Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
By Ben Golightly (Swansea Socialist Party)
In 2025, the TUC (Trades Union Congress) unanimously passed motions 38 and 39 opposing the UK government’s disability cuts and calling for coordinated and sustained trade union action.
Since then, however, the TUC has taken the position that it does not need to implement these actions due to the concession that Personal Independence Payment (PIP) cuts will be delayed until the conclusion of the Timms Review in the coming Autumn.
This is a mistaken position.
The concessions on PIP are only temporary, and continuing cuts to Motability, Access to Work, and Universal Credit Health Element remain an emergency issue for trade union members and the working class as a whole.
The continuation of decades of austerity and cuts to council budgets, and the knock-on effect on social services, transport and education, disproportionately impact disabled service users, despite existing policy from TUC Cymru and trade unions calling on councils to set no-cuts budgets.
The government is now particularly targeting young disabled people through the Milburn Review, Wes Streeting’s review into supposed ‘over-diagnosis’ of disability, a rollout of 55,000 compulsory work placements under threat of sanction, and threats to abolish Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
Trade unionists must urgently push for a recommitment to action.
