Welfare reform bill - Our politicians are failing when it comes to poverty reduction

On the welfare reform bill vote, Dr Arriaga-Garcia, said:

“Yesterday’s passing of the UC and PIP Bill by 335 votes to 260 marks a deeply concerning moment for the UK’s welfare system. Despite widespread concern from disability rights organisations, frontline services, and even within the government’s own benches, MPs voted to push through reforms that will tighten eligibility for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and scrap the Work Capability Assessment, fundamentally reshaping how health-related benefits are accessed.

“While the government frames this as a necessary step to ensure ‘sustainability,’ this narrative echoes a familiar and troubling pattern: one that casts people living in poverty, and particularly disabled people, as burdens on the system rather than citizens entitled to support. We’re witnessing a shift not towards reform, but retrenchment, where fiscal discipline is prioritised over social protection, and where the language of ‘unsustainability’ masks political choices rooted in decades of neoliberal thinking.

“Our recent research, published this week in Social Policy Review, audits UK party manifestos across the last three general elections. It shows that no major party (including Labour) has demonstrated consistent or credible ambition to tackle poverty. Most scored below the minimum confidence threshold for anti-poverty policy, with proposals often fragmented, vague, or symbolic.

“The passing of this bill reflects exactly the pattern we identified: political parties unwilling to challenge the status quo, and a policy environment where poverty is treated as an individual failing rather than the product of systemic inequality. These cuts risk pushing more people with long-term health conditions into deeper insecurity, ironically undermining the very goals of employment, independence, and inclusion that the reforms claim to promote.

“There is still time to shift course. What we need now is a serious rethinking of the purpose of our welfare state; one that moves beyond punitive logics and toward policies that enable people to live dignified, flourishing lives. That means investing in care, not cuts; in trust, not tests.”