then everyone could be looked after properly instead of relying on filling in complex and inhuman application forms just to be able to survive.”
Jan added: “The cut in the Universal Credit health element will also mean that those who lose out will face financial difficulties and growing health problems in the future.
“All household bills will increase next month which makes survival for those on limited income increasingly difficult. The 4.1% increase in the state pension is already devalued and by the time it is paid it will be in deficit.
“Policies that increase poverty and ill health are shameful. Yet, the rich continue to grow their wealth unabated while ordinary people are hit hard.
Ironically, a third of those caught up in the benefits system would be retired but for the increase in state pension retirement age. But the ageist attitude of employers creates barriers for those older people who still have knowledge, experience and background and would be an asset to any company.”
ENDS
Download the statement
