People 'terrified' by benefit reforms
A Labour politician has said people in his constituency are "terrified" about the chancellor's decision to tighten the criteria for claiming sickness and disability benefits.
Alun Davies, Member of the Senedd for Blaenau Gwent, said residents affected by disability and poverty were already struggling "in making ends meet".
In Wednesday's Spring Statement, Rachel Reeves announced a number of benefit changes, including tightening qualification rules for Personal Independence Payments (Pips) - the main disability benefit - claimed by more than 250,000 people in Wales.
"It scares the most vulnerable people in our society, and that's deeply distressing to see," said Davies.
First minister refuses to back welfare cuts
Reeves criticised by Labour MP on benefits cuts
Spring Statement 2025: Key points at a glance
"What we need to do as a Labour Party is to address the fundamentals in the economy," he told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.
"We're seeing at the moment taxation increasing because the economy is failing.
"People want to work and people want to live decent lives and it's the role of government, surely, to help people do that," said Davies whose Blaenau Gwent constituency has the joint highest proportion of disabled people in Wales, according to census data.
Labour MP Kanishka Narayan, who represents constituents in the Vale of Glamorgan, told TV programme BBC Politics Wales that "change needs to happen" even though he had received emails from people "feeling uncertainty and anxiety".
He said the welfare system is "not getting enough people the support they need to get into work".
"A quarter of people in Wales are working age, not in work or not looking for work – surely that is not a context that anyone can accept," he said.
Speaking on the same programme, Sam Rowlands, Conservative MS for North Wales, said the Spring Statement had been "rushed through".
"We're going to see those people impacted by it not being treated fairly, and we're not going to see the efficiencies that reform in this area would deliver."
Ben Lake, Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Preseli, said it was alarming that "the most vulnerable in society" were being asked to "shoulder the burden" of economic difficulties.
In her address to MPs on Wednesday, Reeves said "it can't be right" to "write off" an entire generation who are out of work and improperly using Pips.
There are two elements to Pips – a daily living and a mobility component – and under the government's proposals, assessments for the daily living part will be tightened, a move the official forecaster – the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – says will affect around 800,000 people.
The chancellor also confirmed health-related universal credit for new claimants - which was already due to be halved from April 2026 under a package announced last week - would be frozen at its new lower level of £50 per week until 2030.
A Department for Work and Pensions assessment found 3.2 million families across England and Wales would be worse off as a result of the changes, with 250,000 more people pushed into relative poverty.
The UK government has said the reforms are aimed at modernising the welfare system, and getting many of those reliant on assistance back into work.
On Friday, Wales' First Minister Eluned Morgan refused to back the chancellor's welfare cuts, telling the Senedd she wanted to "reserve my position" until she knew what the impact would be on Wales.
Morgan also confirmed she was waiting for a response from Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall to her request for a Wales-specific impact assessment and said she was now seeking a meeting with her.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Labour MPs in call for benefits U-turn after change to winter fuel payment cut
Labour backbenchers have called for a Government U-turn on planned disability benefit cuts, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves restored winter fuel payments to a majority of pensioners. Ms Reeves' £1.25 billion plan unveiled on Monday will see automatic payments worth up to £300 given to pensioners with an income less than £35,000 a year. It followed last year's decision to strip pensioners of the previously universal scheme, unless they claimed certain benefits, such as pension credit. Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, warned ministers they risked making a 'similar mistake' if they tighten the eligibility criteria for personal independence payments, known as Pip. Leeds East MP Richard Burgon called on pensions minister Torsten Bell to 'listen now' so that backbenchers can help the Government 'get it right'. In her warning, Ms Whittome said she was not asking Mr Bell 'to keep the status quo or not to support people into work' and added: 'I'm simply asking him not to cut disabled people's benefits.' The pensions minister, who works in both the Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions, replied that the numbers of people receiving Pip is set to 'continue to grow every single year in the years ahead, after the changes set out by this Government'. In its Pathways to Work green paper, the Government proposed a new eligibility requirement, so Pip claimants must score a minimum of four points on one daily living activity, such as preparing food, washing and bathing, using the toilet or reading, to receive the daily living element of the benefit. 'This means that people who only score the lowest points on each of the Pip daily living activities will lose their entitlement in future,' the document noted. Mr Burgon told the Commons: 'As a Labour MP who voted against the winter fuel payment cuts, I very much welcome this change in position, but can I urge the minister and the Government to learn the lessons of this and one of the lessons is, listen to backbenchers? 'If the minister and the Government listen to backbenchers, that can help the Government get it right, help the Government avoid getting it wrong, and so what we don't want is to be here in a year or two's time with a minister sent to the despatch box after not listening to backbenchers on disability benefit cuts, making another U-turn again.' Mr Bell replied that it was 'important to listen to backbenchers, to frontbenchers'. Opposition MPs cheered when the minister added: 'It's even important to listen to members opposite on occasion.' Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin warned that 'judging by the questions from his own backbenchers, it seems that we're going to have further U-turns on Pip and on the two-child benefit cap'. The Tunbridge Wells MP asked Mr Bell: 'To save his colleagues anguish, will he let us know now when those U-turns are coming?' The minister replied: 'What Labour MPs want to see is a Labour Government bringing down child poverty, and that's what we're going to do 'What Labour MPs want to see is a Government that can take the responsible decisions, including difficult ones on tax and on means testing the winter fuel payment so that we can invest in public services and turn around the disgrace that has become Britain's public realm for far too long.' Conservative former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey had earlier asked whether the Chancellor, 'now that she and the Government have got a taste for climbdowns', would 'reverse the equally ridiculous national insurance contribution (Nic) rises, which is destroying jobs, and the inheritance tax changes, which is destroying farms and family businesses'. Mr Bell said: 'This is a party opposite that has learned no lessons whatsoever, that thinks it can come to this chamber, call for more spending, oppose every tax rise and expect to ever be taken seriously again – they will not.' Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey pressed the Government to make changes to the two-child benefit cap, which means most parents cannot claim for more than two children. 'It's the right thing to do to lift pensioners out of poverty, and I'm sure that both he and the Chancellor also agree that it's right to lift children out of poverty,' the Salford MP told the Commons. 'So can he reassure this House that he and the Chancellor are doing all they can to outline plans to lift the two-child cap on universal credit as soon as possible?' Mr Bell replied: 'All levers to reduce child poverty are on the table. 'The child poverty strategy will be published in the autumn.' He added: 'If we look at who is struggling most, having to turn off their heating, it is actually younger families with children that are struggling with that. 'So she's absolutely right to raise this issue, it is one of the core purposes of this Government, we cannot carry on with a situation where large families, huge percentages of them, are in poverty.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Gusto launches $200 million–plus tender offer
Gusto, an HR tech startup valued at more than $9 billion, is conducting an over $200 million tender offer via a new deal led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The tender offer, which begins Monday and runs through July 8, will allow employees in the company to cash out some of their shares while giving the Canadian fund its first stake in the company. 'Given the momentum, we've had investors interested in owning Gusto stock for a long time,' Gusto cofounder and CEO Josh Reeves told Fortune via email. The offer will be open to both current and former employees with a minimum of two years of tenure. Gusto declined to disclose price per share and whether there is a maximum number of shares that employees can sell. The deal was done at Gusto's last valuation, $9.3 billion, and is led by Teachers' Venture Growth, which is part of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. (OTPP, the largest single-profession pension plan in Canada serving over 340,000 current and retired teachers, is also an investor in Canva, Databricks, and SpaceX.) OTPP is the anchor for the deal, and is joined by new and existing Gusto investors. It's a full-circle moment of sorts—Reeves' parents are both teachers. The tender offer, the third that Gusto has arranged for employees since its founding in 2012, comes as the market for initial public offerings remains limited. Several tech companies, including Circle and Omada Health, have had IPOs in recent weeks, but the overall number of public listings remains well below historical norms. Reeves declined to comment on Gusto's IPO plans, telling Fortune: 'Gusto has been a long-term focused, multi-decade company from day one … When we have more details to share on an IPO, we'll share it.' The company's last employee tender offer was in 2021, done in addition to the startup's $175 million Series E funding round. Gusto—founded in 2011 by Reeves, Tomer London, and Edward Kim—has been free cash flow positive since early 2023. As Fortune reported in May 2024, Gusto generated north of $500 million in revenue in its 2023 fiscal year. The company also said that it's been growing over the past year, driven by the expansion of existing products like health benefits and 401(k) management. In 2024, Gusto's 401(k) business grew its ARR, or annual recurring revenue, about 50% year over year, while the unicorn's Gusto Money spending account product grew ARR over 140% year over year. HR tech has recently made headlines for the sprawling legal brawl between HR unicorns Rippling and Deel, but Reeves says that the space itself remains active and bright. In 2025, Reeves added, the company is set to add 150,000 new small businesses to its platform, and is actively hiring, with a particular focus on R&D. 'There is tremendous opportunity in the broader HR tech space,' said Reeves. 'More businesses are being created while at the same time more rules and regulations are being introduced. Gusto can help. I have conviction that there will be multiple $100 billion–plus new companies built in this space, including Gusto. And as a reminder, Intuit is a $200 billion–plus company today; ADP is a $100 billion–plus company today; and Paychex is a $50 billion–plus company today.' This story was originally featured on Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Concerns over £72 million shortfall's impact on council services
A local Senedd Member has raised concerns about a £72 million funding shortfall's effect on council services. Peter Fox has written to Monmouthshire Council's leader regarding the impact of the shortfall in employer National Insurance (NI) funding. The shortfall comes following the UK Government decision to increase NI contributions without providing full funding to local authorities, leaving public sector bodies to pay more to employ staff. Mark Drakeford, Labour's finance secretary, assured in November that additional funding would cover these increased costs. This week, he revealed the UK government would not provide full funding, leaving a £72 million shortfall across Welsh public services. Mr Fox said: "Mark Drakeford assured us that these tax increases would not fall on the public sector, so last week's news was bitterly disappointing. "Local authorities will now face a difficult choice: either cut vital services or raise council tax to cover the extra costs."
