UK

“Cruel & Unnecessary” – Richard Burgon MP Opposes Remaining Cut in Disability Bill with Parliamentary Amendment

4th July 2025Leave a Commenton “Cruel & Unnecessary” – Richard Burgon MP Opposes Remaining Cut in Disability Bill with Parliamentary Amendment

“The Government needs to scrap this proposal. There should be no two-tier system for disability support.”

Richard Burgon MP has submitted an amendment to block a major cut to disability support remaining in the government’s Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.

Richard Burgon MP has tabled an amendment to the Universal Credit and PIP Bill to scrap the major remaining cut to support for sick and disabled people.

Under the current proposals, the Universal Credit Health Element for new claimants is set to be reduced from £97 per week to just £50 per week – a cut from £423.27 to £217.26 per month.

This change would hit hard over 750,000 low-income sick and disabled individuals, with an average annual loss of £3,000 per person.

Burgon’s amendment would prevent this cut from going ahead and ensure that new claimants continue to receive the same level of support as current claimants, preventing a two-tier system.

He is urging fellow MPs to back the amendment and oppose what he describes as a “cruel and unnecessary” reduction in support.

The Amendment has been laid with over 25 MPs, including over 20 Labour MPs with more expected to sign in the coming days.

Richard Burgon MP said:

“Despite welcome promises regarding PIP, a huge cut for sick and disabled people remains at the heart of this Bill.

This cruel and unnecessary halving of the Universal Credit Health Element will see £2 billion per year slashed from vital support that sick and disabled people rely on.

The Government needs to scrap this proposal. There should be no two-tier system for disability support.

No Labour government should be trying to balance the books on the backs of sick and disabled people. It should be seeking to raise the revenue through taxes on the very wealthiest instead.”

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• Richard Burgon is the Member of Parliament for Leeds East- you can follow him on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
• You can join over 77,000 people in backing Richard’s call for the government to scrap all cuts to disability support and instead introduce a tax on the wealthiest here.
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