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Articles in Benefits

A blue graphic. On the left is a image of the front of multiple military tanks. On the right is text reading: "Could ‘Welfare’ Cuts Fund Defence? Cutting ‘welfare’ could save billions But push millions into crisis Are there better ways to fund defence? Read our expert analysis to see how defence could be funded without cutting social security" Below is a QR code leading to the BuDS website page giving details on this topic.

Cutting ‘Welfare’ to Pay For Defence

September 3, 2026September 3, 2026 Ben Clark

Politicians of all political parties are talking about cutting ‘welfare’ (correctly known as social security) to pay for higher defence costs. BuDS has studied this issue and come up with another way to look at it.

This article is a ‘thought experiment’, not a detailed economic plan. While all the data used is from official Government sources, and the calculations (methodology) is sound, we are not trying to set out a detailed plan for Government. What we are doing is helping people understand the reality of a complicated situation, and to look at it in another way from that presented in the media.

A hypodermic needle and syringe seen against a black shadowy background

Assisted Suicide: Government May Be Underestimating Deaths By Nearly 400%

August 30, 2026August 30, 2026 Ben Clark

BuDS’ calculations suggest that the Government’s official Impact Assessment for Lauren Edwards’ Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill may be underestimating the number of medically assisted suicides by nearly 400%. Another way of saying this is that we think the Government’s estimate is almost 4 times smaller than it should be.

To put this in terms of numbers, the Government estimate that around 6,257 people per year will die by assisted suicide once the Bill comes fully into force. Our estimate is that 21,600 people could die by assisted suicide every year.

This really matters. MPs must know that, if they vote for Lauren Edwards’ Bill, they likely are putting in place a massive institutionalised system for the assisted suicide of tens of thousands of British people. This is a completely different situation to that suggested by lobbyists and pro-suicide apologists, who persistently claim that only a few hundred people who are already very close to death will be affected by the Bill.

We urge everyone who opposes this Bill to share our data and calculations with their MP. MPs must know exactly what they are doing if they vote for this Bill.

The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham. He is holding his hand to his chin in a thoughtful pose. He is seen against a royal blue background. Image copyright Reuters via BBC News.

BuDS Welcomes PM’s Decision On Assisted Suicide Bill

August 28, 2026August 28, 2026 Ben Clark

BuDS Disability Service has welcomed the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham’s decision to allow Ministers and Labour backbenchers to vote according to their conscience on Lauren Edwards’ Assisted Suicide Bill. This is the ‘kiss of death’ for this Bill.

A jumbled pile of triangular alert road signs. The signs are white with a red border and have a black exclamation mark on them

Weather & Weather Health Warnings

August 8, 2026August 8, 2026 admin

There are lots of weather and weather-related health warnings issued these days. It can be difficult to know which ones are important and need you to do something. To help you, BuDS has decided that it will start posting the most significant weather and weather health warnings on its own website and social media. That way, if you see that BuDS is repeating or endorsing an official warning, you know it really matters to you as a disabled person. We will only do this for warnings affecting England, not Scotland or Wales.

Weather Warnings

Weather warnings are issued by the Met Office. Their scientists forecast how the weather is going to affect the UK and, if severe weather is expected, they issue a warning.

Yellow ‘Advice’ Warnings – there are two types of yellow weather warning.

The first is advice that the weather is likely to cause some low-level problems for some people.
The second type of yellow warning is advice that that the weather may cause serious problems for people, but there is only a low risk of this happening.

BuDS has decided that it will not repeat or amplify yellow weather warnings. This is because we want people to always take seriously a weather warning amplified by BuDS, and yellow weather warnings are often not serious or relevant enough to be worth repeating.

Amber ‘Caution’ Warnings – there are two types of amber weather warning.

The first is issued when the Met Office feel that there is a strong chance of severe weather that will disrupt everyday life, cause problems for most people, and make people change their plans and activities. There may be some property or landscape damage and emergencies like power cuts of flooding might occur.
The second type of amber warning is issued when the Met Office think that very dangerous weather may occur but there is only a low risk of that happening.

