Benefits cuts – live: Fury over ‘immoral’ reforms as Labour slash £5bn off welfare

Ahead of Labour’s crunch Spring Statement, details of the rumoured cuts to welfare have grown rife.

Estimates of what the government is hoping to save have continued to grow – now sitting at around £6 billion – with health and disability related benefits understood to be at the heart of the changes.

Reforms to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) have now been widely reported, although Labour MPs are understood to be divided on the cost-cutting package. Claimed by 3.6 million people, the payment is designed to help people with extra costs incurred by their disability, whether they are working or not.

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The analysis by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies comes as work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will unveil plans to slash benefits by around £5bn.

The government has already indicated that it will focus on working-age welfare claimants, particularly those claiming disability and incapacity welfare payments, with fears that the annual bill for these benefits will hit £70bn by 2030.

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The Tory leader claims that she was one of “just a handful” of MPs to raise concerns about the lack of a plan to hit the 2050 environmental targets when they were introduced by Theresa May’s government.

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Beyond that principle, however, there lies countless choices about the way benefits should be paid, and especially to those that help people with disabilities and long-term sickness cope with the challenges that face them. Genuine compassion should not be sacrificed as Liz Kendall, the secretary of state for work and pensions, proceeds with the changes she proposes in her green paper.

Even if these reforms are increasingly being forced on the government by economic circumstances, and the state of the public finances, the books cannot be balanced on the backs of the most vulnerable in society.

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“The public made it very clear that the Conservative Party needed some time away from government,” she said of the general election defeat. “Our job now is to use that time wisely – just as Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron did in the generations past.”

This is a good tone for the leader of a defeated party to adopt. The first rule of rebuilding after losing an election is to accept that the voters were right. In Badenoch’s case, such was the scale of the defeat that this inevitably sounds like accepting that the party is going to be out of power for at least two parliaments.

Read the full analysis from John Rentoul here:

Liz Kendall’s package of welfare reforms, expected to save £5bn, are part of the government’s plan to slash the benefits bill and encourage people back into work. But what exactly was announced?

The government ruled out freezing or means testing personal independence payments (PIP), but announced they will significantly tighten access to the benefit A new ‘Right to try’ scheme to allow people to find work without risk of losing benefits An increase in benefit claim reassessments, which will be done face-to-face, while those with the lifelong health conditions will never be reassessed A ‘Keep Britain Working’ review to help establish what employers can do to keep people in employment The work capability assessment (WCA) will be scrapped in 2028 Ministers will launch a consultation a on merging jobseekers allowance and employment support allowance, allowing people who have paid into the system to get higher benefit payments

We all know that there used to be no such thing as “society” because there was an individualistic “thing” called Thatcherism: a body of values, attitudes and policies personified by Margaret Thatcher.

Should we, I wonder, now be speaking of “Starmerism”?

The answer to that, after a mere eight months of Labour government, is obviously “not yet” – it’s far too early. But what is emerging is a remarkable infusion of populism into Starmer’s very traditional and conventional brand of social democracy.

Read the full analysis from Sean O’Grady here:

Many disabled people have been led to “breaking point” following recent discussions around the Government’s plans to overhaul the welfare system, a Labour MP has said.

Imran Hussain, MP for Bradford East, said: “The reality remains that over the last few weeks, thousands of the most severely disabled people in my constituency and millions across the UK, have watched in disbelief as politicians debate cuts to the support that enables their very survival, leaving many at breaking point.

“Does the Secretary of State understand the real fear and distress that this has caused? And will she today, from that despatch box, commit to ensuring that not a single person who currently receives Pip now is unfairly punished or left struggling by these plans?”

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall replied: “I do understand the worry and anxiety, and I hope I’ve made it clear to the House today, I don’t start from a position of being tough, I start by precisely from a position of compassion.

“Compassion for people who can work, who are denied, being denied opportunities, and … compassion for severely disabled people who will never work, which is one of the reasons why we’re overhauling our safeguarding processes and ensuring those who can never work are never reassessed to give them the confidence and dignity they deserve.”