Challenging ableism, defending dignity, and reclaiming the Gospel call to justice.
Disabled people in the UK are facing increasing barriers—from benefit cuts to societal attitudes that question their value. As Christians, we follow Jesus, who stood with those pushed to the margins and spoke words of liberation and hope. How can the Church respond today? This article invites us to reflect, act, and create communities where every person is valued as a child of God.
Note: In this article the word ‘disability’ is used to refer to all people whose embodiment means that society regards them as untypical. This could be due to sensory or physical impairment, chronic health conditions, neurodivergence, mental health challenges and more. Many people may not regard themselves as disabled but still face societal barriers and challenges to full belonging and participation within the workplace and wider society.
With the government’s recent disability benefits reform bill (The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments bill), disability hit the headlines in a big way earlier this year. The bill included proposals to reduce and eventually scrap the disability element of Universal Credit and to introduce new criteria for qualifying for Personal Independence payments which would have resulted in thousands of disabled people losing support. The stated aim of the reforms was to encourage thousands of disabled people into work rather than ‘allowing’ them to ‘choose’ to live a life on benefits, an issue that it was felt was all the more pressing following the pandemic and the increase in disability benefit claimants due to continuing long covid and other associated health conditions. The bill, though, had a very rocky ride through the House of Commons and much of its content was removed or watered down by the government as concessions to rebel Labour MPs. However, the bill has set the scene for the reform of the disability benefit landscape with the aim of reducing this spending considerably and therefore reducing the support that disabled people in the UK currently receive.
At the heart of this has been a misunderstanding of the purpose of disability benefits, but underlying this an even more troubling sense that this has been fuelled by a political and societal attitude that disabled people and disability advocates hoped had been left behind many decades ago.
The misunderstanding is in the connection between disability benefits and work. Disability benefits are not paid to disabled people to enable them not to work. They are not paid to disabled people to keep them as an alternative to work. Rather, disability benefits are paid to disabled people in order to enable them to live and function as independently as possible. Disabled people do not enjoy being disabled. That doesn’t mean that disabled people cannot be happy and at peace with who they are and the way they are embodied, but disabled people do not face the daily challenges of living and functioning well with any sense of ‘glee’ or contentment. Disability benefits do not give disabled people the opportunity to live privileged and comfortable lives. Instead, disability benefits enable people to get up and wash and dress each morning. They enable people to eat reasonably well and to take care of themselves. They enable people to get out of their homes and crucially, for many disabled people, disability benefits enable them to work. Far from the reduction of the entitlement to Personal Independence Payments being an incentive (or rather a stick) to drive disabled people into work, for many the loss of benefits would mean the loss of work due to the loss of the personal support they need in order to work. So, a consequence of reducing entitlement to Personal Independence Payments is likely to be an increase in disabled people claiming out of work benefits rather than a reduction in the welfare spending bill.
In addition to this, Access to Work, which is the government’s scheme for funding support for disabled people in work, has been reducing the support available. People reapplying for funding for employment support workers, for example, are finding that the funded hours are being cut, making continuing in work difficult and sometimes impossible. So, there are some significant contradictions between government rhetoric, to enable disabled people to enter or return to work, and policy that is actively discouraging and preventing disabled people from working.
The more troubling underlying political attitude that seems to be driving much of this is an attitude that we more commonly associate with the 17th century Poor Laws and 19th century attitudes towards poverty – that there are what were called the ‘deserving poor’ and the ‘idle poor.’ Or, in other words, there are those that are poor and in need of support through no fault of their own, but there are also those who are poor and look for support because they are lazy and workshy and are deliberately not taking responsibility for their own welfare. Through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries the ‘deserving poor’ would find themselves in asylums and places of supposed care. The ‘idle poor’ would be sent to the workhouse where strict and harsh regimes were intended to force or shock them into taking more responsibility for themselves. In reality these distinctions were inconsistent and pretty random and the conditions in asylum and workhouse very similar. Today, the description of disabled people as ‘choosing’ to live on benefits rather than looking for work brings back echoes of the deserving and idle poor whereas over 90% of disabled people who can work do, and many others put a lot of effort into seeking work within a jobs market that offers very few accessible and suitable opportunities.
All of this, which comes in addition to the endemic levels of ableism that many disabled people encounter daily as they fight for the right to live fulfilled lives and contribute and flourish within society, means that disabled people increasingly feel that their lives are not valued equally to non-disabled members of society. The Equality Act (2010) has been part of UK law for 15 years now but still much time and energy is spent fighting for rights enshrined in law but ignored by individuals, institutions and businesses on a daily basis.
And then finally, for some who live with severe and life-limiting illnesses and disabilities and others who feel that society would rather not have to carry the ‘burden’ of supporting them, the Assisted Dying Bill looms large. As the prevailing culture moves ever onwards into ableism and people feel their lives are increasingly devalued and diminished and judged to be unproductive, the invitation to request an early death and seek to end your own life stands stark on the horizon.
A 2017 Equality and Human Rights Commission report, A journey less equal, concluded:
It is a badge of shame on our society that millions of disabled people in Britain are still not being treated as equal citizens and continue to be denied the everyday rights non-disabled people take for granted, such as being able to access transport, appropriate health services and housing, or benefit from education and employment. The disability pay gap is persistent and widening, access to justice has deteriorated, and welfare reforms have significantly affected the already low living standards of disabled people. It is essential that as a society we recognise and address these structural problems urgently and comprehensively.
Sadly, 8 years on, this conclusion is as relevant (if not more relevant) to the lives of disabled people today.
As the Christian church we follow a person who reached into the lives of disabled people in often dramatic and life-changing ways. In his ministry Jesus spent more time with the poor and disabled in society than he did with anyone else, and much of the focus of his ministry was the liberation of the marginalised in society from these marginal and diminished places. The first century world in which Jesus lived was a hostile environment for disabled people. A hostile environment into which Jesus spoke words of liberation and freedom. As disabled people in 2025 find themselves living in an experience of increasing hostility and marginalisation, the challenge we are presented with as the church is to ask: ‘how can we continue this liberatory ministry today?’
How can we as the Christian church, following the great liberator of disabled people, offer that same liberation today? Not seeking to offer cure or ‘normalisation’ to disabled people, but offering liberation and value to all people just as they are. How can we say to all people, regardless of embodiment or cognitive ability: ‘you are a child of God. You are made in God’s image and that ‘Imago Dei’ shines brightly from you to enrich who we are as the church and, with you amongst us, make us more whole as the Body of Christ.
As you listen to and read the stories and articles and information that we will present during this disability focus month, we hope you will be inspired to explore how your church or fellowship can become a counter cultural place of liberation and welcome for Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people and those who face mental health challenges. You can explore the downloadable resources and information on the disability ministry area of the diocesan website.
And you can contact John Beauchamp, the Diocesan Disability Ministry Enabler at john.beauchamp@london.anglican.org or 07516502028 for conversations and advice about your personal experience of disability and ministry and for support to set out on the journey towards becoming a liberatory community for disabled people.
