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When the unthinkable occurs to disabled people when or if these cuts happen I hope people personally sue Starmer, Reeves, Timms and Kendall. 

All of this is being rushed through and Starmer will use every legal means to rush it through and Reform/Tories support it and in actuality would rather Labour go even further if that is possible because it's easy, the cuts will get laid at Labour's door and neither Reform or the Tories will electorally pay for it.

Timms, Reeves, Rendall, Streeting and Starmer are the main protagonists in this saga. All 5 of them wouldn't be seen out of place on a Tory front bench.

 questions. They asked if they could share my statement more widely. They talked about how the PIP rule will have a negatively cascading effect on other benefits inc carers allowance. They also talked about whether they could push for consideration of tapering for Carers Allowance. And about how they think all those with a diagnosed degenerative condition shouldn’t be reassessed. 

Diane Abbott’s debate about the proposals was happening at the same time and Anna Dixon MP (Chair of the Carers APPG) asked if I wanted to rush with her to catch the end. An MP was in the middle of telling Stephen Timms that these proposals should not be taken forward before impact assessment and that he didn’t think Mr Timms (I won’t call him Sir) would have pursued such a policy proposal in opposition. Timms responded with all the usual lines about unsustainability and supporting the most severely disabled. 

Dianne Abbott spoke about lies being repeated. Several MPs who were clearly angry about the proposals tried to interject while Timms was talking but he only allowed a couple of them to. 

The most infuriating part was when Timms repeated that government have been listening to disabled people. 

At the end Anna Dixon actually raised my case and asked if someone with my husband’s neurological condition who didn’t previously get 4 points would be considered severely disabled and not for reassessment. Timms basically said he’s be happy to talk about it separately but they think they’d got the points levels about right. Yea, he actually said that (to paraphrase)

At the end we were leaving and Timms was right behind me and I kept the bloody door open for him!! I struggled with this but my English manners came to the forefront. 

I was also videod/interviewed for the Carers Uk campaign about these proposals. They encouraged me to not hold back. So I didn’t. 

It might be worth using this to keep up the pressure on Labour MPs. Add the 250,000 people their own impact assessment says will be newly driven into poverty by their proposed cuts to the 700,000 families already in poverty who will be further hit, then add those who also lose carer's allowance. That will easily be over a million of the poorest people in the country who will be clobbered. Any Labour MP who tries to defend that is asking for trouble, even those in supposedly safe seats. in fact there probably aren't many of those now.

Let's be clear here, the DWP do not want to consult with members of the public, and will pull every trick in tbe book to minimise participation. The assault by this Government on the most vulnerable in society is abhorrent.  Let's be clear, people WILL die prematurely if these proposals go ahead.

Another Labour mp with a conscience prepared to take the right stand:

Good evening Ms Minns

Thank you for your ‘standard reply’ to which many disabled people are receiving across the country, so it seems.

Whilst you comment on conservative rhetoric over 14 years etc, I find the compassion and empathy sadly lacking from, as you say ‘sharing my story.’

My husband and I also asked your canvassers to contact us for a chat prior to election but we were told you would be too busy.

Does it not concern you that someone can become disabled at the blink of an eye in such horrific circumstances? Can you actually say you thought about what happened to me in this town and the life fall out from this for my family and myself as individuals, prior to sending, which is being received as, rather a patronising response by all.

It was disabled people/families who decided to change the rhetoric you mention, by voting for Labour, however, our voices do not seem to matter once those seats were warmed.

After the elections around the country last week, I believe, along with many others, what goes up must come down.

We as voters put yourselves as MP’s in those seats to support a positive change for ‘average people’ instead of the rich & richer, and those seats can change just as easily, as we have seen numerous times over the last few years.

So whilst you may feel that you ticked a box by sending the standard reply, which has obvious been written to send out on mass, I fail to see the support that it has offered as an MP, who is supposed to provide support to their constituents.

