Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has announced radical welfare changes to get more people into work and save £5 billion by the end of 2030. The changes include tightening the eligibility criteria for disability benefits, scrapping a controversial benefits assessment, and raising the basic rate of universal credit while cutting the higher rate for those too ill to work. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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NewsTranscript
00:00It's been just under five months since Chancellor Rachel Reeves presented her first budget.
00:07It must feel much longer ago to the Labour government.
00:10Since their announcement to raise taxes and borrow more to finance public services back
00:15in October, the cost of borrowing has gone up, economic growth has been poor, and Donald
00:21Trump's return to the White House has shaken the global economy and European security.
00:27In October, the Office for Budget Responsibility told the government they had £10bn of leeway
00:34to avoid breaking its own self-imposed borrowing rules.
00:37Earlier this month, the OBR said that headroom has now vanished, and benefits have become
00:43the latest target of the government's aggressive cost-cutting measures ahead of next week's
00:48spring statement.
00:50£48bn was spent on benefits last year. That's forecast to rise to £67bn by 2030.
00:58The number of people claiming sickness or disability benefit has also risen from 2.8
01:04million in 2019 to 4 million today.
01:08Welfare reforms, the government says, are necessary, but have left many recipients feeling
01:17nervous.
01:18Millions of people who could work, trapped on benefits, denied the income, hope, dignity
01:25and self-respect that we know good work brings. And taxpayers paying millions more on the
01:32costs of failure.
01:34The government says it will get rid of what it calls perverse incentives, encouraging
01:38people into welfare.
01:40We will scrap the WCA in 2028. In future, extra financial support for health conditions
01:48in universal credit will be available solely through the PIP assessment. So extra income
01:55is based on the impact of someone's health condition or disability, not on their capacity
02:00to work.
02:02It will also rebalance universal credit, reducing premiums for new claimants and increasing
02:08them for those with severe conditions. More than £1bn of savings will be spent on helping
02:13people get back to work.
02:15And lastly, there are Personal Independence Payments, or PIP, claimed by 3.2 million people
02:21with disabilities to help with extra costs. The eligibility criteria for these will be
02:27tightened, with more frequent assessments for some.
02:31The Conservatives say these measures don't go far enough.
02:35The fact is, £5bn just doesn't cut it with a bill so big going up so fast. She needed
02:41to be tougher. She should be saying, no more hard-working taxpayers funding the family
02:47next door not to work.
02:49Murray Golder works for Royal Mail, but qualifies for PIP because of his epilepsy. He says reform
02:55of the system is needed, but worries about budget cuts.
02:58They may need money for defence and stuff like that, but I don't see how they've come
03:02to the conclusion that you should then go and attack disabled people and the allowances
03:08that helps a lot of them get on with their day-to-day life.
03:12Charities too are concerned about what these savings might mean for the most vulnerable
03:16in society.
03:18We know that already many disabled people who make use of the welfare system rely on
03:22food banks, are unable to heat their homes. We remain concerned that that's going to continue
03:28and possibly even increase.
03:30The government says today's reforms aim to save £5bn by the end of 2030. However, they've
03:37angered many of their own MPs, who worry they will make life harder for millions across
03:42the country.