We speak to Unite Nottingham about proposed reforms on disability rights

Earlier this year, the Government published a Green Paper (a consultation report) on disability benefits. Alongside proposed changes to Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), the report suggested some big changes to the eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payment (PIP). And those proposals are now under review.

But disability rights organisations have criticised the proposed 'brutal and reckless cuts' that could potentially see thousands of disabled people pushed into poverty. Following a day of stalls and campaigning in Bulwell on Saturday 22 November, we spoke to organiser Leigh Woosey to find out more...

Who is Unite Nottingham, and what role do you play in the community? 

Unite Community Nottingham is the local branch of Unite the Union. It’s for people who aren’t in conventional employment, who may be out of work or self-employed, but who still want to be part of campaigning for workers' rights and a better society. 

We’ve been central to campaigning for Save Our Services around Nottingham alongside other community groups (most recently in getting Sherwood Library reopened in 2026), as well as supporting workers involved in industrial action at QMC and the Universities. We also contribute to events like Nottingham Pride and Rock against Racism and do outreach events to raise awareness.

Changes to PIP are being discussed as part of health and disability benefit reforms. Can you give us an overview?

In July, the government had a crushing defeat when a huge number of labour MPs, in part led by our own fearless Nadia Whittome, rebelled over proposed cuts and changes to the main benefit to support disabled people that could have ruined lives. Instead of scrapping those changes altogether, Labour leadership decided to put them to a review led by Minister of State for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms.

What are your key concerns with the Timms review, and the proposed PIP cuts?

The cuts proposed in July threatened to plunge an estimated 300,000 (including 50,000 children) into poverty, according to the CAB. Having been taken out of the Bill back then, all these cuts and changes are back on the table with the review. The review is being conducted largely in secret and the goal posts keep changing; each week the government back tracks on promises not to treat the review as a cost-cutting measure, or that it won’t impact existing PIP claimants. They’ll only allow hand-picked representatives of the disabled community to participate – and make no promise to listen to what they have to say.

What could this mean for disabled people in Nottingham? 

If approved, the changes will make it much harder for people to get PIP in future or at their next review, and will mean they get less overall. To be clear, what you get from PIP isn’t much – it’s just enough to make life bearable. But, without it, disabled people won’t be able to afford to look after themselves or get themselves to work. Ultimately, the changes would make it much harder for disabled people to seek and stay in work or to live a dignified life.

What could it mean for the wider Nottingham community, if people are forced out of work? 

If you take away the vital (if limited) support that PIP provides, disabled people will lose jobs and the costs of that will have to be picked up by the NHS, local councils and the community. Any supposed saving the government is trying to make will just create a higher cost to those other services. 

Being disabled is something that could happen to all of us, through age, illness or accident. If these cuts continue, there won’t be a safety net for anyone when that happens.

You held a stall in Bulwell on 22 November to raise awareness – can you tell us more about that?

We gave out information on these changes, answered questions, and promoted the most obvious solution to the problem of public funding: a fairer tax system.

The 22nd was also the start of Disability History Month – the theme this year being disability, life and death – and is just ahead of Rachel Reeves’ budget on Wednesday 26 November. We want people to realise that the decisions made by the budget – to scrimp tiny amounts of money by cutting support to the vulnerable, while letting £47 billion in tax go unpaid by the mega rich and corporations – have a real impact on people’s lives. 

In the last year, the government has passed legislation permitting assisted suicide, but are now trying to cut the meagre support that disabled people rely on to make life worth living. The message to disabled people is clear (and one we feel the DWP has been saying for a long time): we don’t want to support you, we don’t want you in our society, we don’t want you alive.

It feels like society is leaning further to the right – what’s your take on the general perception of these proposed cuts in the community? 

During the summer, we saw some ugly comments from the government and the opposition that tried to portray disabled people as scroungers or skivers. Many MPs thought that PIP was an out-of-work benefit. It’s not (one sixth of claimants are in work.) It’s a small payment towards the extra costs of being disabled. Things like having adaptive devices because, otherwise, you can’t safely cook for yourself, or having to get a taxi to work because you’re in too much pain to drive. These costs are estimated to be over £12,000 per year, and the highest award of PIP isn’t even half that. 

PIP is very hard to get, with a gruelling, humiliating process of forms, invasive interviews and drawn-out decisions and appeals in a system that seems set against you. Pundits conjure an image of someone on benefits that doesn’t have any relation to reality. The actual fraud rate, according to the government's own figures, is 0%. 

Most disabled people want to work; all want to have autonomy and a purposeful life. It’s discrimination and prejudice that keep them out of the workplace. The Buckland Report into neurodiversity in the workplace last year revealed that most people who disclosed their disability came to regret it because of how they were treated afterwards.

Anyone with real, lived experience knows how hard it is. Those are the people that approach us at our stalls. 

First They Came by Martin Niemöller has been used in the conversations around trans rights, and also seems fitting here. For non-disabled people, why should they care? Why is it important that we stand together when we’re talking about the erosion of rights of underrepresented groups? 

Far-right politics always depend on having someone to blame and attack. They have to pin society’s ills on someone because they can’t accept that the system might be wrong or need changing. But what happens when you do succeed in blaming migrants or the disabled or trans people? Even if you got rid of all of us, what then? There would still be problems, they would still need to blame someone. The poor, maybe? Or people who work a certain type of job? People of a certain age group, perhaps? Where does it end? People seem to have forgotten what led the Nazis to power – the combination of rising poverty, inequality and populism. If we don’t want tyranny, we need to look around and see if those things are happening now. Because all the things we value – individual liberty, freedom of expression, fair treatment – they all vanish for everyone once we start scapegoating people who are different.

You ran some successful protests opposing the cuts in the summer – what was the reaction from the community?

We had a very positive response from the community, especially local Disabled People’s Organisations. We had people telling us their stories of being mistreated by the DWP, for example wheelchair users who were denied PIP after a phone interview because the assessor said they could get up and walk. These stories are shockingly common and, by getting the word out, we can show people that they are not alone.

What impact did you make?  

By co-ordinating with community branches across the country, we were able to put significant pressure on MPs to change their minds and got them to realise how harmful these changes would be. We appeared on regional television and radio to get the message out. Forcing the government to back down was a major victory for disabled people’s rights – now we’ve just got to stop them from putting the same changes through in the Timms Review.

Why is this important to you? 

I’ve lived with disability and disabled family members all my life. For most of that I got no help at all, and what I have got I’ve had to fight for, against an overwhelming and arbitrary system that will often just reject you out of hand, regardless of the evidence or your needs. The DWP will often return a “0” score on PIP applications (which should be impossible to get with any disability) just to see if the applicant will give up rather than appeal. I’ve seen first-hand, and through my peer-support work, how abusive the system is. We have to stop it getting worse.

What can people do to get involved? 

Come along to our future stalls, write to your MP and tell them you think that pushing cuts through in secret via the Timms review is wrong. We’ll have links to help send letters, a petition to sign and lots of other resources.

For more information and to get involved, head to the Unite Community Nottingham's website.

unitetheunion.org