A Labour minister has hit back at left-wing critics of government benefit cuts, accusing them of “defending a Tory benefit system”.
Pensions minister Torsten Bell said the current welfare system “has failed and is driving up the number of people who are out of work and receiving benefits”.
And, asked about critics of the government, including former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Mr Bell said: “I’ve said this gently to John and to others that they are defending a Tory benefit system that writes off millions as unable to work.”
It came after Labour took an axe to the UK’s ballooning welfare bill, unveiling £5bn worth of cuts by 2030 that will see an estimated million disabled people lose their benefits.
Responding to the cuts, the now independent MP Mr McDonnell warned in the Commons: “The reality is trying to find up to £5bn worth of cuts by manipulating, by changing, the PIP (Personal Independence Payment) rules, the criteria will result in immense suffering and – we’ve seen it in the past – loss of life.”
Other critics included left-wing Labour MP Clive Lewis, who asked whether ministers understood the “pain and difficulty that this will cause millions of people”, while Labour chair of the work and pensions committee Debbie Abrahams accused the government of “balancing the books on the backs of sick and disabled people”.
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said the bulk of the changes, aimed at saving £5bn by 2030, would fall on PIP by raising the threshold that people can qualify for it.
Announcing the cuts, Ms Kendall told parliament the current social security system is “failing the very people it is supposed to help and holding our country back”.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Mr Bell, former chief executive of the left-leaning Resolution Foundation think tank, said the welfare cuts involved “tough choices” but were about “keeping a system that does help those with the most significant needs”.
And he vowed: “People with significant disabilities will be protected. They will. Not only will they be protected within the Universal Credit System, which is the one you’re mentioning, but they’ll also be able to apply for PIP.
“So people with significant disabilities, if they are young, if they’re currently receiving UC health, they will continue to receive it. And if they have significant disabilities, they will still be allowed to apply for PIP.”
Despite the changes marking the largest welfare cuts since 2015, ministers have been unable to rule out further slashing the bill further down the line.
Ms Kendall said the reform was expected to save more than £5bn in 2029-30 and pointed out that there were 1,000 new PIP claimants every week, which she described as “unsustainable”.
Under the current system, PIP claimants can qualify for standard support by accumulating eight points and enhanced support by accumulating 12 points.
Points are awarded for different levels of disability in 14 categories ranging from 0 to 8 points based on severity. But from next year, anyone claiming PIP will need to have a score of at least 4 points in one or more categories.
Resolution Foundation chief executive Ruth Curtice told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme a million people will completely lose their right to PIP through the cuts. She said: “The Government haven’t given us a number for how many will be affected, and because they’ve made quite a detailed change to the system, we can’t tell exactly who will be affected.
“I think it would have been good if the government had told us yesterday, but given what they’ve told us about how much they’re planning, the Resolution Foundation estimate it’s around a million people who are losing their entitlement to PIP completely.”
Despite the barrage of criticism, Sir Keir Starmer said on Tuesday: “This government will always protect the most severely disabled people to live with dignity.
“But we’re not prepared to stand back and do nothing while millions of people – especially young people – who have potential to work and live independent lives, instead become trapped out of work and abandoned by the system. It would be morally bankrupt to let their life chances waste away.”
Work and pensions minister Sir Stephen Timms told Sky News on Wednesday the changes “needed to be made”.
