21st May 2025 06:45
(Alliance News) - The UK Work & Pensions Secretary will stand firm on Labour's GBP5 billion plans for welfare cuts on Wednesday, arguing that reform is needed to make sure the system survives.
Liz Kendall is expected to say there is a "risk" the welfare state would collapse without the proposed changes, which include tightening the eligibility criteria for the main disability benefit in England, the personal independence payment, Pip.
Restricting Pip would slash benefits for about 800,000 people, while the sickness-related element of universal credit is also set to be cut.
The package of measures is aimed at reducing the number of working-age people on sickness benefits, which grew during the pandemic and has remained high since.
The government hopes the proposals can save GBP5 billion a year by the end of the decade.
"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 the future," she is expected to say in a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank.
She will say the government is "grasping the nettle of welfare reform. Not for the sake of it, but to save it".
The aim is to give people "opportunities" so they can "build a better life", she will say.
The government appears intent to press ahead with the plans amid mounting opposition.
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.
In a separate, earlier letter, 42 MPs said the cuts were "impossible to support".
Rachel Reeves's local Labour party, Leeds West & Pudsey Constituency Labour Party, CLP, has, meanwhile, agreed to write to the chancellor voicing its opposition to the cuts.
In a motion seen by the PA news agency, the CLP said disabled people "are not responsible for the state of the national finances and should not be made to pay the price for Tory economic mismanagement".
Media reports have suggested ministers could remove the two-child benefit cap or reconsider its decision to means-test the winter fuel payment for pensioners to placate Labour rebels.
By Helen Corbett, PA Political Correspondent
Press Association: News
source: PA
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