Content

A vote
was taken (unanimous) and the motion was carried as
follows:
 
“Council notes:

3.7
million people in England and Wales receive Personal Independence
Payments (PIP).
PIP is
a benefit not linked to being in work or out of work but is instead
designed to help people with the additional unavoidable costs of
having a disability.
Many
disabled people use PIP to cover the cost of getting to and from
work, for paying for essential equipment and for meeting their
social care charges.

 
Council
further notes:

Universal Credit contains a health-related element that
currently supports 2.25 million people with severe health
problems.
Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that 50% of
recipients of the health element of Universal Credit are either
unable to heat their home, are behind on their household bills or
have low food security.
There
are 900,000 children living in households where someone receives
the health-related Universal Credit.

 
Council
notes and opposes the Government’s Universal Credit and
Personal Independence Payment Bill, which would:

Cut
the health element of Universal Credit for new claimants from
£97 a week to £50 a week from April 2026.
Freeze
the health element of Universal Credit for existing claimants until
2030 – meaning it will no longer increase with inflation,
resulting in a real terms loss of income for over 2 million
households.
Restrict those under the age of 22 from claiming the health
element of Universal Credit at all.

 
Council
notes the bill as originally framed contained provisions, which it
opposes, that would:

Introduce stricter tests for those receiving Personal
Independence Payments (PIP) under which disabled people may have
their payments reduced by an average of £1720 a
year.
Result
in an estimated 370,000 people with disabilities no longer qualify
for PIP under the Government’s new assessment
rules.

 
Council
notes that the Government has offered concessions following
opposition from MPs, but believes the concessions do not go far
enough, as the bill will still cause hardship to new claimants and
they have not been subject to an impact assessment.
 
Council
believes:

these
changes amount to an attack on those living with disabilities and
health conditions – who need PIP payments and health-related
Universal Credit to live independent, dignified lives.
freezing, reducing or removing these payments will have a
catastrophic impact on millions of households who, due to
disability and ill-health, face some of the highest rates of
material deprivation in the UK.

 
Council
resolves to:

Ask
the Lead Member for Communities and officers involved in the LIFT
programme to consider how we can further support people in South
Cambridgeshire who are likely to be affected by these
changes.
Request that the Leader and Lead Member for Communities to write
to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Work
and Pensions:

to
express the council’s grave concerns about the impact of
these changes;
to
call for the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment
Bill to be abandoned it its entirety; and
to
call for the Government to instead focus on sustainable and fair
economic policies, rather than punishing those who need support the
most.

Further
request that the Leader and Lead Member for Communities to write to
local MPs to encourage them to continue to oppose these changes to
the welfare system.”