BuDS has decided that it will repeat both types of amber weather warnings. This is because disabled people will be most affected by disruptive weather and we want them to have prompt, accurate information to help them manage the period of disruption.

Red ‘Danger’ Warnings – when the Met Office issues a red weather warning, it means that there is a big risk to people’s life, with widespread damage to buildings and the landscape also likely. Power cuts, flooding and other emergencies are also likely and the Government or councils may have to issue guidance for the public or start up emergency plans. People should not travel during a red warning. Red weather warnings will also usually be sent by emergency alert direct to people’s mobile phones in affected areas.

BuDS has decided that it will repeat and amplify red weather warnings. This is because disabled people are most at risk in weather emergencies and we want them to have prompt, accurate information to help them keep safe.

Health Weather Warnings

Health weather warnings are issued in England by the UK Health Security Agency, or UKHSA. If UKHSA thinks that upcoming hot or cold weather may be a risk to people’s health, they issue an alert. These alerts are only sent about hot or cold weather and not any other threat to health, for example a disease outbreak.

Although the media report UKHSA weather health warnings, they are not really intended for the general public. They are supposed to be warnings for the NHS, councils and other health and social care organisations, to alert them to an expected increase in demand for their services.

The UKHSA take a lot of things into account before issuing a weather health warning. Health weather warnings are not just about whether the temperatures will be particularly hot or cold, but whether hot or cold weather is expected to have particularly bad effects in people’s health and so make them use NHS and care services more.

Hot Weather Health Alerts

UKHSA look at four things when deciding to issue a hot weather heat alert. These are:

Whether the hot weather is likely to make people use NHS services more
Whether more people will die than usual
Whether the expected daytime temperature will be over 27 degrees centigrade (28 in London)
Whether the expected nighttime temperature is much higher than expected

If some or all of these things are likely to happen, the NHS will issue a ‘Heat-Health Alert’. These alerts will be graded as Low, Medium or High

Low Heat-Health Alert – this alert, issued when daytime temperatures are above 27 degrees centigrade (28 in London), tells the NHS and care organisations that demand for health and care services is likely to be higher than usual, 10% more people will die than usual (mostly older and vulnerable people), and hospital and other buildings will become ‘very warm’.

BuDS has decided that it will not usually repeat or amplify Low Heat-Health Alerts warnings. This is because summer temperatures are now regularly above 27C and we would end up repeating a lot of alerts which might mean people did not take notice of more serious alerts.

Medium Heat-Health Alert – this alert issued when daytime temperatures are above 30 degrees centigrade (32 in London), tells the NHS and care organisations that demand for health and care services, especially emergency services, will be much greater than normal. 20% more people than usual will die, and mostly older people or those with health conditions but also children or babies. Patients in hospital or care will be at risk of dehydration, and hospital and other buildings will become overheated. Disabled, vulnerable and older people in the community will be at risk from heat. NHS and care staff availability will reduce.

BuDS has decided that it will repeat Medium Heat-Health Alerts. This is because disabled people will be most affected by hotter weather and the reduced health and care services which will happen in hotter weather. We want disabled people to have prompt, accurate information to help them manage the period of very hot weather.

High Heat-Health Alert – this alert, issued when daytime temperatures are above 38 degrees centigrade (40 in London), tells the NHS and care organisations that demand for health and care services, especially emergency services, will be very significantly greater than normal. 50% more people will die than normal, with people of all ages affected, but especially large numbers of older people. Patients in hospital or care will be at risk of heatstroke and dehydration, and hospital and other buildings may become too hot for use. Disabled, vulnerable and older people in the community will be significantly affected from heat. NHS and care staff availability will be significantly reduced.

BuDS has decided that it will repeat and amplify High Heat-Health Alerts. This is because disabled people are most at risk in heat emergencies and we want them to have prompt, accurate information to help them keep safe.

