Latest news with #benefitsreform
BBC News
7 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Row after only welfare cuts consultation event in Wales cancelled
A disability people's rights group has hit out after the UK government cancelled the only in-person event it had planned in Wales to gather views on its benefit cutting are consulting on reforms to disability benefits, which could affect almost 190,000 people in Wales said the cancellation of the event in Cardiff "silences disabled people across Wales - those who would be most affected".The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the views and voices of sick and disabled people "are at the heart of our reforms". It said it was seeking to rearrange the meeting - an email seen by the BBC said the DWP was arranging a new Wales-only event for the end of June. Figures from data analytics company Policy in Practice estimated that incomes of people in Wales could be cut by £466m by 2029/30 via the reforms, affecting 6% of the its consultation on the plans the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) planned to hold a series of ticketed in-person events, including one in Cardiff on Tuesday.A copy of an email shared with the BBC from the DWP said there had been an "unexpected last minute cancellation by the venue".It has offered "priority space" for individuals to take part in virtual Wales said on social network X that it was "aghast" at the decision."This decision silences disabled people across Wales - those who would be most affected by these devastating changes"."An online alternative is no substitute for meaningful accessible face-to-face engagement".Sioned Williams, of Plaid Cymru, said it was "proof of Labour's contempt towards Wales".A DWP spokesperson said: "We will never compromise on protecting people who need our support, and our reforms will mean the social security system will always be there for those who will never be able to work, and that their income is protected."We are working to rearrange the event in Wales as part of a series of face to face and virtual consultations, so the views and voices of sick and disabled people are at the heart of our reforms."
The Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Tories will join with rebel Labour MPs and vote AGAINST welfare cuts to try to defeat Keir Starmer
TORY leader Kemi Badenoch will attempt to inflict a humiliating defeat on Sir Keir Starmer by ordering her MPs to vote against the sickness welfare cuts. The Conservatives will team up with Labour rebels in a bid to defeat the package, which is expected to shave £5billion off the bloated benefits bill. 1 Around 100 Labour MPs have signed a letter to Sir Keir warning that they will not support his cuts when the vote comes before Parliament later this month. The PM has a working majority of 165, while the Tories have 120 MPs. It means that if the Conservatives team up with a large band of Labour rebels they could inflict a defeat. The Tories will oppose the plans on the basis that the cuts do not go far enough. A government source said: 'We could lose the vote if the Tories team up with Labour MPs to vote against the measures. "The rebellion is going to be awful. There will be MPs in tears. It will breed some real resentment towards No10 and it could even cause a permanent rift.' Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has claimed the reforms will get more people into work and protect the benefits system. Speaking earlier this month, she said: 'Unless we reform the system to help those who can work to do so, unless we get social security spending on a more sustainable footing . . .the risk is the welfare state won't be there for people who really need it in future.' Britain's welfare bill has ballooned since Covid. According to official estimates, taxpayers will have to pay a staggering £70billion a year on working-age sickness and disability benefits by 2030.
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Starmer has made tax rises inevitable
Sir Keir Starmer is no stranger to U-turns. In his time as Labour leader, the Prime Minister has reversed course on nationalisations and tuition fees, among other policies, to howls of outrage from some in his party. Each time, he has emerged with his authority consolidated. His latest reversal is different. Sir Keir's attempt to cut winter fuel payments has ended in the face of a threatened rebellion from the Left, leaving a hole in his budget, and his authority in tatters. The substance of the U-turn – with details still to be announced – matters less than the symbolism. Having forced their leader to back down once, backbench MPs will smell blood in the water. What was already shaping up to be a formidable row over benefits reform now has the potential to become unmanageable. The Government is currently planning to impose £4.8 billion in welfare cuts by tightening the rules on disability benefits, and freezing the rates of payment. That this move is necessary is indisputable. Spending on the Personal Independence Payment has reached £29 billion. On current trends, the bill for working-age people on this benefit will surpass this figure by the end of the decade. But a move being necessary does not mean that the Government will make it. The cut to the winter fuel payment was a small measure expected to save around £1.5 billion each year. Faced with anger from the backbenches, however, Sir Keir found that, despite his majority, he lacked either the stomach for the fight or the means to win it. If the Government cannot make even this small change to the welfare system, what chance is there of it making the sweeping changes we so desperately need? Implementing the reforms of the welfare state required to bring people back into work and cut spending on benefits is one of the most important challenges facing Britain. The Conservatives made gestures in this direction but in the end proved too scared to follow through. Now it appears that Sir Keir, too, is on the run from the welfare lobby, finding it easier to let spending rise than make hard cuts. The long-run implications are grim. If Britain cannot cut spending, it will need to raise revenue. The idea that Labour's first Budget would be a 'one and done' cash grab was always for the birds, and, indeed, Sir Keir yesterday failed to rule out further tax rises later this year. Angela Rayner's dream list of tax rises now stands a strong possibility of becoming Britain's waking nightmare.
