Disabled protesters say they'll stop Labour's benefit cuts – or die trying: 'I will fight my heart out'

“Working nearly killed me,” says Rosanna Haigh, a 28-year-old from Cardiff who is campaigning against the government’s proposed cuts to disability benefits. She has a progressive neurological condition and has spent years navigating the welfare system and struggling to stay in employment.

“I’m driven and qualified and trained, but at 20 my body just stopped working. I’ll go back to work, and after a month, I have completely burned out again. It takes six months to a year to recover and even consider that I might be well enough to go back.

“As soon as I’m slightly better, I feel pressure from society – even though I know my doctors will say no – to go back, only to become absolutely destroyed within a few weeks to a few months. There’s never the access that I need, even working from home.”

Haigh meets the Big Issue, alongside activists Joshua Reeves and Adam Johannes, at a co-working space in Cardiff. Reeves, a wheelchair user, chose the spot for accessibility. They are part of a growing local movement protesting the cuts and demanding systemic change for disabled people.

“With a big push, the government could be defeated on this,” says Johannes, who is the founder and coordinator of Cardiff People’s Assembly, the local branch of People’s Assembly Against Austerity.

The group has spearheaded successful campaigns against the closure of libraries and arts services, and for free school meals for all primary school children in Wales. It is now focusing on the disability benefit cuts, staging protests and demonstrations, with the next one to be held on Saturday (24 May).

Johannes, Haigh and Reeves met at one of these protests and realised the power in coming together against the cuts. They felt they “showed that people have a passion to fight for what they need”.

“There was a lot of sorrow and anger, but also a sense of responsibility. We’re a big community, but a lot of people within the community cannot advocate for themselves because they’re not able to communicate or they come out exhausted. I think that’s why we’re targeted, because they know that we don’t have energy or resources,” Haigh says.

Labour wants to push more people with long-term health conditions off benefits and into work, proposing cuts which could see 3.2 million people lose financial support by the end of the decade. This includes tightening the eligibility criteria for the personal independence payment (PIP), freezing the health element of universal credit for current claimants and slashing it in half for new claimants.

Reeves, who is a 28-year-old disability rights activist and founder of community association Don’t Call Me Special, says: “Disabled people want to be independent. But you could have a fantastic day and then the next day you can’t even pull yourself out of bed. Your legs are tightening up. Your arms are tightening up. The problem is they don’t understand.

“I’m gonna fight my heart out and I will probably die trying to get them not to do this, but if they do cut PIP and they want to chuck disabled people in with the sharks in the deep end, then I think they have got to realise we need adjustments. We are disabled by society.”

Reeves voted Labour in the general election – he felt its MPs had “always seemed thoughtful”.

“Obviously, it backfired,” he admits. “What wound me up was that I voted for a party that could destroy the lives of disabled people. I’ve been a campaigner for almost a decade now. I really want to have that fire in my belly to strike and to make sure that we don’t give up.”

Haigh says she feels “very scared for the people who don’t have family support” if the cuts go ahead. 

“I worry about the people who are going to be forced into abusive living situations because they can’t support themselves. You get stuck with family who are not good people or in romantic relationships that are not good because you don’t feel like you’ve got a lot of choice.

“Also, I think people aren’t talking enough about the children who will be affected if their parents need support, and their parents become more ill because they’re not receiving the support, or they’re not able to get into work because they don’t have their PIP. You need that support to get into work.”

Around 250,000 people are likely to be plunged into poverty as a result of the disability benefit cuts, including 50,000 children, according to the government’s own estimates.

“There’s great importance of stressing how much Wales itself is going to be impacted by these cuts,” Johannes says. Around 15% of people in Wales receive a disability or incapacity benefit – “significantly higher” than in England.

Research from Policy in Practice found that Wales would suffer three times the economic impact, with twice as many affected residents as London and the south-east. The Welsh first minister and leader of the Welsh Labour party Eluned Morgan has said she is “losing patience” with UK Labour’s policies.

“We are a party whose values sit further with the left and that’s why we’re standing up against things like those benefit cuts. I don’t think cuts is what’s going to get them back into the workplace,” Morgan told the Guardian.