Whilst you say the Government wants to provide to those most in need (….), does that mean that people currently on higher level PIP to utilise the funds to support their ability in daily living of these disabilities as ‘people not in need’? As that seems to be what is being implied in the letter.

I would love to still be in work full-time in a job I adored and loved to go to each day but that choice was taken away from me - I did not decide to get assaulted & lose use of upper limbs etc.

So whilst it is implied that those most in need (….), only UC is quoted and any comments in relation to PIP seem to be skipped completely. Does that class just people on UC to be the ones in need? Or is the act of not mentioning PIP, a hopeful way of brushing the mass scale of this fall out, under the carpet by the Government?

Do MP’s not realise (but I’m sure you all must, hence the standard letter preparation), that over 75% of chronically disabled people will lose the support of daily living if these ‘4 point on 1 question’ rules are sanctioned, which not only supports them to have some sort of life but gives some hope in their shattered lives.

Yes there are people who can work & choose not to, however, people needing daily care to function did not choose to live this way. 

I, for one worked from the age of 15 and have full NI stamp of 38 years, despite now not being well enough or able to work. I did not choose to be housebound and my family including my 8 year old son at the time, to become my carer. Do not only do I have to cope with the broken promises of when I would qualify for my state pension but now this along side that. 

I must say, I am most disappointed and feel extremely disrespected and discriminated against as a constituent and a disabled person (forced to be) as does every other person who has received basically the same response from MP’s country wide. Does the Government feel a standard letter would placate people who are in fear of surviving?

So, whilst I thank you for your tick box exercise reply. I, along with every other person whose lives are affected by chronic health conditions who rely on the much needed support of PIP - which we had to jump through inhumane hoops to be granted, which also has effects on the receipt of a blue badge to support people leaving their homes, (or has this been forgotten too), will, I’m sure, get into some very deep thinking and choose to use our tick boxes extremely wisely in the future.


From: Julie Minns MP <Julie.minns.casework@parliament.uk>
Date: 23 April 2025 at 15:44:28 BST
To: 
Subject: Response from Julie Minns MP


Dear Tracey 

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about the proposed reforms to the disability benefits system. In particular, I would like to extend my great thanks for sharing your personal experience living with a disability and with the disability benefits system with me. I understand that this is an issue that is close to your heart, like for many of us, and has a real impact on your life and the lives of your husband and children.

After 14 years of damaging Conservative rhetoric on benefits and cuts, it is understandable that people are fearful about changes to the benefits system. I would however like to reassure you that the reforms announced by the government will not result in any immediate changes to anyone’s benefits.

I am however reviewing the proposed changes carefully. The benefits system is complex, and there will be individual cases where the changes require particular scrutiny.

The Government is, however, committed to the founding principle of the welfare state - namely that it should be there for all of us when we need it, now and in the future. That it protects those most in need, and that it delivers equality and dignity for all. There will always be some people who cannot work, and I want to assure you that the government will protect them.

The measures announced aim to protect those who are most in need. Existing Universal Credit claimants will have their health top-up held steady in cash terms while they benefit from the higher standard allowance. The Government is also looking at ways to ensure that those who will never be able to work are afforded confidence and dignity by never having to go through reassessments and proposing an additional Universal Credit premium to offer those people the support they need.

However, the broken welfare system we inherited from the Conservatives is failing the very people it was designed to help and holding our country back. Many sick and disabled people across the country and Carlisle want to work, and they deserve the same choices and chances as everyone else to do so.

I welcome the action being taken by the Government to both tackle the issues that prevent people from working, and support people into good jobs. We’re investing an additional £26 billion in the NHS to drive down waiting lists, making work pay with our landmark Employment Rights Bill, and introducing the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation, with our £240 million Get Britain Working Plan.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions recently announced further steps, investing £1 billion into employment support. This is one of the largest ever investments in tailored support to help people transition into work. Evidence shows that work is good for mental and physical wellbeing and it is right that we do all we can to help people take up work.