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Benefit cuts key to fighting Reform in Red Wall, claims Kendall
Labour's benefits overhaul is the right strategy to fight off Reform UK in the Red Wall, Liz Kendall has said. The Work and Pensions Secretary said that 'a future dependent on benefits alone is not good enough for people in Blackpool, Birkenhead or Blaenau Gwent' in defence of her controversial plans for reform. She declared that, in pushing through the benefits cuts and overhauling the system, Labour would win over voters who think 'politics doesn't matter and that politicians are all the same'. Her words come amid a growing rebellion within Labour against Ms Kendall's plans, with more than 100 MPs demanding that the Government should change course or risk a defeat in the Commons. The proposals will mean the most disabled adults could claim personal independence payments (PIP) and under-22s would become ineligible for Universal Credit. The Disability Poverty Campaign Group has circulated analysis among Labour MPs that showed that for over 200 of them, their majorities are smaller than the number of PIP claimants in their constituency. Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to U-turn on the winter fuel payment, saying at Prime Minister's Questions that more pensioners would become eligible for the payment. The move will be seen as a concession to backbench critics who opposed the widely unpopular policy and blamed it for the poor results at this month's local elections. In a speech in central London on Wednesday, Ms Kendall said: 'The villages, towns and cities, especially in parts of the Midlands and the North whose economies have still not recovered from the 1980s and 1990s are where economic demand remains weakest. 'Places that are full of talent and ambition, but which need the investment – in jobs, infrastructure, skills, and public services – to build a better life for themselves and their communities. 'People in this country rightly demand change. But populist politics, the politics of division and easy but empty solutions, won't deliver the change people are crying out for, because a future dependent on benefits alone is not good enough for people in Blackpool, Birkenhead or Blaenau Gwent. I am confident we will deliver.' PIP recipients accounted for 10 per cent of adults in Red Wall seats at the beginning of this year, compared to 7 per cent across the country as a whole. All MPs in Blackpool, Birkenhead and Blaenau Gwent are from Labour, but signs have emerged that Reform is gaining in those areas. Lancashire county council, which covers Blackpool, is now controlled by Reform, and Labour lost 187 councillors at the local elections. Reform also came second in the general election in Blackpool South, whose MP Chris Webb declared that Ms Kendall's reforms were 'devastating' and 'not what any of us stood on in the manifesto'. In Blackpool South, almost a third of the population is on Universal Credit, and over 14 per cent receive PIP. In Birkenhead, Merseyside, 27 per cent of working age adults are on Universal Credit and almost 15 per cent on PIP. An even greater proportion of adults in Blaenau Gwent receive PIP, at 16 per cent. Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, has made an effort to target voters in Wales ahead of the Senedd elections next year. Labour won all but one of 32 Red Wall seats, which broadly overlapped with those lost in the 2019 election, according to categorisation from Redfield and Wilton. But its vote share was not convincing, gaining just 42 per cent of the vote as a whole, whilst Reform gained 23 per cent. Ms Kendall said: 'They need real hope built on real solutions. That is what this Labour Government is doing – tackling problems that have been ducked or ignored for too long, because the failure to do so is precisely why people think politics doesn't matter and that politicians are all the same.' Mr Farage pledged at the general election to lift the threshold at which income tax is charged to £20,000 a year from the current £12,571. His broader proposals for welfare are unclear, but he drew criticism earlier this month after he said that there was an overdiagnosis of 'mental illness problems and those with other general behavioural disabilities'. But Unison, Britain's biggest union, came out against Ms Kendall and said that the benefit cuts were 'unpalatable'. Christina McAnea, the general secretary, said: 'Ministers now need to look again at their unpalatable welfare cuts. The wrongs of previous Conservative administrations won't be righted by going after the most vulnerable in society. 'Employment support might get some people back into jobs, but it's not enough to justify the severity of cuts faced by the many disabled people who need that support to work.'
