It is completely unacceptable that the DWP is cutting support to households with disabled children under the UK government’s Universal Credit (UC) social security changes.
The fact is that households with a person with a disability face far higher living costs. This year the disability charity Scope calculated that families with disabled children face extra costs of £581 a month.
It is outrageous that the UK Government continue to balance the books on the backs of the poorest in society, and even more disgraceful that they are taking money away from disabled children. This is yet another example of the most callous policies of this Tory Government.
We know that the introduction of Universal Credit has had a widespread detrimental impact on a number of specific groups – especially disabled people and children.
The introduction of Universal Credit has embedded the two-child cap, the benefit freeze and the abolition of the ESA Work-Related Activity Component. We have also seen individuals who received the Severe Disability Premium under the legacy system lose out on this when naturally migrated onto Universal Credit – and we know that several thousand claimants are due back-payments of this from DWP now that they have recognised the issue.
The SNP continue to call on the UK Government to reverse their punitive cuts to social security, which are a political choice and not a necessity.
