It’s no wonder disability organisations are pulling back from the government’s weaponised consultation on cuts – it denies them the chance to argue against the worst parts of it.

The Labour government is acting dismayed at the response – but is it really?

Here’s the BBC:

Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations have told the BBC they are considering stepping back from working with the government over proposed benefit cuts.

The organisations, known as DDPO’s which are run for and by disabled people, say there has been a lack of genuine engagement from the Labour government.

Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability, said the government needs the opinions of disabled people to move forward.

The Spring Statement, announced in March, outlined that a benefit shake-up to make savings of £5bn would include tightening eligibility for Personal Independence Payment, a non-means tested benefit to support people with everyday tasks. It also outlined that people under the age of 22 could be prevented from claiming Universal Credit top-up payments for health conditions.

Other planned changes include freezing extra payments for existing claimants of Universal Credit and almost halving them for new applicants.

The government says some of the money saved will be reinvested into work programmes targeting youth unemployment.

Alongside the 12-week consultation, which ends on 30 June, the government has announced the formation of “collaboration committees” which will involve civil servants working with disability experts and those with lived experience to “provide discussion, challenge, and recommendations” to inform government proposals.

Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, a DDPO, said there was an “anger and sense of betrayal” felt by millions of disabled people over the cuts which she described as “the Government’s massive attack on the incomes of disabled people”.

Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, another DDPO… said: “Massive cuts to financial support will push disabled people, including children, into poverty, the government is not even consulting on the most significant cuts”

That’s the nub of the matter:

The government claims to be consulting disabled people, but the most damaging elements of these reforms — the cuts themselves — aren’t even part of the consultation. This isn’t real engagement, it’s optics. You can’t build inclusive policy by excluding people from decisions that affect their survival.

The consultation does not cover all of the government’s proposals. The most controversial aspects — the actual withdrawal of financial support (like limiting PIP eligibility, halving Universal Credit top-ups for new claimants, and freezing existing extras) — are not up for debate. These fiscal elements are essentially pre-decided, ring-fenced from public input. What is up for consultation are things like implementation details, service design, and work support — the how, not the whether.

This creates a deeply problematic dynamic:

• Disabled people are being invited to “engage” in a process where the most harmful outcomes for them are already locked in.
• It undermines trust — it feels like a box-ticking exercise, not genuine co-production or listening.
• It weaponizes consultation — the government can claim legitimacy and inclusion by pointing to the consultation, even though the central decisions are immune to influence.

No wonder DDPOs are considering walking away. They’re being asked to legitimize a process that could severely harm their communities, and that they weren’t meaningfully included in shaping from the outset.

You can respond to the consultation via the government’s website, here – and if you are disabled, This Writer would certainly invite you to do so – if only to make this point:

You can’t ‘consult’ people on the colour of the axe you’re swinging at them and call it a meaningful dialogue.

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