This will come alongside a package of reform to support people into jobs and make the broken system fairer and more sustainable. I’d like to highlight a few of these measures that I believe will make a significant difference to Carlisle, our country and people’s life chances.

First, we are rebalancing Universal Credit payments. This means increasing the standard allowance above inflation for the first time ever, with a £775 cash increase per year by 2029/30 for existing and new claimants, while reducing the health top up for new claims from April 2026, alongside active support to help people back to health and work.

Alongside this, we will remove barriers by ensuring that going back to work in and of itself will never lead to a reassessment. This ‘Right to Try’ will give people the confidence to take on job knowing that if it doesn’t work out, they won’t have to start from scratch.

In addition, we are consulting on a new unemployment insurance that will help people quickly get back on track if they fall out of work, giving them a higher rate of benefit.

I would like to reiterate my thanks for your contacting me with your concerns about these proposed changes to the disability benefits system, and for sharing your story with me.

Please be assured that I am scrutinising the proposals carefully.

Yours sincerely,

Julie Minns
Member of Parliament for Carlisle and North Cumbria

I’m preparing for yet another forensic discrediting from the DWP. A government department against a chronically ill individual — like fighting a court case every other year. People often say that nothing is good enough, but in the reassessment para Olympics, nothing is bad enough. They lower the goalposts over and over again, expecting us to be contortionist limbo dancers to prove our ‘disworth.’

There’s constant talk of fraud, as though we’re all suspected of gaming the system — a kind of state-sponsored gaslighting that forces disabled people to repeatedly prove their need for support. But who is the real fraud here?

Findings in the news today from the New Economic Foundation (NEF) — a respected, independent think tank focused on social, economic, and environmental justice — have exposed the government’s justification for its sweeping disability benefit cuts as deeply misleading. Despite Labour’s claims that the system has become too lenient, with a 34% rise in claims for incapacity or disability benefits between 2020 and 2024, the NEF’s research suggests a very different picture.

According to the NEF, the increase is not due to widespread fraud or relaxed criteria, but rather a rise in the number of people becoming disabled and experiencing financial hardship. This means that many disabled people who previously struggled without support are now seeking help they are fully entitled to — a basic human right, not an abuse of the system.

The DWP insists these changes are about 'creating a sustainable welfare system,' but at what cost? When the most vulnerable are forced to repeatedly prove their worth through increasingly impossible assessments, it’s clear that the system itself is broken.

SO WHO IS REALLY BEING FRAUDULENT HERE? IS IT THE DISABLED CLAIMANTS, SIMPLY TRYING TO SURVIVE, OR THE GOVERNMENT THAT SHIFTS THE CRITERIA AND NARRATIVES TO STRIP AWAY THEIR SUPPORT? A GOVERNMENT THAT APPEARS MORE INTERESTED IN COMPETING WITH OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES AND PROTECTING ITS OWN REPUTATION THAN IN GENUINELY SUPPORTING SICK AND DISABLED PEOPLE INTO WORK. 

THIS SYSTEM HAS KILLED AND PERMANENTLY DISABLED SO MANY PEOPLE — THOSE WHO PERHAPS WOULD HAVE FUNCTIONED WITHOUT THE CHRONIC, DISABLING STRESS OF SUCH A BRUTAL SYSTEM. IT SHOULD BE HELD UP FOR CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER. 

MAYBE IT’S TIME FOR A DIFFERENT CONVERSATION, ONE WHERE THE GOAL ISN’T JUST TO CUT COSTS BUT TO TRULY SUPPORT THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST.

They are rather blinkered if they think everyone who does not score a 4 in PIP will magically get through an employer’s medical 

This is the number at the house or commons to ring and they will put you through to your MP it would be good if as many of us as possible can leave a message like this.

Quite a lot of noise today about the welfare proposals:

A welsh labour MP declared today he'd be voting against these proposals:

Ex Runcorn MP blames Labour mistakes for election losses:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87p99jzrxjo

Cuts leave voters doubting Labour's ability to deliver change:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/05/labour-voters-change-winter-fuel-allowance