A sweeping new study has found that support for disability benefits across Britain is remarkably robust, with the vast majority of the public opposed to any reduction in payments for disabled people. The findings, drawn from the prestigious British Social Attitudes survey, suggest that politicians across all parties face significant political risk if they attempt to scale back welfare provision for disabled citizens.
A Public That Refuses to Turn Away
The analysis, based on 4,656 interviews conducted between August and October 2025, paints a striking picture of public sentiment. Fewer than one in ten respondents favoured cutting welfare payments to disabled people, while nearly half said they would support increased spending on disability benefits even if it meant higher taxes.
The numbers were even more emphatic when respondents were asked about specific daily costs. Some 83% backed additional payments to help with cooking, 80% supported extra funds for budgeting, and 78% endorsed supplementary payments for washing. Only 3% said nobody should receive any additional money for any of these tasks.
Dr Robert de Vries of the University of Kent, one of the report’s co-authors, said the message from the public was clear. “Despite growing political divisions on welfare, support for disability benefits remains remarkably strong,” he said. “Very few people favour cuts, disabled people are seen as among the most deserving recipients of support, and proposals to reduce disability benefits appear politically risky across the political spectrum.”
Rising Expenditure at a Time of Political Tension
The survey arrives against a backdrop of mounting financial pressure. Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the primary disability benefit, currently serves around four million people in England and Wales. Annual spending has surged from £16.3 billion in 2019/20 to £27.3 billion in 2024/25, and is forecast to exceed £41 billion by 2030 — more than doubling within a decade.
Yet wider welfare spending tells a different story. The proportion of GDP the UK allocates to all working-age welfare benefits has remained broadly flat over the past 40 years, hovering at just under 5%. Support for increasing welfare payments for the poor more broadly sits near a record low, with only 27% of respondents backing higher expenditure even at the cost of higher taxes, compared to 42% opposed.
This divergence highlights a notable distinction in how the public views disability benefits versus general welfare provision. While appetite for spending on the poor has diminished, sympathy and support for disabled people specifically appear to have hardened into a firm consensus.
Cross-Party Caution on Cuts
The political landscape around disability benefits is complex. Labour, the Conservatives, and Reform UK have all publicly called for reduced spending on health and disability benefits, while the Liberal Democrats, Greens, and SNP oppose such reductions. However, the survey suggests that the electorate would not forgive a push in either direction.
Only 5% of Labour voters, 7% of Conservative supporters, and 11% of Reform UK backers said they backed cutting disability payments. Among Labour voters specifically, 57% favoured increasing spending. There was broad agreement that reforming PIP without alienating the public would be exceedingly difficult.
The timing of the interviews adds an important caveat. They took place shortly after Sir Keir Starmer’s government was forced to abandon its bid to reform PIP, having faced opposition from within its own ranks. The authors noted that it was possible respondents were particularly supportive of disability benefits at that moment. They also cautioned that public attitudes crucially depend on which disabled people are in the public’s mind, with previous research showing that some groups of disabled people are perceived as more deserving than others.
Efforts to overhaul PIP are set to resume this autumn, after an interim report published over the summer concluded the benefit was not fit for purpose. The government faces a formidable challenge: modernising a system under enormous fiscal strain while navigating a public that appears deeply reluctant to see anything taken away from those who need it most.
Why it Matters
This research sends an unmistakable signal to policymakers: the British public views disability benefits not as an expendable line item but as a vital safety net. With PIP spending projected to more than double within a decade and reform plans due this autumn, any attempt to restrict eligibility or reduce payments carries enormous political risk across every party. The findings underscore that disability welfare sits in a uniquely sensitive space in British public life — one where cost-cutting rhetoric can quickly backfire, and where genuine, lasting change will require building consensus rather than forcing through austerity.
