Uncertain times call for greater financial security for those who need it most - Paul Kissack

How they rise to the moment and focus on what really matters is what’s remembered after the dust has settled.

In an increasingly uncertain world, rocked by tariffs and military threats, it’s right that the government focuses on our national and economic security.

Doing so is essential for achieving some sense of safety and stability when so much of what we have taken for granted globally is shifting.

But the sense of security felt by British families isn’t only about the strength of our nation in a changing international context.

It is also about whether we – as individuals and families – have a decent financial foundation on which we can build lives of dignity, hope and aspiration.

Any Government’s focus on national and economic security must therefore always be matched by an equal commitment to the financial security of individual households and citizens.

Especially in periods of uncertainty. And especially for the families least able to bear the ups and downs of these volatile times.

Our social security system, developed over more than a century, was created for exactly that purpose. It is meant to give all of us peace of mind: using our collective strength and resilience as a nation to shield individuals from the worst forms of insecurity.

It should mean that if any of us suffers a setback – like losing our job or our health condition worsening – we’re protected from hardship.

But, following years of cuts to working-age benefits, that system is no longer doing the job it was set up to do. And the Government’s recently announced cuts to disability benefits are set to pile more pressure on people who are already struggling to cope.

Disabled people already face a much higher risk of living in poverty compared to people without a disability. Almost two thirds of people living in destitution, the most severe form of poverty, live with a chronic health problem or disability.

The cuts to disability benefits could affect hundreds of thousands of people across Yorkshire.

The Government’s own analysis estimates that 250,000 people could be pushed into poverty nationally, although our analysis at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests the increase could be closer to 400,000.

Leaving disabled people without vital support robs them of a secure, decent life. And a weak safety net that doesn’t support those who need it most has more far-reaching consequences. It leaves all of us worse off – individually and collectively more vulnerable to the next storm on the horizon.

The choices we make in difficult times are what define us. Will we see the current Government choosing to make the least well-off bear the burden of uncertainty?

Or will we see an administration that channels deeper values of collective resilience, renewing its commitment to ending the moral scar of food banks and reducing the number of children living in poverty?

It makes no sense to dismantle the protections within our social security system right when we need them most. If a government is to keep all of us safe, it can’t turn away from its responsibility to people experiencing hardship.

Our social security system is not an expense to be avoided, it’s an investment in our country’s collective security and our future potential. It’s time we saw its value in protecting all of us.

Paul Kissack is the group chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.