Cold Weather Health Alerts

UKHSA look at three things when deciding to issue a cold weather heat alert. These are:

Whether the cold weather is likely to make people use NHS services more
Whether more people will die than usual
Whether the expected average temperature will be below 2 degrees centigrade

If some or all of these things are likely to happen, the NHS will issue a ‘Cold-Health Alert’. These alerts will be graded as Low, Medium or High

Low Cold-Health Alert – this alert, issued when average temperatures are predicted to be below 2 degrees centigrade for more than 48 hours, tells the NHS and care organisations that demand for health and care services is likely to be higher than usual, More people will die than usual, mostly older and vulnerable people.

BuDS has decided that it will not usually repeat or amplify Low Cold-Health Alerts warnings. This is because winter temperatures are now regularly below 2C and we would end up repeating a lot of alerts which might mean people did not take notice of more serious alerts.

Medium Cold-Health Alert – this alert is issued when average temperatures are predicted to be below 2C for 5 days or under zero for 48 hours. This alert tells the NHS and care organisations that demand for health and care services, especially emergency services, will be much greater than normal. Significantly more people than usual will die, mostly older people or those with health conditions but also children or babies. Disabled, vulnerable and older people in the community, especially those living rough, will be at risk from cold. NHS and care staff availability will reduce.

BuDS has decided that it will repeat Medium Cold-Health Alerts. This is because disabled people will be most affected by colder weather and the reduced health and care services which will happen in colder weather. We want disabled people to have prompt, accurate information to help them manage the period of cold or freezing weather.

High Cold-Health Alert – this alert is issued when average temperatures are predicted to be below zero for 5 days or -2C for 48 hours. This alert tells the NHS and care organisations that demand for health and care services, especially emergency services, will be very significantly greater than normal. Significantly more people will die than normal, with people of all ages affected, but especially large numbers of older people. Patients in hospital or care will be affected by staff shortages and disruption to supplies. Disabled, vulnerable and older people in the community will be significantly affected by cold and the reduction of homecare services. NHS and care staff availability will be significantly reduced.

BuDS has decided that it will repeat and amplify High Cold-Health Alerts. This is because disabled people are most at risk in freezing conditions and we want them to have prompt, accurate information to help them keep safe.

Finally…

BuDS is helping disabled people to be aware of weather and health alerts through our Health & Disability Information, Advice & Guidance (IAG) project. We want disabled people to have prompt access to accurate and honest information and guidance that they most need in their everyday lives. We receive no grant funding for this work. If you’d like to make a donation, or volunteer to help us in this work, use the buttons below.

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Personal Independence Payment Fraud: The Facts

August 4, 2026August 4, 2026 admin

We’ve produced another handy infographic to help you push back against stories about people fraudulently claiming PIP (Personal Independence Payment). This graphic is free to share or download, and we encourage you to do so. Just use the button below to save the image to your device.

260802 PIP Fraud – The Facts Download

As the infographic shows, the rate of claimant fraud of PIP is less than 1% and there is no evidence of significant fraud by claimants of PIP. Claimant fraud means fraud by individuals, rather than fraud by organised criminals.

How Many Disabled People Are There?

August 2, 2026August 2, 2026 admin

This article refers to England & Wales only. Accurate as of August 2026

We’ve produced this handy infographic showing how many disabled people there are in England & Wales. This is free to download and share, and we encourage you to do so. Just use the button below. The public must have access to accurate information when disability is such a hot political topic.

260731 How Many Disabled People Are There (E&W)Download

Counting Disabled People

Counting disabled people in England & Wales is much more difficult than it appears. That’s because there are lots of different definitions of ‘a disabled person’.

Census 2021 – 10.5 Million

The Census in 2021 asked people if they had a long-term physical and mental condition and, if they answered yes, asked them whether that condition affected their ability to do everyday activities ‘A lot’, ‘A little’, or ‘Not at all’. The Office for National Statistics count everyone who said their ability was affected ‘a lot’ or ‘a little’ as a disabled person. That’s 10.5 million people in 2021 in England & Wales (this will be larger now).

