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Autumn Budget: what does it mean for disabled people and their families?

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Today, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the government’s Autumn Budget which aims to restore stability to public finances, protect working people, fix the NHS, and rebuild Britain.

The Budget contains a raft of measures aimed to fill the £22bn blackhole in public finances. To do this, Reeves says the government will raise taxes by £40bn. This includes an increase in capital gains tax and stamp duty, and a rise in employers’ national insurance contributions.

However, the Chancellor says she will not increase basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, National Insurance contributions or VAT for workers. She also announced a freeze on fuel duty and a rise in the National Living Wage.

“The choices I have made today are the right choices for our country… That doesn’t mean these choices are easy, but they are responsible,” the Chancellor said.

However, the leader of the opposition Rishi Sunak says the Budget is “an enormous borrowing spree” which contains “broken promise after broken promise”.

But what does the Autumn Budget mean for disabled people and their families?

The Autumn Budget: key announcements for disabled people and their families

Employment

Economic inactivity is a significant focus of the Autumn Budget, and the Chancellor announced more than £800 million for disability employment support and £240 million to tackle the root causes of inactivity through the Get Britain Working white paper.

This cash injection will fund trials into new ways of getting people back into work such as testing new approaches and collecting evidence on how to tackle the root causes of ill‑health related inactivity; supporting young people who are not in education, employment or training; and helping people to develop their careers.

In addition, the government says it will invest £115 million in 2025/26 to deliver Connect to Work, a new supported employment programme matching people with disabilities or health conditions into vacancies. This scheme is expected to support nearly 100,000 people a year from 2026/27.

Jon Sparkes OBE, Chief Executive of Mencap, said the investment provides a “huge opportunity” to drive economic growth and transform lives by supporting people with a learning disability into work. However, he warns that the government must also recognise that some people are unable to work.

“There must also be recognition that for some disabled people, work is simply not an option. People with a learning disability need a social security system that is fit for purpose and doesn’t leave people relying on food banks and struggling to heat their homes,” he said.

Welfare spending

As part of this employment drive, the Chancellor announced that the government will set out reforms to health and disability benefits early in 2025 ‘to ensure the system supports people who can work to remain in or start work’.

Although specific details are yet to be announced, the Chancellor confirmed that the government will continue with the reforms to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) set out by the Conservatives.

A coalition of disability organisations wrote a joint letter to the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions ahead of the Autumn Budget, claiming that the consequences of this reform would be “devastating” for disabled people.

“According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the proposed changed to the WCA will have affected more than 450,000 new Disabled claimants by 2028-29. Many of these will lose hundreds of pounds a month with only around 15,400 able to escape into paid work,” they wrote. “It is clear that these measures will do nothing to address current labour shortages. They will however increase levels of entrenched deprivation.”

Reeves said the government will also tackle fraudulent activity by introducing a new Fraud, Error and Debt Bill which will introduce new powers to check benefits are being paid correctly. The Bill will also strengthen DWP’s powers to recover debt, which could be viewed as concerning given the huge number of unpaid carers who have been affected by erroneous overpayments.

Carer’s Allowance

The Chancellor has announced an ‘unprecedented rise’ in the earnings limit on Carer’s Allowance to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage, rising by £30 from £151 to £181 per week. This is the largest increase in Carer’s Allowance since it was introduced in 1976.

This rise means around 60,000 more carers will be eligible for the benefit, with one report by Carers UK finding that thousands would be lifted out of poverty with a rise in the earnings limit.

Helen Walker, Chief Executive of Carers UK said she is “delighted” the Chancellor has increased the earnings limit after nearly two decades of campaigning for the increase.

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“It’s been heartbreaking and frustrating to hear carers having to choose between paid work and Carer’s Allowance simply because of a rise in the National Living Wage – something that is supposed to benefit low paid workers, not put them out of work. We’re delighted that this is being addressed,” she said.

