We are deeply concerned that the Chancellor’s spring statement published yesterday, threatens to inflict and compound harm on some of the most under-protected people in our communities. This, alongside what appears to be a detachment from their real world impact is incredibly alarming.

We already know from our Falling Faster report (2021) that following the previous government’s devastating programme of austerity, benefit cuts were felt most sharply by people of colour, while these communities were also 2.2 times more likely to experience deep poverty.

It is alarming that the government’s own impact assessment tells us that 250,000 more people, including 50,000 more children, will be plunged into poverty as a result of these changes and that this knowledge did not act as a brake on these proposals. This is especially worrying at a time when already over half of children from Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds are growing up in poverty.

This approach of ‘balancing the books’ on the backs of the most disadvantaged and in need, reflects the widely accepted risk of ‘policy creep’ - highlighting that when we permit hostile environment principles like no recourse to public funds to operate on migrants, we are unable to prevent them becoming norms applied to others.

Though we know there is an employment gap experienced by disabled people of colour, we are concerned with the overall invisibility of disabled people of colour’s employment and benefit experiences. We know there is an absence of data and research which means we cannot fully understand the impacts the cuts to Disability benefits will have on these people and families.

What looks like the continuation of austerity measures and benefit cuts will push vulnerable and marginalised communities into deeper crisis - driving up A&E admissions, worsening health and mental health outcomes and fuelling an increase in suicide rates. Policies like these might appear to be reducing costs, but in fact they will cost both money and lives in the long term.