Member's statement: Labour Government: Welfare Cuts

Member's statement by Mr Gerry Carroll on 31 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

31 March 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Labour Government: Welfare Cuts

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4871528

Read the official Assembly record

Text

It is fair to say that I and many others did not expect much from the Labour Government. The bar was set so low because of how awful the previous Conservative Administrations were. However, I and many others did not believe that things would be this appallingly bad so quickly. It is not even a year into this Administration and look at the havoc that they have wrought. If anyone really believed that the Labour Government's cuts to welfare were driven by a genuine desire to support more people back into work, last week's spring statement burst that bubble. The Office for Budget Responsibility told the Chancellor that she had done her sums wrong, so she had to scramble back to the drawing board to find more cuts in order to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules. A total of £500 million of cuts were found, once again, from the pockets of sick and disabled people: proof, if it were needed, that it was never about supporting people into work. The majority of people on social security are in work and need the support to top up their poverty wages. Many disabled people rely on the personal independence payment (PIP) to stay in work. The cuts were only ever about saving money and satisfying the British ruling class. The Government's own analysis predicts that there will be an extra 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, living in relative poverty by 2030 as a direct result of the benefit cuts. We are witnessing Labour's attempts to create a moral panic about benefits spending. It has pointed the finger in all directions, blaming individuals for taking advantage of the system, blaming clinical professionals for over-diagnosing mental health conditions and blaming the Tories for maxing out the national credit card. The Labour Government seem incapable of acknowledging the human cost of 15 years of austerity and neglect and the privatisation of our public services. They want to continue the pain. Health waiting lists are spiralling out of control; school buildings are crumbling; and the homelessness crisis is tearing apart working-class communities. Is it any wonder that more people are sick and poor? Many sick and disabled people are rightly worried that cuts to PIP and universal credit mark not only the dismantling of the welfare state but a return to austerity.

We saw classic red flags of austerity throughout last week's spring statement: decreases in day-to-day Government spending, 10,000 Civil Service job losses and cuts to administrative spending for public services. All the while, defence spending will increase by £2·2 billion. Austerity is back with a red rosette, and it is a foolish economic policy in response to Trump's tariffs for Europe. Austerity is a deadly political ideology that we must oppose at every turn. It is worth asking what the Minister for Communities and his party are focusing on in this period. They are focusing on bilingual signage. They should grow a spine and lead the fight against those disgraceful and deadly cuts against our communities. It is time to get the priorities right. We need to demand that there should be money for welfare, not warfare.

523 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 01:20 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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