Over 1m disabled people 'at risk' of big benefit cut

Up to 1.2 million disabled people would lose thousands of pounds under the government's welfare overhaul, experts said yesterday as campaigners warned that the plan would also exacerbate the country's mental health crisis and push more children into poverty.

- Kiran Stacey Pippa Crerar Jessica Elgot

The work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, laid out the long-awaited changes to the benefits system yesterday, announcing measures aimed at getting more people into supposed to help and is holding our country back.

But in a sign of the growing push-back that ministers face, Debbie Abrahams, the Labour chair of the Commons work and pensions committee, warned against "balancing the books on the backs of sick and disabled people".

Kendall's changes amount to the biggest shake-up of Britain's welfare system since universal credit was introduced over a decade ago and come after years of unsuccessful attempts to bring down the numbers of people claiming long-term sickness benefits.

Britain is unique among European countries in not having cut those numbers to pre-pandemic levels.

Kendall told the Commons that spending on working-age sickness and disability benefits was up £20bn since the pandemic and forecast to rise by a further £18bn by the end of this parliament to £70bn a year.

Much of Kendall's package of measures is aimed at reducing incentives to stay out of work.

She is scrapping the system of giving higher incapacity payments for those unable to work than those who can - an attempt to make sure as many people as possible are looking for work. There will also be a "right to work" scheme for those on incapacity benefits so they can try to return to work without losing entitlements.