Campaigners will rally outside Portsmouth Guildhall on Saturday, 5 April, to fight back against government welfare cuts and controversial changes to disability benefits.
The rally, organised by Crips Against Cuts, a grassroots, disabled-led pressure group, is part of a nationwide day of action, with similar protests happening in London, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Leeds.
The government says the overhaul, announced by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, aims to create a system that encourages employment while protecting those who cannot work – and aims to save £5bn a year by 2030.
The changes will make it harder for people with less severe conditions to claim disability benefits. Extra payments for health conditions will also be frozen for current claimants and nearly halved for new applicants.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) supports over 3.6m people with long-term physical or mental health conditions. It has two parts: daily living and mobility. The government has planned to tighten assessments for the daily living component, which could impact hundreds of thousands of claimants.
Disability rights groups warn that up to 1.2m people could be affected by the changes. According to Disability Rights UK, of the 14.9m people living in poverty in the UK in 2021-2022, 4.7m were disabled, including 3.2m working-age adults.
Meanwhile, the charity Scope has found that disabled households need an extra £1,010 per month, on average, to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households. In response to the proposed reforms, Scope and other organisations have written to the Chancellor, urging the government to reconsider the cuts outlined in the green paper published on 18 March 2025.
A spokesperson for Portsmouth Crips Against Cuts said: “These cuts will be punitive and devastating for some of the UK’s most vulnerable disabled and Deaf people.
“Cutting welfare will punish those unable to work and fail to improve access to the workplace, instead plunging people into further poverty, exacerbating a growing mental health crisis, and worsening inequality, inaccessibility and a lack of support for disabled people in this country.
“We call on everyone who cares about a fair, just and equitable system of welfare to join us outside Portsmouth Guildhall at 2pm on Saturday, 5 April.”
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