Liz Kendall does not have support from her own Cabinet colleagues to slash welfare spending, the Tories have claimed. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately pressed the Labour minister about whether she had “collective agreement” ahead of plans to cut benefits.
But Ms Kendall refused to answer, insisting only that Ms Whately would have to “show a little patience”. The cabinet minister is on Tuesday expected to confirm Labour’s plan, amid widespread fury from backbenchers over the scale of mooted cuts.
One proposal reportedly under consideration is to save around £5bn by tightening the rules around the personal independence payment (PIP) – a payment of up to £9,000 a year for people with long-term physical and mental health conditions.
Ministers had also reportedly been looking at freezing PIP payments to prevent the payment levels from rising with inflation, as all benefits do, in 2026. However, it is understood that pressure from backbench MPs over the plans has led to this idea being taken off the table.
Ms Whately told the Commons: “We heard yesterday that the Cabinet has not yet seen the welfare plan that (Ms Kendall) is apparently due to announce tomorrow.
“Given all the media briefings, the apprehension of disabled people and the growing number of people not working, none of us would want to see that delayed.
“So can she assure us that she has got collective agreement so she can announce her plan here in this chamber tomorrow?”
Work and Pensions Secretary Ms Kendall said Ms Whately would have to “show a little patience” and criticised the Tories for “never” having a plan on benefits.
Ms Whately countered: “I was listening very hard to that answer and from everything I heard she still doesn’t have the support of her Cabinet colleagues with less than 24 hours to go. It was a no.”
After Ms Whately questioned whether the reforms will “grasp the nettle and bring the benefits bill down”, Ms Kendall criticised the Tories’ record before saying: “Unlike the party opposite who wrote people off and then blamed them to get cheap headlines, we will take decisive action, get people into work and get this country on a pathway to success.”
Spending on disability benefits, which includes disability living allowance and personal independent payments, is forecast to rise from £36.3 billion in 2023/24 (accounting for 12% of the total welfare budget) to £59.4 billion in 2029/30 (16%).
Ms Kendall told the Commons: “MPs will see the proposals soon but we will not shy away from the decisions that we believe are right to give opportunities to people who can work, security for those who can’t and get the welfare bill on a sustainable footing.”
Ms Kendall’s remarks came in reply to Conservative MP Andrew Snowden (Fylde), who claimed the Government appeared to be making “U-turn after U-turn” on its proposed welfare reforms.
Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman Steve Darling asked for assurances that people receiving disability benefits but unable to work will “not face a cut in their benefits”.
Ms Kendall replied: “We know there will always be people who cannot work because of the nature of their disability and their health condition and those people will be protected.”
Neil Duncan-Jordan, MP for Poole, said: “Disabled people often face additional barriers, of course, when it comes to trying to get back into work. Rather than freezing or cutting their benefits, does the minister acknowledge that we will need to invest in those people, to help them, and sustain them, back into work?”
Work and pensions minister Alison McGovern replied: “Yes, I do agree. We see potential in every single person in this country and many of those who have been written-off and left on the scrap heap deserve a much better pathway back into work.”
Ms Kendall said that the number of young people not working because of mental health conditions has risen by more than 25 per cent in the past year.
The work and pensions secretary said the number of young people considered “economically inactive” now totalled 270,000.
But Labour veteran Diane Abbott attacked the Government’s plan to slash welfare spending, claiming it is not a “Labour thing to do”.
She said: “It’s Ed Balls who said recently that cutting the money for disabled people is not a Labour thing to do, and there are very many Labour supporters out there who agree with them.
“When people say that being on benefits, or disability benefits even, is a lifestyle choice, do they know the sort of housing those people live in? Do they know what a struggle is it to live on that money? And do they know how humiliating it can be? Nobody would choose that lifestyle.
“I think being on welfare is very depressing, it’s very humiliating, it sort of brings you down. But I have no sympathy with the idea that the way to get people out of welfare is to cut the money they have to live on. I have no sympathy with the idea that it’s a lifestyle choice.”
Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, said that cutting £5bn from disability benefits would not be easy. He explained: “It ought not to be so hard because we’re spending on something like £20bn more than we were five years ago. So £5bn saving is only a quarter of the extra spending.
“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 it …
“So it should be possible but I don’t think anyone should pretend that it’s easy.”