Household support

Research by Contact, a charity for families with disabled children, shows that households with critically ill children are paying on average £1,596 a year to run vital medical equipment before the costs of heating and gas are added to their bills. Contact have been calling for a ‘social tariff’ for families who are running lifesaving equipment at home, but the Chancellor did not make any mention of such a scheme.

However, Reeves says the government will improve economic security for families by investing £1bn to extend both the Household Support Fund in England and Discretionary Housing Payments in England and Wales in 2025-26.

This funding can be used by local authorities to help low-income households facing hardship and financial crisis, including supporting them with the cost of essentials such as food, energy and water.

In addition, the government says it will reduce the impact of debt repayments by allowing households on Universal Credit to pay off their debts over a longer timeframe. The Chancellor says this will benefit 1.2 million of the poorest households to keep more of their awards each month.

Education

Just last week, a report by the National Audit Office warned that the special educational needs (SEN) system was ‘financially unsustainable’. In response to this, Reeves announced a £1bn funding uplift for the SEND system – a 6% real terms increase. However, given that deficits related to SEND costs are estimated to reach £4.6 billion by March 2026, this additional investment may not be the silver bullet many were hoping for.

The Department of Education will also receive more funding for mainstream schools, new teachers, breakfast clubs and improving school maintenance.

Jolanta Lasota, Chief Executive of Ambitious about Autism, said the announcement signals a significant investment in education, offering hope for the future.

“We also welcome the announcement of investment in schemes to support those not in education, employment or training. Autistic people continue to face many barriers when trying to seek employment, but we know that given the right support and often very small adjustments, they can make a huge contribution to the workforce,” she added.

Health and social care

Reeves said the conclusions of the Darzi report were ‘damning’, and to address the challenges facing the NHS, the government will deliver the ‘largest real term growth’ outside of Covid since 2010.

She announced an additional £22.6 billion of resource spending in 2025/26 for the Department of Health and Social Care. This funding will deliver improved infrastructure for NHS buildings, address the backlog of repairs and upgrades, increase capacity in hospitals, and bring down waiting lists.

Reeves expects the funding to enable NHS England to deliver an additional 40,000 elective appointments a week and make progress towards the commitment that patients should expect to wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment.

In line with the NHS 10 Year Plan, the government also plans to deliver over one million more diagnostic tests by creating more diagnostic centres as well as surgical hubs.

However, social care received significantly less investment, with £600 million of new grant funding earmarked for the sector. Kathryn Smith, Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), has questioned whether this funding will go far enough.

“Although investment into the sector is welcome, as recognised by the Darzi Review, the sustainability of the NHS is fundamentally interconnected with that of social care. A properly functioning and adequately resourced social care sector is vital to the success of the NHS,” she said.

DRUK says Autumn Budget has failed to meet the needs of disabled people

While many charities have welcomed some key investments announced in the Autumn Budget, such as increased funding for SEND systems, the rise in Carer’s Allowance earning limits, and programmes targeted at getting disabled people who want to work into employment, Disability Rights UK says today’s Budget fails to recognise the needs of disabled people.

In a statement, the charity said: “Today’s budget is yet another failure. A failure to make real change. A failure to recognise that Disabled people and those with long-term health conditions should be treated as valued members of society whose lives are equal to all other citizens and who should not be viewed as burdens or cheats whose needs don’t deserve to be met. The Chancellor is chalking up gains from cutting the social security budget and giving us nothing on the social care system and less than a quarter of what we need to fill the SEND funding gap.

“Despite the minimal uplift in spending to fund our crumbling public services, the budget doesn’t give Disabled people the confidence that the services we rely on every day will tangibly get better. At the end of the day, the biggest announcement was one our community had been expecting: more Disabled and working-class people seeing their benefits cut whilst there will be no real difference in our local services.”

author avatar
Lauren Nicolle
Lauren is a qualified journalist who writes primarily across the health and social care sectors. She is passionate about exposing the injustices faced by people with a learning disability, with a particular focus on equal access to healthcare.

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