Minister to soften impact of planned disability benefit cuts

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is making changes to her package of welfare reforms in an attempt to reassure Labour MPs who are considering rebelling against the plans.

Kendall has tried to soften the impact of planned benefits cuts worth £5bn a year by 2030 before MPs vote on the government’s welfare changes.

The welfare reform bill will include proposals to make it harder for disabled people with less severe conditions to claim personal independence payment (Pip).

The BBC has been told anybody who loses Pip will receive the payment for a transitional period of 13 weeks, rather than the usual four weeks, before it is removed.

Carer’s allowance will continue to be paid during the 13-week transition, but will be ended when Pip is taken away.

Benefits recipients with the most severe health conditions will not be reassessed and will receive extra income support through a universal credit payment.

A scheme to give disabled people a right to try employment without the risk of losing their benefits will also be introduced at the same time as the welfare reform bill.

Kendall has described these additions as “non-negotiable” protections, which will be added to the bill before it is published next week.

The protections were proposed in the government’s Pathways to Work green paper and consulted on before Kendall decided to add them to the bill.

Kendall told the Guardian newspaper: “When we set out our reforms we promised to protect those most in need, particularly those who can never work.

“I know from my 15 years as a constituency MP how important this is. It is something I take seriously and will never compromise on.

“That is why we are putting additional protections on the face of the Bill to support the most vulnerable and help people affected by the changes.

“These protections will be written into law, a clear sign they are non-negotiable.”

The BBC understands the protections had been raised in discussions between ministers, Labour MPs and disability rights groups.

Dozens of Labour MPs have expressed concerns about the plans to cut Pip payments and the sickness-related element of universal credit (UC).

Many have said they are prepared to vote against the primary legislation the government needs to pass to make the changes to welfare payments.

The welfare package as a whole could push an extra 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, into relative poverty, according to the government’s impact assessment.

Neil Duncan-Jordan is one of 42 Labour MPs who wrote a letter that said the welfare reforms were “impossible to support” if changes were not made.

When asked what he made of the protections Kendall had added to the bill, Duncan-Jordan said: “Poverty delayed is still poverty.”

Another discontented Labour MP, Ian Byrne, said: “After 14 weeks do the disabled and sick affected miraculously end the need for the vital assistance being taken away? An absolute nonsense.”

And Labour MP Rachael Maskell said Kendall had “just restated the proposals in Pathways to Work with a three-month transition before people lose their support”.

She added: “It will therefore not change the material facts nor my intention to vote against.”

Another Labour MP said the added protections will not stop dozens of his colleagues from opposing the bill.

“The whips are pushing very hard with MPs but it’s not working,” the Labour MP said.

But one supportive Labour MP, Alex Ballinger, said Kendall’s protections sounded sensible.

“I welcome these steps on welfare reform,” he said. “I know many living with health challenges have been anxious about the changes, and I hope these additional protections show that the government is listening.

“I support reforms that provide people who want to work extra support to do so, while continuing to protect the most vulnerable.”

Some Labour MPs used the government’s U-turn on winter fuel payments to renew their calls for the planned benefit cuts to be reversed.

But on Thursday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the government would not row back on the cuts.

“We’re not going to be changing that,” she told the BBC. “It is important that we reform the way the welfare state works.”

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says it expects 3.2 million families – a mixture of current and future recipients – to lose out financially, as a result of the total package of measures, with an average loss of £1,720 per year.

This includes 370,000 current Pip recipients who will no longer qualify and 430,000 future claimants who will get less than they would previously have been entitled to.

But ministers have stressed the figures do not factor in the government’s plans to spend £1bn on helping the long-term sick and disabled back into work, or its efforts to reduce poverty.

Ministers hope these efforts will boost employment among benefits recipients, at a time when 2.8 million people are economically inactive due to long-term sickness.

If nothing changes, the health and disability benefits bill is forecast to reach £70bn a year by the end of the decade, a level of spending the government says is “unsustainable”.

The government is planning to put the welfare reforms in place by November 2026 and no one will lose out on benefits payments until that happens.