A worsening picture: Poverty and social exclusion and disabled people

There have been mixed messages in recent years about UK policies for and about disabled people. On the one hand, the disability strategy Fulfilling potential: Making it happenfor disabled people (Department for Work and Pensions, 2013), updated in 2014, sets out the government’s view of a society where disabled people can realise their aspirations and fulfil their potential. On the other hand, campaigns to strengthen and protect disabled people’s rights made the headlines when the national budget in 2016 was described as a ‘sugar-coated assault on disabled people’ by The Guardian newspaper (The Guardian, 2016). A string of reforms over recent years, including a change from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payments (PIP), changes to Employment Support Allowance, and cuts to social care funding have all left disabled people at increased risk of poverty and social exclusion.