Latest news with #disabilityBenefits
BBC News
10-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Ban some foreigners from sickness benefits, Badenoch urges
Kemi Badenoch will call for foreign nationals to be barred from claiming disability and sickness benefits, as she sets out plans for tighter curbs on a speech on Thursday, the Tory leader will describe Britain's benefits bill as a "ticking time bomb" that could "collapse the economy".It comes after the party outlined some of its own proposals to reduce spending, after Labour largely gutted its own plan for benefits cuts after a backbench to bring in remaining government cuts to sickness benefits was approved by MPs on Wednesday evening. But other proposals, including changes to the eligibility criteria for disability benefits, have effectively been put on hold. The government announced plans to shrink welfare spending in March, warning the working-age welfare bill was set to rise by nearly £30bn by 2030 and reforms to the system were required to ensure it remained wanted to make it harder to claim personal independence payment (Pip), the main disability benefit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and make health-related top-ups for universal credit less generous. But ministers significantly watered down the cuts earlier this month after a huge rebellion from Labour MPs, all but wiping out savings estimated to be worth £5bn a year by the end of the decade. Plans to freeze the higher rate of universal credit for existing health-related claimants have been reversed, whilst all changes to the Pip system have been parked pending a government review into the assessment her speech on Thursday, Badenoch will accuse Labour of being "beholden to left-wing MPs" and "turning a blind eye" to rising benefit will also seek to create a dividing line with Reform UK over the two-child benefit cap, which Nigel Farage's party has pledged to scrap, branding him "Jeremy Corbyn with a pint and a cigarette"."On welfare he shows his true colours - promising unaffordable giveaways with no plan to fix the system," she is expected to add.A Labour spokesperson said "The Conservatives had 14 years to reform welfare - instead, they left the country with a broken system that holds people back and fails to support the most vulnerable."The party also warned that the Conservative proposal could see disabled British nationals living abroad being denied support if other countries decided to take a similar approach. Tory welfare proposals The Conservatives have not backed the government's legislation to deliver the changes, arguing its proposals do not go far have set out some plans of their own to shrink welfare spending in the form of amendments to the government's plans, which were defeated on include limiting access to Pips and the health-related part of universal credit to those with "less severe" mental health conditions, and preventing claimants from receiving payments without a face-to-face also say both benefits should only be paid to British citizens, with exceptions for those covered by international agreements, such as citizens from EU countries who have acquired settled status in the the moment, foreign nationals gain access to the welfare system when they are granted indefinite leave to remain or refugee status. Applicants for Pip generally need to have lived in Britain for at least two of the last three seekers are not allowed to apply for benefits, although they have access to taxpayer-funded accommodation and separate financial shadow minister Neil O'Brien has said he has obtained figures under freedom of information laws showing universal credit payments to households containing at least one foreign national stood at £941m a month as of working out the exact scale of payments to non-UK nationals specifically is complicated, because the Department for Work and Pensions does not provide a breakdown of claimants by immigration status and the department is due to publish the first such breakdown next week, and has committed to updates every three months thereafter. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
If ministers want to see how welfare reform can be done, come see us in Greater Manchester
One consequence of the recent debate on disability benefits should be the acceptance of a shared responsibility across the Labour family to support the government with alternative approaches to welfare reform. Here in Greater Manchester, where there was strong opposition to the cuts, we accept our responsibility entirely. As clear as the case is for some form of wealth taxation, it would be wrong to make that the only response. The Department for Work and Pensions system didn't work for people before last week's debate and it still doesn't now. What is needed is a unifying version of reform, and we think we can help with that. With a decade of devolution behind us, Greater Manchester is ready to step forward as the UK's first 'prevention demonstrator', showing how we can prevent poor outcomes for residents and rising costs of public services. We are proud to have received that official designation from the government in the 10-year health plan for England, and we are confident we can live up to it. The time has come to break with Whitehall business as usual and build an entirely new model of support. One of the many problems with Whitehall's approach to welfare reform is trying to solve the complex issue of getting more people into work from within the narrow policy silo of the DWP when, in truth, the answers are much more likely to lie outside. This is where Greater Manchester starts. We recognise that the barriers to work our residents face are often linked to issues like housing, personal debt and mental health. Consequently, a whole-person, whole-system approach is the only one that stands any chance of working. This is the philosophy upon which our prevention demonstrator is based – a bottom-up, names-not-numbers approach to supporting people with the essentials needed for a good life. At its heart are three big ideas