Equality Act – About 6.6 million

The Equality Act 2010 protects ‘disabled people’ from discrimination. The Act defines a disabled person as someone with a long-term physical or mental condition which substantially limits their day-to-day life. But there is no registration scheme for ‘disabled people under the Equality Act’, so nobody really knows how many disabled people there are according to the Act’s definition.

You can cross-refer the Census 2021 results with the Equality Act. The 4.9 million people who told the Census that their conditions affect their day-to-day life ‘a lot’ certainly also qualify under the Equality Act, which covers people with a ‘substantial’ limit on their day to day life. At least some of the 5.6 million people who told the Census that their conditions affect their day-to-day life ‘a little’ will also qualify under the Equality Act definition. But nobody knows how many. We have assumed a third of those who told the Census that their life was affected ‘a little’ qualify as a disabled person under the Equality Act, but it could be more, or less.

Receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – 4 million

According to the DWP, around 4 million disabled adults in England and Wales currently receive PIP.

PIP is paid not because a person is disabled (whatever definition you use), but if a person is disabled AND their condition affects them in very specific ways. PIP has 12 complicated tests looking at very specific living activities and how people can move around outdoors. Disabled people score points according to how much their conditions affect their ability to do only the activities specified in the tests. An award of benefit is made if the total point score exceeds certain thresholds. This is very different from Disability Living Allowance, which PIP replaced for adults, which looked much more holistically at how much help people needed in their everyday life and when going out.

Because PIP is a very artificial test of disability, people with different impairments and conditions score points very differently under the 12 tests. This is partly deliberate, because PIP was designed to reduce the cost of disability benefits by a fifth. However, the DWP is as incompetent at drafting legislation as it is at administering benefits, and there are a lot of ‘unintended consequences’ arising from the way the tests work. The courts too have decided that some of the PIP tests work differently in fact from the way the DWP hoped they would.

Compensation, Not Welfare

PIP is supposed to compensate or refund disabled people for the extra costs of being disabled. The charity Scope calculates that disabled people spend on average around £13,140 more than non-disabled people just to live the same lifestyle. The maximum annual award of PIP, which only 37% of claimants receive, is significantly less than this, at £10,120. The average PIP award is only £6900.

Social Security, Not Welfare

If disabled people fall into crisis, the state then pays to help them cope and to get out of crisis. Providing crisis support is far more expensive than making a small payment to stop the crisis occurring. Supporting a single homeless disabled person, for example, costs councils on average £13,000 per annum, plus the cost of temporary housing, additional GP visits, hospital stays, etc. The reason disability benefits were introduced was to save money, because giving disabled people a small ‘social security’ payment was much cheaper than the alternative.

When politicians talk about cutting ‘welfare’, this is just economic incompetence. If you cut the small social security amounts which help disabled people stay independent and out of crisis, the taxpayer will end up paying much more when those disabled people fall into crisis. BuDS looked into this matter in detail when it was suggested that ‘welfare’ could be cut to fund defence – you can find out more by clicking the button.

Cutting ‘Welfare’ to Fund Defence

Are Too Many Disabled People Claiming PIP?

There is no objective evidence of this. The 4 million adults currently claiming PIP matches up quite well with the 4.9 million people who told the Census in 2021 that their conditions affect their day-to-day life ‘a lot’.

The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, making a speech. He is a white man with dark hair and glassess dresse in a dark suit. He has his hands spread on his chest. He is standing in a care home with rows of seated people in front of him. Image copyright: BBC

Shelve assisted dying plans until after social and palliative care is fixed, says Andy Burnham

July 29, 2026August 4, 2026 admin

29 July 2026

The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has said that the ‘fixing’ of palliative and social care must happen before any steps are taken towards legalising assisted dying or assisted suicide. His comments, made at the launch of the PM’s plans to transform social care for older and disabled people, are widely seen as a rebuke to Lauren Edwards and a handful of other Labour MPs and Peers who are trying to re-introduce a private assisted suicide bill drafted by the lobby group Dignity in Dying.

BuDS Disability Service very much welcomes the PM’s sensible statement. We look to Lauren Edwards to now withdraw her Bill and not to waste the House of Commons’ time on an initiative which is not needed and which will inevitably fail.

