UK govt 'cruelly' cuts disability payments amid tight finances
The Disability Benefits Consortium, an umbrella body representing more than 100 charities and organisations, condemned the "cruel cuts", saying it would become harder for people to afford wheelchairs and carers.
FILE: Britain's Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall delivers a keynote speech on the fourth day of the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool, north-west England, on 25 September 2024. Picture: Oli SCARFF/AFP
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - Britain's Labour government Tuesday announced contested cuts to disability welfare payments, hoping to save more than £5 billion ($6.5 billion) by 2030 as it looks to shore up the public finances.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall told parliament she was delivering a "significant reform package" to help disabled people into work - but some Labour MPs and charities hit out at the changes that notably included how claimants are assessed.
Centre-left Labour, traditionally accused by the right of excess spending on benefits, insists the cutbacks are essential to help fill a black hole of £22 billion ($29 billion) it claims to have inherited from the Conservatives after last year's election win.
Tuesday's announcement came ahead of Finance Minister Rachel Reeves's Spring Statement on 26 March, when billions of pounds of spending cuts across various government departments are set to be detailed.
PANDEMIC FALLOUT
Kendall told parliament that UK spending on benefits "continues to inexorably rise" following the Covid pandemic, while such expenditure is either stable or falling in comparable countries.
Before her announcement, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said "the government could not put off difficult decisions" and that the current benefits system "was not defensible in moral or economic terms".
The Disability Benefits Consortium, an umbrella body representing more than 100 charities and organisations, condemned the "cruel cuts", saying it would become harder for people to afford wheelchairs and carers.
Starmer earlier noted that 10% of working-age people were claiming at least one type of health or disability benefit.
Kendall's welfare reform centres on narrowing eligibility for the Personal Independence Payment - a benefit aimed at helping the disabled.
A total 3.66 million people were entitled to PIP in England and Wales at the end of January, official data showed on Tuesday.
That was up 71% compared with on the eve of the Covid pandemic.
"Every day, there are more than 1,000 new PIP awards," Kendall told MPs.
"That is not sustainable long term," she added.
The minister also said it would become tougher for some people below 22-years-old to access a certain sick benefit that allows them to pass up jobs.
Spending on health and disability benefits for working-age adults is forecast to soar to £75.7 billion in 2029/30 from £48.5 billion in 2023/24, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the country's spending watchdog.
Starmer's spokesman said there had been "a surge... of people applying and reporting anxiety and depression as their main condition".
The OBR said the UK spent £296.3 billion on welfare, including almost half on pensions, in 2023/24.
That was equivalent to almost 11% of UK gross domestic product (GDP).
'GOVERNMENT SHAME'
James Taylor of the disability equality charity Scope said "the biggest cuts to disability benefits on record should shame the government to its core".
He added in a statement: "They are choosing to penalise some of the poorest people in our society. Almost half of families in poverty include someone who is disabled."
Alicia Cartwright, 40, said that without PIP, she would be forced into full-time work.
"Every time in the last 18 years, every single time I've gone full-time, I've ended up in hospital, severely ill," she told AFP following Tuesday's announcement.
The main opposition Conservatives said saving around £5 billion was not enough.
"With a bill so big, going up so fast, she (Kendall) needed to be tougher," responded Tory MP and welfare spokeswoman Helen Whately.
Labour MP Debbie Abrahams insisted there were "more compassionate ways to balance the books rather than on the back of sick and disabled people".
Tuesday's announcement comes after the government recently said it would hike spending on defence, heaping fresh pressure on government coffers in the face of high borrowing costs.