UK General Election 2024: How Are The Political Parties Pledging To Support Disabled People?

The highly anticipated UK General Election 2024 will take place on Thursday 4^th July. This is your chance to choose who runs the UK government and what policies matter to you. For people with disabilities and health conditions, the most vital question is “How are the political parties pledging to support disabled people?“

Here at Crip Life™, we go through five of the main Parties’ manifestoes to find out how they pledge to tackle the important policies for disabled people including health and social care, benefits, accessibility and inclusion.

Conservative Party

The Conservative Party’s ambition is to make this country the most accessible place in the world for people with disabilities to live, work and thrive. The Tories are delivering on its Disability Action PlanDisability Action Plan to transform the everyday lives of people with disabilities.

During this Parliament, the Tories have passed the British Sign Language Act to ensure all public services and information are accessible to Deaf people who use BSL. The Down Syndrome Act will improve access to services and the quality of life of people with Down’s syndrome.

In the next Parliament, the Party will improve support for people who have guide or assistance dogs and explore bidding to host and deliver the 2031 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

One of the Conservative’s main pledges that will impact the lives of disabled people is reforming the disability benefits system so they are better targeted and reflect people’s genuine needs while delivering a step-change in mental health provision.

 The Tories will improve PIP assessments to provide a more objective consideration of people’s needs and stop the number of claims from rising unsustainably. While people suffering from mental health conditions face significant challenges, it is not clear that they always face the same additional living costs as people with physical disabilities. The Party will look at the best way to provide support, including whether treatment or services could be more appropriate for some people than a monthly cash payment, while also delivering a dramatic expansion in mental health support.

At the same time, the assessment process will be made simpler and fairer for those with the most severe conditions.

Another change to the welfare system will be to introduce tougher sanctions rules so people who refuse to take up suitable jobs after 12 months on benefits can have their cases closed and their benefits removed entirely. The Tories will bring forward the new claimant review point for the long-term unemployed from 18 months to 12 months. At the claimant review, Work Coaches will set renewed conditions for claimants. If they fail to accept or comply with those conditions, such as refusing a suitable job or a mandatory work placement, their claim will be closed and their benefits will stop.

Some of the other policies the Conservative Party have proposed that may impact disabled people include:

• Increase NHS spending above inflation every year, recruiting 92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors, continuing to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030, driving up productivity in the NHS and moving care closer to people’s homes through Pharmacy First, new and modernised GP surgeries and more Community Diagnostic Centres.
• A Dental Recovery Plan will unlock 2.5 million more NHS dental appointments.
• Continue to modernise autism and learning disability healthcare services.
• Transform education for children with special educational needs, ending the postcode lottery of support by delivering 60,000 more school places and a further 15 new free schools for children with special educational needs.
• Continue to invest in the Lilac Review to encourage more disabled entrepreneurs.
• Improve accessibility at 100 train stations, starting with the 50 stations announced in May.
• Reflecting feedback from older and disabled people, councils will be given the power to ban pavement parking, provided they engage with businesses and residents to ensure they are not adversely affected.

 For more information, read the full 2024 Conservative Party manifesto. Unfortunately, the Conservative Party have failed to provide alternative formats of this manifesto for people with additional needs. We have contacted the Conservative Party to ask about accessible versions.

Labour Party

The Labour Party is pledging to change Britain, stop the chaos, turn the page, and start to rebuild the country.

Labour will work with local areas to create plans to support more disabled people and those with health conditions into work. Labour will devolve funding so local areas can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer for local people.

The Party will tackle the backlog of Access to Work claims and give disabled people the confidence to start working without the fear of an immediate benefit reassessment if it does not work out.

Labour believes the Work Capability Assessment is not working and needs to be reformed or replaced, alongside a proper plan to support disabled people to work.

Labour is also committed to reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty and wants to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels.

 Some of the other policies the Labour Party have proposed that may impact disabled people include:

• Labour’s healthcare policies include cutting NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments every week, doubling the number of cancer scanners, creating a new Dentistry Rescue Plan, recruiting 8,500 additional mental health staff and returning the family doctor.
• Labour will undertake a programme of reform to create a National Care Service, underpinned by national standards, delivering consistency of care across the country. Services will be locally delivered, with a principle of ‘home first’ that supports people to live independently for as long as possible. The new standards will ensure high-quality care and ongoing sustainability, and ensure providers behave responsibly. Labour will develop local partnerships working between the NHS and social care on hospital discharge.
• Labour will take a community-wide approach to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream schools for SEND children, as well as ensuring special schools cater to those with the most complex needs.
• Labour will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.
• Labour will protect disabled people by making all existing strands of hate crime an aggravated offence.
• Put passengers at the heart of the service by reforming the railways and bringing them into public ownership. Great British Railways will deliver a unified system that focuses on reliable, affordable, high-quality, and efficient services; along with ensuring safety and accessibility.

