KEIR STARMER TO UNVEIL WATERED DOWN BENEFITS REFORMS

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Sir Keir Starmer will unveil watered-down welfare reforms on Tuesday amid a growing backlash from Labour MPs.

The Prime Minister tonight signed off proposals from Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall which are designed to curb the growth in Britain’s bloated benefits bill.

Downing Street signalled it will press ahead with controversial plans to make it tougher to get disability benefits following a surge in claims related to mental health conditions.

But senior Tories questioned whether the measures will go far enough after the PM bowed to pressure from Labour MPs and the unions to ditch radical measures to bring the welfare bill under control.

Ministers had proposed freezing Personal Independence Payments (PIP) following a dramatic surge in recent years. But the idea provoked a furious response from the Left and is set to be ditched today. Instead, ministers will focus on tightening the eligibility criteria for those claiming the benefit.

Conservative work and pensions spokesman Helen Whately said Labour was ‘divided’ over welfare and ‘cannot deliver the decisive change we need’. She added: ‘The Government’s dithering and delay is costing taxpayers millions every day and failing the people who rely on the welfare system.’

Fellow Tory Andrew Snowden questioned whether there was ‘anything meaningful left’ of the Government’s original plans, following ‘U-turn after U-turn’ in recent weeks.

The new welfare reforms were designed to save £5billion to help Rachel Reeves balance the books in next week’s mini-Budget. The Chancellor said today: ‘Every day an additional 1,000 people are going on to Personal Independence Payments, disability benefits. That is not sustainable.’

She said suggestions that she should relax her fiscal rules instead of looking for savings were ‘not serious’.

Downing Street said there was a ‘moral and economic case’ for a shake-up of the benefits system. But Labour MPs urged the Government to think again. Former frontbencher Diane Abbott called on ministers to impose a wealth tax instead. ‘We need to oppose this entire reactionary project,’ she said.

Fellow Labour veteran Andy McDonald said he had been ‘inundated with emails from constituents making it clear just how terrified they are at the prospect of their social security benefits being frozen or cut’. 

He added: ‘Their lives are a struggle right now and they do not expect a Labour government to make things even harder.’

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham urged ‘caution’ on benefit changes. Mr Burnham said he supported a ‘radical overhaul’ of the welfare system, but said there was ‘no case in any scenario for cutting the support available to disabled people who are unable to work’. 

PIP payments are worth between £1,500 and £9,600 a year to help disabled people with living costs. They are not means-tested and are paid whether someone is in work or not.

The number of people citing mental health conditions as the main reason for their claim has risen from 1.89 million a decade ago to 3.29 million today.

Nearly half of those claiming disability benefits now cite conditions such as anxiety and depression. In future, only the most severely disabled may qualify for the highest payment levels.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Sunday there had been an ‘overdiagnosis’ of some mental health conditions, but No 10 declined to repeat the claim.

The PM’s official spokesman said: ‘We’ve got a duty to fix the system, to ensure that that safety net is always there for the most vulnerable and severely disabled, but also supports back into work, rather than leaving people written off.’

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said saving £5billion from the welfare budget ‘ought not to be so hard’ when it had grown by £20billion since the pandemic.

He told Times Radio: ‘On the other hand, the only way you can really do it is by tightening up on the eligibility criteria... it certainly hasn’t always worked because in the end, there are often ways that you can game the system, ways of getting around.’

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2025-03-17T22:23:31Z