Latest news with #disabilityCuts
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Disability benefit cuts impossible to support, 42 Labour MPs tell Starmer
More than 40 Labour MPs have warned the prime minister that planned disability cuts are 'impossible to support' and have called for a pause and change in direction. The letter from parliamentarians spanning the new intake and veterans, and from the left and right of the party, sets Keir Starmer up for the biggest rebellion of his premiership when the House of Commons votes on the measures next month. There has already been widespread concern among Labour MPs about proposed changes including a significant tightening of eligibility for personal independent payments (Pips), saving about £5bn annually. They would also involve cuts or freezes to incapacity benefits for people who apply for universal credit but are judged unfit to work. According to internal Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) forecasts, the planned disability benefit cuts would affect 700,000 families who are already in poverty. A vote on the proposals is expected in June, and a number of MPs are concerned they are being asked to approve the plans without proper knowledge of the consequences. The letter has so far been signed by 42 Labour MPs, putting the government on course for its biggest rebellion yet. The proposals, set out in a government green paper, have 'caused a huge amount of anxiety and concern among disabled people and their families', according to the letter. 'The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over 3 million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected,' it says. 'Whilst the government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine. Cuts don't create jobs, they just cause more hardship.' The letter calls on ministers to delay any decisions until they see full assessments on the impact of any cuts, and for 'a genuine dialogue with disabled people's organisations to redesign something that is less complex and offers greater support, alongside tackling the barriers that disabled people face when trying to find and maintain employment'. It goes on: 'We also need to invest in creating job opportunities and ensure the law is robust enough to provide employment protections against discrimination. Without a change in direction, the green paper will be impossible to support.' Among the signatories are some MPs on the left of the party such as Diane Abbott and Kim Johnson, but also a series of more centrist backbenchers, and there are 14 from the 2024 intake, including Lorraine Beavers, Cat Eccles, Terry Jermy, Peter Lamb and Simon Opher. The benefit changes, set out by Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, in March, would tighten eligibility criteria for Pips so that people need to score four points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living allowance. Also, while the basic rate of universal credit for those in, or looking for, work would rise by about £15 a week from April 2026, the incapacity benefit would be cut for new claimants judged as unfit for work. Support would be frozen for existing claimants. People under the age of 22 wanting the health top-up of universal credit would no longer qualify under plans being consulted on. Kendall said her department would spend up to £1bn a year extra on helping people back into jobs. When the plans were set out, Debbie Abrahams, the Labour MP who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, warned against 'balancing the books on the backs of sick and disabled people'. While a series of individual backbenchers have voiced their serious concerns about the plans, the letter makes plain the scale of that concern, even if the language of being unable to support the plans holds out the possibility of abstention as well as voting against. Starmer's government has so far only experienced small Commons revolts, in part because of the very robust No 10 response the first time it happened. Downing Street suspended seven MPs from the Labour whip shortly after the general election in July when they voted in favour of a Scottish National party amendment to scrap the two-child benefit limit. A DWP source said: 'At the heart of these reforms is a determination to help more people into work. We understand that there are concerns. 'The secretary of state is engaging and talking to colleagues, explaining why these reforms will help transform people's lives.'
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Disability benefit cuts impossible to support, 42 Labour MPs tell Starmer
More than 40 Labour MPs have warned the prime minister that planned disability cuts are 'impossible to support' and have called for a pause and change in direction. The letter from parliamentarians spanning the new intake and veterans, and from the left and right of the party, sets Keir Starmer up for the biggest rebellion of his premiership when the House of Commons votes on the measures next month. There has already been widespread concern among a number of Labour MPs about proposed changes including a significant tightening of eligibility for personal independent payments (Pips), saving about £5bn annually. According to internal Department for Work and Pensions forecasts, the planned disability benefit cuts would affect 700,000 families who are already in poverty. A vote on the proposals is expected in June, and a number of MPs are concerned they are being asked to approve the plans without proper knowledge of the consequences. The letter has so far been signed by 42 Labour MPs, putting the government on course for its biggest rebellion yet. The proposals, set out in a government green paper, have 'caused a huge amount of anxiety and concern among disabled people and their families', according to the letter. 'The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over 3 million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected,' it says. 'Whilst the government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine. Cuts don't create jobs, they just cause more hardship.' The letter calls on ministers to delay any decisions until they see full assessments on the impact of any cuts, and for 'a genuine dialogue with disabled people's organisations to redesign something that is less complex and offers greater support, alongside tackling the barriers that disabled people face when trying to find and maintain employment'. It goes on: 'We also need to invest in creating job opportunities and ensure the law is robust enough to provide employment protections against discrimination. Without a change in direction, the green paper will be impossible to support. Among the signatories are some MPs on the left of the party such as Diane Abbott and Kim Johnson, but also a series of more centrist backbenchers, and there are 14 from the 2024 intake, including Terry Jermy, Peter Lamb, Simon Opher, Lorraine Beavers and Cat Eccles.
Sky News
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Starmer facing growing backbench rebellion over planned disability benefit cuts
A senior Labour MP has said the government needs to take "corrective action" over planned disability cuts - as Sir Keir Starmer faces a growing backbench rebellion. Tan Dhesi, chair of the influential Commons defence committee, told the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge the "disappointing" local election results show the government must listen and learn, particularly over welfare reforms. The government has proposed tightening the eligibility requirements for the personal independent payment, known as PIP. A claimant must score a minimum of four points on one PIP daily living activity, such as preparing food, washing and bathing, using the toilet or reading, to receive the daily living element of the benefit. Mr Dhesi, the MP for Slough, said "corrective action" needs to be taken but insisted if the government changed tact, it would not be a U-turn as the disability cuts were only proposals. "A government which is in listening mode should be looking at what the electorate is saying," he said. "And we need to make sure that it's our moral duty, responsibility, to look after the most vulnerable within our community, whether that's in Slough, whether that's elsewhere across the country. "So, I hope that the government will be taking on board that feedback and many of us as MPs are giving that feedback in various meetings happening here in Westminster and then we need to take corrective action." Minister Alex Davies-Jones told the Politics Hub a Labour government "will always seek to protect the most vulnerable" and it wants to "listen to people who have got real lived experience". She added she has the "utmost respect for Tan, he's a great constituency MP and he's doing exactly what he should be doing, is representing his constituency". Sir Keir is facing a rebellion from Labour MPs, with about 40 in the Red Wall - Labour's traditional heartlands in the north of England - reposting a statement on social media in which they said the leadership's response to the local elections had "fallen on deaf ears". 8:27 Several backbench Labour MPs also spoke out against the plans during a debate on PIP and disabled people in parliament on Wednesday. Ian Byrne, MP for Liverpool West Derby, said he would "swim through vomit to vote against" the proposed changes and said: "This is not what the Labour Party was formed to do." Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, said she feared tightening PIP eligibility would cause deaths, adding: "Lest we forget that study that attributed 330,000 excess deaths in Britain between 2012 and 2019 to the last round of austerity cuts [under the Conservative government]." Diane Abbott, the longest-serving female MP, accused the government of putting forward "contradictory arguments". "On the one hand, they insist they are helping the disabled by putting them back to work," she said. "But on the other hand, they say this cut will save £9bn. Well, you can't do both." 1:23 However, fellow Labour MP David Pinto-Duschinsky, said MPs cannot "ignore this issue" of health-related benefit claimant figures rising at "twice the rate of underlying health conditions". Responding for the government, social security minister Sir Stephen Timms said PIP claims were set to "more than double, from two million to over 4.3 million this decade". "It would certainly not be in the interests of people currently claiming the benefits for the government to bury its head in the sand over that rate of increase," he added.
