Keir Starmer is facing a rebellion over plans to axe £5 billion from welfare as the government scrambles to balance the books.
Labour MPs have been warned of ‘deep concern’ over ‘draconian’ curbs, and details are expected to be announced as soon as tomorrow.
Liz Kendall is set to declare that workers who lose their jobs should receive more than long-term claimants. Check-ups on sickness payment recipients are also expected to be bolstered.
While disability subsidies could be frozen in cash terms, most of the savings are probably going to come from making it more difficult to receive personal independence payments.
Ministers have been making the ‘moral’ case for reforming welfare, with Rachel Reeves pointing to the near-million young people not in education, employment or training.
The Chancellor is fighting to sidestep the need for more tax rises at the Spring Statement later this month, after delaying economic growth and increasing debt costs wreaked havoc with her Budget plans.
She is also under immense pressure to ramp up defence spending amid increasing alarm at the US withdrawing support from Europe and doing deals with Russia.
Health and disability benefits in sicknote Britain are expected to cost more than £100 billion a year by the end of the decade – which would be more than the defence budget even after Keir Starmer’s recent boost.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimated in October that the cost of long-term sickness handouts will increase from £64.7 billion in the 2023-24 financial year to £100.7 billion in 2029-30.
That would be about 3 percent of GDP, while Labour has committed to spending 2.5 percent by 2027 and looking towards 3 percent after the next election.
Speaking to the BBC’s Westminster Hour on Sunday, Labour MP Rachel Maskell said colleagues were ‘deeply concerned’ about the prospect of changes to the system.
She told the programme: ‘We recognise the economic circumstances that we’re in and the hand that we were given and of course it is right that the Chancellor has oversight over all those budgets but not at the expense of pushing disabled people into poverty.’
She added: ‘There’s got to be a carrot approach, not a stick approach.
‘We’ve got to make the right interventions and that doesn’t start with the stick.’
Ms Maskell said that she had ‘picked up […] deep deep concern’ from colleagues and called for a ‘compassionate system and not taking just draconian cuts’.
There are assertions that up to 80 MPs are prepared to fight the reforms.
The government wants to create a new, time-limited benefit for those who find themselves out of work after paying into the system, dubbed ‘unemployment insurance’.
It will have a lower age limit – probably about 22 years – with different support set to be announced for out-of-work youngsters.
The goal is for people who have contributed to the system to benefit from it more than those who have not.
Nonetheless, there will be exceptions for people with serious disabilities that prevent them from working.
After World War II, the welfare system had a far greater contributory component, but governments of all stripes have been progressively reducing it.
Liz Kendall, the secretary for work and pensions, is expected to announce to the Commons later this week, possibly tomorrow.
She is aiming to save roughly £5 billion from the welfare bill, with the majority of the cuts expected to come from changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
A crackdown on personal independence payments is expected to tighten rules, potentially affecting those with conditions like anxiety and depression.
The rate of PIP will also be frozen in cash terms, rather than going up 1.7 percent like other benefits.
A Work Capability Assessment is administered to new sick benefit applicants and is intended to be repeated periodically.
That gap is meant to range from six months to three years, depending on the severity of the illness. Some 607,000 repeat assessments were carried out in 2019, but that nosedived during COVID and last year is believed to have been about a third of that level.
According to the OBR, the decline in checks is the primary cause of the increase in claims; Ms Kendall’s aides told the Telegraph that she is investigating measures to increase checks.
Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden said yesterday that without action four million people would be on long-term sickness benefits.
‘There are 2.8 million people on long-term sickness benefits,’ he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
‘We are an outlier in the UK and not in a good way. We’re the only G7 country that hasn’t recovered its pre-pandemic rate of employment and we’re the Labour Party.
‘We believe in work. We believe in the good that a good job can do for people. We don’t believe it is good that if somebody could work with a bit of support that they’re left to live a life on benefits.
‘200,000 of those 2.8million have told us they would work tomorrow with the right support. So, we’ve got to reform the system, because if we don’t, the trajectory of standing back and doing nothing is that it won’t be 2.8 million in a few years, it will be over 4 million people. We can’t allow that to happen.’
A government source said: ‘The challenge we inherited and the case for change is stark.
‘When this Government took office last July, more than 9.3 million working-age people were out of work and not looking for employment – that’s more than the entire population of London. 2.8 million of those were out of work due to long-term sickness – the highest in the G7.’
The UK will run out of money unless it begins to repatriate illegal immigrants.
Given that housing and caring for migrants costs billions of pounds and that many of them are economic migrants who have no desire to contribute to our nation or community, Rachel Reeves ought to reduce the budget for migrants.
I simply don’t see why our own citizens are homeless but migrants get all they want. What’s the point of repeatedly giving to them? This merely invites them over, and when they get what they want, who can blame them?
I observe people fighting and disputing with one another in the interim, while the elite is getting away with anything they want while we are fighting. It’s a tried-and-true method of inciting conflict among us.
Instead of targeting people with lifelong disabilities and health conditions, Rachel Reeves would do better to stop paying for migrants in hotels. That would plug the supposed hole. They should start addressing the elephant in the room!
People who are ill or disabled are being targeted, particularly those who are seriously disabled and simply cannot work. Every disabled person I know—and I know a good many of them—would trade their PIP for the ability to be physically healthy and lead a “normal life” without hesitation.
There must be protests at Westminster, Downing Street, and the doorsteps of lawmakers.
There are many people, however, who hate British retirees, the sick, and the disabled, and they are quite pleased that we spend £5.5 million per day on hotels for all of the economic migrants who live in our nation and receive everything for free, including our NHS care.
Put an end to this Net Zero craziness. Put an end to unauthorised immigration. Turn the budget around.
Meanwhile, people have been paying their National Insurance to get their pension for 45 years or more but will never get a penny from it – of course, our government need to hold on to that money (our money) so that they can give it to the 1600 boat people that have arrived this week!
Why should a family or individual who has never made contributions to the social system be granted benefits upon arrival in the UK?
Many migrants are not able to speak any English, and many do not work or intend to work.
Although they will never make any contributions to the UK economy, the state will provide them with welfare payments, housing, healthcare, and other benefits at no cost.
The UK cannot afford to maintain this kind of generous giving.
And why does every photo of a Labour minister show them with a smug grin on their faces? Let’s be real, they have nothing to be smug about.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 