As the Labour Party Conference draws the nation’s political gaze to Liverpool, the city’s Walton constituency finds itself at the epicenter of a critical debate about the UK’s disability benefits system—a debate that stretches far beyond the conference’s bright lights. For thousands in Walton and across the UK, the struggle to access Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not just a policy question, but a daily battle for dignity, security, and basic well-being.
James, a 59-year-old former builder from Walton, knows this struggle all too well. After returning to work post-lockdown, he began suffering from unexplained calf swelling. Despite repeated visits to the doctor and even a hospital trip, he received little clarity about his condition. Over two years, his legs would give way without warning, eventually forcing him out of work. Yet, when he applied for PIP—a benefit designed to support those with disabilities—he was repeatedly denied. “I just kept getting knocked back, six points, four points, three points,” James told Big Issue. “I gave up in the end, I said we’ve tried everything.”
James’s story is echoed by Diane, a wheelchair user who endured three PIP rejections and a seven-year wait before finally receiving support after a court case. Layla, whose husband was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, also found herself lost in the maze of benefits applications, initially filling out her attendance allowance paperwork incorrectly. For many, the process is so convoluted and demoralizing that they simply give up.
That’s where Sue Carson comes in. Carson, 60, runs the Bridge Community Centre in Walton—a lifeline for those navigating the benefits system. Operating out of an old pub, the center is open five days a week, with Carson and her team fighting tirelessly on behalf of local residents. By her own count, they’ve achieved around 180 successful claims a year. “Life’s too short. If you’re entitled and you’ve got that factual, actual information from the GP surgery or the hospitals and everything else, then I will fight for you all day long,” Carson said. “It’s not just about nine til five in here, you’re talking right the way through the night. I get messages one o’clock, two o’clock in the morning, struggling.”
Walton’s need is acute. Of all UK constituencies, it has the highest rate of disability benefits claimants—18.6% of the working-age population, or 12,095 out of 65,056 people, receive PIP. Four Liverpool constituencies—Walton, Knowsley, Bootle, and West Derby—are among the top 15 nationally for PIP claimants. According to Big Issue, nearly £100 million a year in disability benefits is at stake for these areas. Had Labour’s proposed PIP cuts gone ahead, Walton alone would have lost an estimated £26.2 million annually, equating to £403 per person.
The link between poverty and disability is stark. Walton ranks third highest in the country on the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Child poverty has soared, rising from 20.3% in 2015 to 33.1% in 2024—meaning 6,692 children in the area now live in relative poverty, compared to a UK average of 21.8%. Life expectancy tells its own story: a baby born in Walton in 2022 could expect to live 78.23 years, almost three years less than the national average of 81.01 years.
For residents like Diane, PIP is not a luxury but a lifeline. “Mine’s a condition where eventually I’ll be paralysed from the waist down,” she explained. “I’m that severe I don’t have to have the checks every three years.” Without her benefit payments, she’d struggle to leave the house, especially when her mobility scooter breaks down. “If I didn’t have that money, I’d be in the house constantly, and I’d really struggle mentally.” For James, finally receiving support meant he could “go to the shops, buy me daughter something, I can eat decent food.”
The politics surrounding disability benefits are fraught. Labour’s 2025 plan would have tightened PIP eligibility, requiring claimants to score more points on a single measure to qualify. By the government’s own estimates, this would have resulted in 430,000 more people being rejected annually by 2030. However, a revolt from Labour MPs forced party leader Keir Starmer to abandon the plan, at least until the Timms Review concludes in autumn 2026. Pat McFadden, the new Labour secretary, has since promised ongoing assessments and suggested that, with the right support, some long-term disability benefit claimants could return to work.
Mo Stewart, a fellow at the Centre for Welfare Reform and research lead of the Preventable Harm Project, sees a troubling pattern. “Thatcher’s cabinet decided the only way to break the psychological security of the welfare state was to adopt what they called the politics of fear. And every administration since then has been gradually reforming various social security policies to bring in the politics of fear, to make it more and more difficult,” Stewart told Big Issue. “The PIP assessments are diabolical. People have killed themselves because of them. It isn’t easy to get access to PIP. So if a large number of people in any area has been awarded, that means there’s a large amount of chronic ill health in that particular area.”
Community support in Walton extends beyond benefits advice. Jo Abela, who runs the Our House community hub, quit her teaching job in 2019 to address the area’s loneliness, isolation, and food poverty. Her center offers everything from yoga and mental health courses to arts and crafts and computer classes. “We’ve had people that, in my opinion, are entitled to PIP. You see them physically struggling to walk, to breathe. You couldn’t put these people into full-time work, they couldn’t function,” Abela said. Yet, she notes a lack of wider support: “Where else do you send them? Honestly we get people coming in with raggedy envelopes and papers, and they’re upset, and they don’t know where to go.”
Meanwhile, Scotland has charted a different course. As of September 2025, all PIP claimants in Scotland have been transferred to Adult Disability Payment (ADP), administered by Social Security Scotland. Nearly 350,000 claimants had their data securely moved without needing to reapply, and 484,055 people now receive ADP. The Scottish Government touts its approach as rooted in “dignity, fairness, and respect.” Unlike the DWP, which outsources assessments to private firms, Social Security Scotland relies on information from professionals who know the claimant, such as GPs or support workers. Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, emphasized, “We will never seek to balance the books on the backs of disabled people.”
The UK government, for its part, insists it is “fixing the broken welfare system” and increasing support for claimants, including raising Universal Credit and the national living wage. But for many in Walton, the proof is in the day-to-day reality of navigating a system that often feels stacked against them.
Professor David Taylor-Robinson of the University of Liverpool sums up the challenge: “Poverty is the big issue. Either you believe that people are feckless and not working hard enough, and the solution is for people to just buck up and stop claiming benefits. That’s one line of argument. But the evidence shows that people who end up on disability benefits, it’s related to population ill-health.” For those on the ground in Walton, the stakes couldn’t be clearer—or more urgent.