• ‘It’s a vicious cycle’: Labour’s benefit cuts could push people with MS out of work, report finds
• Food banks urge Labour to rethink benefit cuts amid ‘heartbreaking’ surge in demand
• Wales’ future generations commissioner warns we’re not doing enough for people yet to be born

The Labour government has promised employment support for disabled people, with a £1 billion package to help disabled people and those who are long-term sick find secure and stable jobs. This has been welcomed by campaigners, but there are fears that this will not be enough considering the deep-rooted barriers disabled people face.

“The government is pushing this idea that there’s a choice – that we’re choosing not to work, when actually people want to work. We want to be able to do everything. But we don’t have the privilege of a body that can do it,” Haigh says.

Haigh became “permanently ill” when she was 14 after contracting a SARS virus – like Covid. By the age of 20, she was “needing round-the-clock care and doctors didn’t know what to do”.  

She claims when she asked for assistance and accommodations in her workplace, such as use of the lift or changes in lighting as she is visually impaired, she was treated as though she was “being unreasonable”. And when she returned to university to finish her degree, she was hospitalised because of the strain it put on her body.

“Disabled people are told we’re lazy or a disgrace and the government is making out like we’re a scourge on society or a drain on society, as if it’s our fault. But grind culture has made a lot of us ill. If I’d been given accommodations from childhood, if I’d been given more support, if the NHS hadn’t made me wait five extra years for a condition I’ve had for half my life… I’m just getting more sick.”

The Big Issue has heard from hundreds of disability benefit claimants who have faced harrowing experiences at the hands of the system – and Haigh and Reeves agree that the process is deeply flawed. Both needed help in order to apply for benefits.

Haigh adds that she had the mobility part of her PIP cut when she was “least physically able” and “could barely lift her head”.

“The people who are assessing, technically, they’re medical professionals, but they only need to have one year’s experience as a physiotherapist. That’s it. That’s all they need to be able to make decisions on people’s health, about conditions they have no idea about,” Haigh says.

Labour’s plans mean hundreds of thousands fewer people will be eligible for PIP if the changes go ahead next year,  as people will have to ‘score’ a minimum of four points in at least one of the daily living activities to receive the daily living element of the disability benefit.

It will mean 800,000 people will lose financial support and 400,000 people will lose PIP entirely.

Keir Starmer has said he is concerned about a “bulging benefits bill”, with a record 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term illness, and spending on disability and incapacity benefits for working-age people up by £19bn in real terms since 2019-2020. 

But experts have repeatedly stressed this is a result of the pandemic which has worsened people’s physical and mental health, as well as rising poverty levels, and pressures on the NHS.

Labour ministers have argued that there are too many people claiming disability benefits on mental health grounds, but Haigh and Reeves stress that poor mental health can worsen physical health.

Reeves says his mental health suffered as a result of lockdown, adding: “Your brain can make you more disabled than your physical body. I’m now so stable. I’m so happy. Now I’m fighting for people. But I feel like last year, when I was in that state, I was more disabled than I had been.”

The government has been repeatedly warned that cuts – and the rhetoric around cuts – could lead to worsening mental and physical health, ultimately pushing people further away from the workplace. Haigh adds that the assisted dying bill is also leading to anxiety among disabled people, and she feels “the government is pushing this idea that disabled people should be ashamed”. 

“A lot of us are struggling with our mental health because of this whole situation,” she says.

Reeves would like Labour to stop the benefit cuts and admit: “Oh shit, we’ve really messed up.” He says that is his “dream that shouldn’t be a dream”. 

“Disabled people have been fighting all these years for their rights and the support that they need,” he says, urging people who care about them to step up, write to their MP, get out and protest and demand change. “We have to move forwards not backwards.”

The protest will be held on Saturday (24 May) at the statue of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, who is credited with founding the NHS.

Promises are easy to break. Sign Big Issue’s petition for a Poverty Zero law and help us make tackling poverty a legal requirement, not just a policy priority.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. Big Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.