Welfare changes 'risk chaos'

LABOUR’S controversial shake-up of the welfare system risks causing “chaos” for vulnerable families and adding to the burden of overstretched local services, a North East council leader has warned.

- By DANIEL HOLLAND

The Government has come under heavy criticism after confirming plans to save more than £5bn a year by 2030, with an estimated one million disabled people expected to lose their benefits.

That crackdown will include measures like tightening the eligibility for personal independence payments (Pip), while those aged under 22 could be denied access to the health top-up in Universal Credit.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has said the changes would create a “pro-work” system and that the existing benefits regime was “failing the very people that it is supposed to help and is holding our country back”.