 For more information, read the full 2024 Labour manifesto. There are also accessible versions of the manifesto (certain formats coming soon).

 Liberal Democrats Party

At the heart of the Liberal Democrats manifesto is a £9 billion rescue package to save the NHS and social care. The party says they will be the boldest proposals of any party to tackle the crisis in our health services.

The 2024 Liberal Democrats manifesto is the first in the party’s history to include a dedicated chapter on care. These proposals are heavily inspired by the Party Leader Ed Davey’s personal experiences caring for his late mother and his disabled son, John, who has an undiagnosed neurological condition.

These pledges will include giving everyone the right to see a GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to, with 8,000 more GPs to deliver on it. Guaranteeing access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care.

Also, improving early access to mental health services by establishing mental health hubs for young people in every community and introducing regular mental health check-ups at key points in people’s lives when they are most vulnerable to mental ill-health.

To tackle the care crisis, the Lib Dems will introduce free personal care, so that provision is based on need, not ability to pay. The party will create a social care workforce plan, establish a Royal College of Care Workers to improve recognition and career progression, and introduce a higher Carer’s Minimum Wage.

Some of the other policies the Liberal Democrats Party have proposed that may impact disabled people include:

• Make the benefits system work better by giving disabled people and organisations representing them a stronger voice in the design of benefits policies and processes, bringing Work Capability Assessments in-house and reforming Personal Independence Payment assessments to make the process more transparent and stop unnecessary reassessments, and end the use of informal assessments.
• Get more disabled people into work by making the most of technology, raising awareness of the Access to Work scheme, introducing Adjustment Passports and new flexible ways of working.
• Tackle the crisis in special educational needs provision in schools and nurseries with more funding and training for staff.
• Provide free access to sign language lessons for parents and guardians of d/Deaf children and increase the use of BSL in government communications and other areas of society.
• Improving accessibility at railway stations through the Access for All programme.
• Require at least 80% of on-demand TV content to be subtitled, 10% audio-described and 5% signed.

 For more information, read the full 2024 Liberal Democrats Party manifesto. There is also an Easy Read version, a Braille version and audio & BSL versions coming soon.

Green Party

The Green Party is aiming to create a greener, fairer and healthier country – one in which we are all safer, happier and more fulfilled.

The Green Party is committed to a fully public, properly funded health and social care system, and to keeping the profit motive well away from the NHS.  This will include a year-on-year reduction in waiting lists, guaranteed access to an NHS dentist, guaranteed rapid access to a GP and same-day access in case of urgent need and an immediate boost to the pay of NHS staff, including the restoration of junior doctors’ pay, to help with staff retention.

If elected, the Greens will press for a legal framework that supports the rights of those struggling with their mental health to be respected and to live fulfilling lives.  There will also be increased funding for mental health care, putting it on an equal footing with physical health care and enabling people to access evidence-based mental health therapies within 28 days.

To address the care crisis and help take pressure off the NHS, Green MPs will push for an investment of £20bn to introduce free personal care to ensure dignity in old age and for the disabled and increase pay rates and introduce a career structure for carers to rebuild the care workforce.

For those still living at home, this will enable earlier access to help maintain independence and wellbeing. For those living in residential settings, the personal care elements will be fully funded, alongside a tapered approach to other costs based on the level of income.

For those struggling to afford the accommodation element of residential care, including because their spouse is still in the family home, local authorities need to be properly funded to provide the right level of financial support.

Some of the other policies the Green Party have proposed that may impact disabled people include:

• Adequate support in the school system for neurodivergent children and children with special educational needs.
• Restore the value of disability benefits, with an immediate uplift of 5%.
• Reform intrusive eligibility tests like PIP and the unfair targeting of carers and disabled people on benefits.
• Make it mandatory for councils to provide free transport for 16 to 18-year-old pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
• Increase Universal Credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week.
• End the bedroom tax.
• In the long term, introduce a universal basic income to give everybody the security to start a business, study, train and live their life in dignity.

