Liz Kendall has insisted she will press ahead with measures to cut the welfare bill amid Labour pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to change course over the squeeze on benefits and pensioners’ winter fuel payments.
The Work and Pensions Secretary said she will listen to concerns about her plans to save around £5 billion a year but that the system needs to change.
The plans, including tightening eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip) benefit, have faced stiff resistance within Labour.
Some 100 Labour MPs – more than a quarter of the party’s parliamentary numbers – are reported to have signed a letter urging ministers to scale back welfare cuts under consideration, while charities have also warned about the impact the measures will have.
Sir Keir and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are already battling a backlash over the means-testing of pensioners’ winter fuel payments, an issue which has been blamed for contributing to Labour’s poor performance in May’s local elections and the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
At Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons on Wednesday, Sir Keir indicated a partial U-turn is being planned, with widened eligibility for the winter fuel payment.
But Ms Kendall insisted the changes to benefits are necessary to protect the system from collapse.
Restricting Pip would slash benefits for about 800,000 people, while the sickness-related element of Universal Credit is also set to be cut.
In a speech in London, Ms Kendall said: “We are the only economy in the G7 whose employment rate still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, and spending on sickness and disability benefits in most other comparable countries is either stable or falling since the pandemic, yet ours continues to inexorably rise.
“There is nothing Labour about accepting the cost of this economic – but above all, social – crisis, paid for in people’s life chances and living standards.”
She acknowledged that “welfare reform is never easy and it is rarely popular, perhaps especially for Labour governments”.
But she said: “No responsible Labour government can resile from taking decisions because they are too difficult, because this is not good enough for the people we came into politics to serve.”
The Cabinet minister said there are 1,000 new Pip awards every day – ”the equivalent of adding a city the size of Leicester every single year”.
“This is not sustainable or fair for the people who need support and for taxpayers,” 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, and unless we ensure public money is focused on those with the greatest need and is spent in ways that have the best chance of improving people’s lives, the risk is the welfare state won’t be there for people who really need it in future.”
Organisations representing disabled people said they are disappointed that the Government has decided to push ahead with its welfare reform plans despite criticism.
National disability charity Sense said the Government’s reforms to save the system for the future presents a risk it “won’t be there for disabled people who desperately need it today”.
Tom Marsland, the charity’s head of policy, said the plans are “cruel and unfair” and urged a rethink.
He added: “We agree that the welfare system isn’t currently working for disabled people – but increasing the number of disabled people in poverty will never be the solution.”
The MS Society said it is “disappointed by the Government’s decision to double down on harmful benefits cuts in the name of cost-saving”.
It described Pip as a “lifeline for many of the 150,000 people living with MS in the UK”, helping with extra costs such as carer visits, and said cutting it “will result in people being forced to leave work, lose their independence, or even be pushed into poverty”.
Citizens Advice accused the Government of a “misguided dash for short-term savings” and said the reforms will “make problems harder and more expensive to solve in the long run”.