The disabled-led charity, which has consistently opposed assisted suicide as a risk to disabled people, said:

“British advocates for assisted suicide claim it is necessary because many people die in pain and distress that could be averted if they took their own life through medically-assisted suicide. It is obvious that this claim relies on NHS and hospice palliative and end-of-life care being inadequate. The PM is perfectly right to say that the first step must be to fix palliative and end-of-life care, and only then to assess whether the claim made by advocates of assisted dying is correct”.

“That said, there are other issues which also need resolving in any future debate about assisted dying. These are:

The obvious risks to disabled, older and vulnerable people from any state-sanctioned scheme to help people to take their own life, whether at the end of life or otherwise. BuDS feels that an explicit judicial decision after a full legal process must be required before the state takes anyone’s life, even at their own supposed request. Given that the rights of disabled people are protected in law and that courts are routinely involved in the protection of vulnerable people, it is extraordinary that pro-assisted dying advocates suggested that NHS patients might have their life taken by NHS doctors after a purely administrative process far less rigorous than a DWP assessment for benefits.
The risk that assisted suicide is seen by patients, relatives and carers, and the NHS and social care providers, as a legitimate alternative to continued care and support. Once people can ‘choose’ to have their life ended, the pressure – both self-imposed and externally applied – to make that choice will become very strong.
British society for hundreds of years has not accepted that suicide is a rational response to life event, Society sees suicide and suicidal ideation as a symptom of distress, fear or mental illness. The NHS, councils, the government and the voluntary sector work to identify suicide risk and reduce it. To legitimise ‘rational suicide’ in some circumstances is to entirely overturn the way British society looks at suicide.
The ‘foot in the door’ tactic used by advocates for assisted dying. The ideological policy goal of Dignity in Dying, formerly known as the British Euthanasia Society, of Humanists UK, and of many of the individuals who support assisted dying, is for assisted suicide to be freely available on demand. BuDS thinks that these pro-suicide groups and people are using support for humanitarian assisted dying purely as a stepping stone towards their ideological goal. This is precisely what has happened in many other countries around the world who introduce ‘humanitarian’ assisted dying only for the scope of the suicide scheme to widen later. This issue must also be addressed whenever assisted dying is next debated.”

(ends)

Date: 29 July 2026

Enquiries: info@buds.org.uk or message BuDS through social media.

Extreme Weather Warning: July 2026

July 8, 2026July 8, 2026 Ben Clark

The Met Office and NHS have warned that temperatures across England will be dangerously high both during the day and at night over the next week. This is a genuine health risk for many people, and we urge you to take it seriously.

A heat wave can affect anyone, but the following groups are most vulnerable:

A blue and yellow BuDS infographic. There is a picture of the Supreme Court judges on the left. On the right is a text box reading "Huge legal change. Big impact on disabled people. UK law brought into line with ECHR. New test replaces Cheshire West. Safeguards radically reshaped. Full details not yet clear. No need to panic"

The Supreme Court’s Decision About ‘Deprivation of Liberty’

June 6, 2026June 6, 2026 Andrew

The Supreme Court has made a key decision about when people legally can be said to be ‘deprived of their liberty’. Deprivation of liberty means that a person isn’t free to do or go where they wish because an official body or law is stopping them. A person locked up in a prison is the most obvious example of someone deprived of their liberty. However, other examples might be disabled people held under the Mental Health Act, or a disabled person who lives in a locked care home.

BuDS wants disabled people to get fair, accurate and balanced information. Media coverage of this important court case is often misleading or incomplete, so we have written our own guide. We have used only legal sources to do so.

Open Letter to Members of Parliament

May 20, 2026August 28, 2026 admin

Dear Members of Parliament

Please don’t re-introduce an assisted dying Bill into Parliament. As disabled people from across England, including many with degenerative and terminal conditions, we urge you to address this highly complex and controversial issue in a mature and measured way. Rushing ahead with badly-drafted and dangerous Bills is not the way to help disabled and dying people.