which we believe, if carried out to their fullest extent, could together score the savings the Office for Budget Responsibility needs to see, as well as financing the removal of the two-child benefit cap. Whereas the Whitehall version of reform focuses on people, and crude cuts to headline rates of support, ours begins with bricks and mortar. I am stunned by the extent to which the media debate on benefits underplays the impact of the housing crisis. It inflates the benefits bill by multiple billions – but is also entirely fixable. The new Greater Manchester strategy, published today, is anchored on the idea of a 'housing first' city region. Without the foundation of a good home, everything in life becomes more difficult for our residents. From now on, housing will be recognised as pre-eminent in public policy. Freeing our city region from the grip of the housing crisis will be our number one priority. What does that mean in practice? It means, for instance, reaching a new tipping point within two to three years of building more social homes than we are losing, alongside a much tougher approach to improving standards in the private rented sector through our new good landlord charter. In an ideal world, we would go much further. The vast majority of the £39bn announced for housing at last month's spending review should be focused on a drive to build a new generation of council homes, rather than subsidise private housing. The evidence is compelling. A 2024 study for the National Housing Federation, carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, found that building 90,000 new social homes would save £3.3bn a year in universal credit over the long term. If the government worked with England's mayors and councils to scale that number up to 500,000, then the recurrent annual saving to the benefits system gets closer to £18bn. Building on this new approach to housing, the second part of our prevention demonstrator involves a paradigm shift in employment support, moving away from a distrustful, tick-box system and towards a more empowering Live Well approach. How is a system which people fear having contact with, and often leaves them feeling worse about themselves, ever going to help them into work? The answer is it won't. Years of tough-on-benefits rhetoric has created a system which people see as being there to trip them up rather than help them out. The only answer is to turn it on its head. We must start with places people trust at a local level, such as community and voluntary organisations, and with the issues in people's lives that are the true barriers to work. This is the essence of Live Well. We know there are thousands of people in Greater Manchester who have completely disengaged from the DWP but, if helped in a different way and particularly with issues that are destructive to their mental health like personal debt, could be supported into work. Our third focus is young people. The appalling statistic of 1 million people not in education, employment or training stands as a damning monument to an education system in England built for some young people but not all. The obsession with the university route, and the failure to provide equal technical paths, leaves many teenagers feeling lost in the middle years of secondary school. Our plan for the Greater Manchester baccalaureate, or Mbacc, seeks to fix that with the guarantee of a 45-day work placement for every young person who wants one. We are confident our prevention demonstrator, in its entirety, could significantly reduce reliance on the benefits system and other public services like the NHS. We have never truly tried prevention in this country. If there was ever a time to give it a proper go, surely it is now? Andy Burnham is the mayor of Greater Manchester. He served as the Labour MP for Leigh from 2001 until 2017
The Guardian
07-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Welfare bill will now lift 50,000 out of poverty after changes, assessment finds
Changes to the welfare bill, made by the government in the face of a mounting rebellion over its proposals to cut disability benefits, will lift 50,000 people out of poverty, an updated impact assessment has found. The prime minister was forced to abandon the central plank of his welfare bill – cuts to the personal independence payment (Pip) – to avert a big Labour rebellion in the House of Commons last week. A new impact assessment by the Department for Work and Pensions has found the change will mean 50,000 fewer people, including children and working age individuals, are in relative poverty after housing costs in 2030. The original government impact assessment on the proposed reforms found they would push an additional 250,000 into poverty, with some charities saying they calculated the figure to be higher. This was amended to 150,000 people after the government made some initial concessions, including reversing some universal credit cuts and only applying the stricter Pip eligibility rules to new claimants, as it tried to quell a rebellion over the changes. In the end, Keir Starmer shelved the main component of the cuts which were expected to save the government £5bn a year, and the Resolution Foundation estimates that the bill as it stands will bring no savings in five years' time. The means the chancellor is facing a large financial black hole, and ministers have said this will come at a cost, with tax rises now predicted. The chief secretary to the Treasury declined to rule out the introduction of a wealth tax when pressed on future tax rises in the Commons on Monday, and said any tax decisions would be set out by the chancellor at the autumn budget. On Sunday, the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said the welfare U-turn may make scrapping the two-child benefit cap more difficult to achieve. 'The decisions that have been taken in the last week do make decisions, future decisions harder,' she said. 'But all of that said, we will look at this collectively in terms of all of the ways that we can lift children out of poverty.'