For more information, read the full 2024 Green Party manifesto. There is a long version, a short version and an Easy Read version.

Reform UK Party

Reform UK has described itself as an alternative, real common sense choice for the British people. The Party has a serious plan to reshape the way the country is organised and run. Only Reform will stand up for British culture, identity and values and restore trust in our democracy.

The NHS needs urgent reform and so Reform UK pledges to make it a national endeavour to get to “Zero NHS Waiting Lists” in two years. This can be done, but only with a fresh, bold, can-do approach. Healthcare must remain free at the point of use.

In the first 100 days of Parliament, Reform UK proposes to cut waiting lists by using UK and overseas non-profit healthcare services.

Reform UK also plans to create an NHS voucher scheme in which patients will receive a voucher for private treatment if they can’t see a GP within three days. For a consultant, the time limit would be three weeks. For an operation, nine weeks.

 In addition, Reform UK wants to save A&E by cutting GP waiting times with a campaign of ‘Pharmacy First, GP Second, A&E Last’. More beds in A&E and other parts of the NHS are essential.

Some of the other policies the Reform UK Party have proposed that may impact disabled people include:

• Face-to-Face, Not Remote Assessment for Personal Independence Payment – Human contact is critical to build relationships and coaching people back into work. Reform will also require independent medical assessments to prove eligibility for payments.
• Integrate mental health services with jobseeking pathways.
• A national plan is critical for a sustainable social care system. Collaboration between central government, local authorities, social care providers and home care support groups is vital to solve the growing challenge. (Flexibility, income tax and VAT breaks are potential factors). Streamlining and simplifying through a single funding stream, not split between NHS and Local Authorities is essential. Improved regulation is required for this vital service which is part of UK PLC’s infrastructure. Additional funding will be required when a national plan is agreed.
• Stop the Offshore Taxpayer Rip-Off – Some larger care home providers avoid tax on hundreds of millions of profits through complex offshore property company structures and high-interest shareholder loans. At the same time, they pay minimal wages to frontline care staff.
• Postal voting has allowed electoral fraud. Reform UK will stop postal voting except for the elderly, disabled or those who can’t leave their homes.
• Replace the 2010 Equalities Act – The current Equalities Act requires discrimination in the name of ‘positive action’. It costs the economy billions of pounds and has become a lawyer’s charter to print money. It has destroyed meritocracy, spread division and led to exclusion for some in majority groups. Scrap all Diversity Equality and Inclusion roles that cost huge sums, create division, inequality and exclusion, and reduce productivity.

For more information, read Reform UK’s “Contract With You” manifesto. Unfortunately, the Reform UK Party have failed to provide alternative formats of this manifesto for people with additional needs. We have contacted Reform UK to ask about accessible versions.

 Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland 

 For voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, you can also view manifestoes and policies by Parties including the Scottish National Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru and the DUP.

Who can I vote for in the UK General Election 2024?

To find out the candidates who are standing in your constituency and where your polling station will be for the UK General Election 2024 on July 4th, visit the Electoral Commission website and enter your postcode.

Voting in the UK General Election 2024

You need to be registered to vote by 11:59pm on 18^th June 2024 to vote in the UK General Election 2024 on Thursday 4^th July.

There are three ways you can vote in the UK General Election 2024 – in person, by post or by proxy (by applying to have someone else vote for you).

You need to show photo ID when voting in person in the local elections. Types of ID that will be accepted include driving license, passport, Blue Badge, older person’s bus pass, disabled person’s bus pass and Disabled Person’s Welsh Concessionary Travel Card.

You must apply for a postal vote if you want to vote by post. You’ll need to apply by 5pm on 19^th June 2024 to get a postal vote for the UK General Election 2024.

If you’re unable to vote in person you can ask someone to vote on your behalf. This is called a proxy vote. You’ll need to apply for a proxy vote by 5pm on 26^th June 2024 to vote by proxy.

You can also apply for an emergency proxy vote if you are suddenly unable to vote in person due to employment, medical emergencies or you don’t have the correct photo ID. You have until 5pm on 4^th July 2024 to apply for an emergency proxy vote.

For more details on how to vote, go to the UK government website.

Which policies are important to you as someone with a disability or health condition? Let us know in the comments box or on social media.