Liz Kendall says benefits system ‘holding our country back’ and claims plan to crack down on it will save £5bn by 2030 – UK politics live | Politics

Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, told the Commons that she thought the government should be going further.

In her response to Kendall, she said:

This is a now or never chance to seize the moment, a now or never for millions of people who will otherwise be signed off for what could end up being a lifetime on benefits, but this announcement today leaves me with more questions than answers.

How many people will this help back into work? By when? Surely we haven’t been waiting eight months just for another green paper? Where is the fit note reform, crucial to stem the flow of people onto benefits? Where is the action on people being signed off sick for the everyday ups and downs of life?

Why is she only planning to save £5bn when the bill is forecast to rise to over £100bn?

Fundamentally, this is too little, too late. The fact is £5bn just doesn’t cut it. With a bill so big, going up so fast, she needed to be tougher. She should be saying no more hard working taxpayers funding the family next door not to work. No more free top of the range cars for people who don’t need them.

Back in the Commons, Liz Kendall told MPs that impact assessments for her plans would be published alongside the spring statement.

The DWP has now published its 84-page green paper.

Kendall ended her statement by saying the DWP would be spending an extra £1bn on employment support.

This would involve “tailored and personalised support to help people on a pathway to work, the largest ever investment in opportunities to work for sick and disabled people”, she said.

Kendall also said the government would consult on stopping people getting the health top-up for universal credit until they are 22. She said the savings would be “reinvested into work, support and training opportunities so every young person is earning or learning and on a pathway to success”.

Kendall confirmed that the reforms she is announcing will save more than £5bn by 2029-30.

She said the Office for Budget Responsibility would publish its assessment of the savings next week, alongside the spring statement.

Turning to Pip, Kendall said the government had to make the system sustainable.

Social and demographic change means more people are now living with a disability, but the increase in disability benefits is double the rate of increasing prevalence of working-age disability in the country, with claims amongst young people up 150%, for mental health conditions up 190% and claims for learning difficulties up over 400%, according to the IFS.

Every day there are more than 1,000 new Pip awards. That’s the equivalent of adding a population the size of Leicester every single year.

That is not sustainable long term, above all, for the people who depend on this support, but the Tories have no proper plan to deal with this just yet more ill thought through consultations.

So today, I can announce this government will not bring in the Tory proposals for vouchers, because disabled people should have choice and control over their lives.

We will not means test Pip, because disabled people deserve extra support, whatever their incomes.

And I can confirm we will not freeze Pip either.

Instead, our reforms will focus support on those with the greatest needs. We will legislate for a change in Pip so people will need to score a minimum of four points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living element of Pip from November 2026.

This will not affect the mobility component of Pip and only relates to the daily living element.

And alongside this, we will launch a review of the PIP assessment led [Stephen Timms] in close consultation with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, and other experts, so we make sure Pip and the assessment process is fit for purpose now and into the future.

Kendall said people on universal credit with the most severe disabilities would not face reassessment.

I can also announce for people on universal credit with the most severe disabilities and health conditions that will never improve, we want to ensure that they are never reassessed, to give them the confidence and dignity they deserve.

Kendall says the government is also increase the reassessments for people getting universal credit with a health-top up.

We will also fix the failing system of reassessments. The Conservatives failed to switch reassessments back on after the pandemic, so they they’re down by more than two thirds, with face to face assessment going from seven in 10 to only one in 10.

We will turn these reassessments back on at scale and shift the focus back to doing more face to face.

And we will ensure that they are recorded as standard to give confidence to claimants and taxpayers that they’re being done properly.

Kendall says the current universal credit system creates “perverse financial incentives”, because people out of work who say they are too sick to work get paid a lot more than other people out of work. She says:

The Tories ran down the value of the universal credit standard allowance. As a result, the health top-up is now worth double the standard allowance at more than £400 a month, and in 2017 they took away extra financial help for the group of people who could prepare for work.

So we’re left with a binary assessment of can or can’t work, and a clear financial incentive to define yourself as incapable of work, something the OBR, IFS and others say is a likely factor driving people on to incapacity benefits.

Today, we tackle this problem head on. We will legislate to rebalance the payments in universal credit from April next year, holding the value of the health top-up fixed in cash terms for existing claimants, and reducing it for new claimants, with an additional premium for people with severe lifelong conditions that mean that they will never work to give them the financial security they deserve.

And alongside this, Mr. Speaker, we will bring in a permanent above-inflation rise to the standard allowance in universal credit for the first time ever, a £775 annual increase in cash terms by 2029-30 and a decisive step to tackle the perverse incentives in the system.

Kendall confirms the government will legislate for a “right to try” – meaning that people claiming sickness benefits can try out a new job, without immediately having their benefits cut.

We will do more by legislating for a right to try, guaranteeing that work, in and of itself, will never lead to a benefit reassessment, giving people the confidence to take the plunge and try work without the fear this will put their benefits at risk.

Kendall says the government is scrapping the Tory proposals to reform the work capability assessment (WCA). She points out that the proposal was found unlawful by the courts.

She goes on:

Instead, we will scrap the WCA in 2028.

In future, extra financial support for health conditions in universal credit will be available solely through the Pip (personal independence payment] assessment.

So extra income is based on the impact of someone’s health condition or disability, not on their capacity to work, reducing the number of assessments that people have to go through and a vital step towards de-risking work.

Kendall says the first priority is prevention.

Almost 4 million people are in work with a work limiting health condition, and around 300,000 fall out of work every year.

So we’ve got to do far more to help people stay in work and get back to work quickly, because your chances of returning are five times higher in the first year.

She says the government wants to help more employers offer support for disabled workers, including through reasonable adjustments.

And she says the government is going to consult on a new benefit.

Our green paper will consult on a major reform of contributory benefits, merging contributions-based job seeker’s allowance and employment support allowance into a new time-limited unemployment insurance, paid at a higher rate, without having to prove you cannot work in order to get it. So if you have paid into the system, you’ll get stronger income protection while we help you get back on track.

Kendall says there will always be people who can never work.

The social security system will always be there for people “in genuine need”, she says.

That is a principle the government will not compromise on.

But disabled people and people with health conditions who can work should have the same right choices and chances to work as everybody else.

Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, is speaking now.

She says the government is ambitious for people.

But social security system we inherited from the Conservatives is failing the very people it is supposed to help and holding our country back.

She give figures to back this up.

The facts speak for themselves. One in 10 people of working age now claiming a sickness or disability benefit, almost 1 million young people, not in education, employment or training. That is one in eight of all our young people.

2.8 million out of work due to long term sickness and the number of people claiming personal independence payments set to double this decade from two to 4.3 million.

With the growth in claims rising faster among young people, and mental health conditions, and with claims up to four times higher in parts of the Midlands, Wales and the north where economic demand is weakest, places that were decimated in the 80s and 90s.

She says other countries do not have the same problem with inactivity in the workplace.

We may have a lot of readers today with mental health and benefit concerns who may be worried or alarmed at what is happening. If you are in this category, and you would like help, here are some organisations you can contact.