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Disability claims 'set to soar by more than a million' before the next election after Labour's U-turn... as Tories warn it could lead to the collapse of the entire benefit system
The number of people claiming disability benefits is set to jump by more than a million before the next election following Labour 's welfare climb-down. An official forecast published alongside the Government's benefits bill reveals that ministers believe the number of claims will soar by 40 per cent in the next four years. It suggests the rise could even lead to the collapse of the benefits system, warning there is a real 'risk the welfare state won't be there for people who need it in future' unless spending is brought under control. The warning came as Kemi Badenoch called for a major clampdown on welfare spending. Sir Keir Starmer was forced to abandon plans to trim the benefits bill by £5billion last week following a revolt by Labour MPs. Proposals to tighten the eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will no longer take place. But the forecast suggests that without reform, the number of PIP claimants will jump from 3million to 4.2million by 2029. The cost of PIP payments is predicted to rise from £21.8billion to £34.1billion, while the overall bill for sickness and disability benefits will top £100billion. Tory work and pensions spokesman Helen Whately said: 'The shocking cost of Labour's screeching U-turn on welfare is once again on full display. 'The Government's own impact assessment says that without any action the cost of PIP to the public finances will reach over £34billion by the end of this decade – and now, after Keir Starmer's total surrender to his own party, this increase is baked in.' Yesterday Mrs Badenoch said recent events showed that Labour was 'not serious' about tackling the bloated benefits bill. The Tory leader called for an immediate return to face-to-face assessments for new PIP claims, reversing the online system. And she said that 'low level' mental health issues such as anxiety should not be automatically treated as 'severe conditions' which qualify people for sickness benefits. Mrs Badenoch will use a speech this week to float the idea of halting disability benefits for foreign nationals. Figures show that claims by households with at least one foreign national are running at nearly £1billion a month. Rebel Labour MPs are now plotting to force further concessions this week by removing plans to cut £2billion from Universal Credit (UC) payments. Disabled people and their supporters gather outside the Houses of Parliament for a protest against cuts to welfare benefits as MPs debate and vote today on the government's Welfare Reform Bill at its second reading in London, United Kingdom on July 01, 2025 Richard Burgon said planned changes to UC's health element payment would result in 750,000 vulnerable people losing £3,000 a year. He said: 'We should not balance the books on the backs of sick and disabled people.' Chancellor Rachel Reeves hinted last week that the welfare U-turn would force her to hike taxes again in the autumn, saying there would be 'a cost'. This weekend Sir Keir said it was still 'important we review the system', pointing to a review of PIP which is being led by welfare minister Sir Stephen Timms. But Sir Stephen has said the review will be 'co-produced' with disability campaigners, who bitterly opposed the Government's efforts to cut the benefits bill.
Bloomberg
06-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Starmer Seeks to Hold Line on Spending After Defeat on Welfare
The UK government talked down hopes that the two-child cap on parental benefits might be scrapped, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeks to hold the line on spending after failing to push through separate controversial welfare cuts. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said Labour's decision to water down its disability benefits bill in the face of a significant rebellion from its own members of Parliament had 'come at a cost.' The failure effectively means that £5 billion ($6.8 billion) in planned savings will no longer be made.
