Anger grows over Starmer's '£675 a month' disability cuts

MPs and campaigners raise fears over major changes to benefit rules

- Jessica Elgot

Keir Starmer is to defy growing fury by driving through welfare cuts for some of the UK's most severely disabled people, with an overhaul that could see more than 600,000 benefit claimants lose out on an average of £675 a month.

Ministers are set to ditch plans to freeze personal independent payments (Pip) amid a backlash. But they will still tighten eligibility criteria for the benefit under big changes to be set out tomorrow by the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall.

The Resolution Foundation think-tank warned that cutting Pip by £5bn in 2029-30 by raising the threshold to qualify for support could mean about 620,000 people would lose £675 a month on average.

It said 70% of these cuts would be concentrated on those families in the poorest half of the income distribution. The sweep of the cuts has greatly alarmed disability rights campaigners as well as Labour MPs, who have been lobbying No 10 this week to change course. But plans to freeze increases in Pip payments, which would have required a parliamentary vote, are now unlikely.

Cabinet ministers are among those who have raised doubts about the scale of the cuts and private fears about how No 10 has handled the messaging.

Among MPs there is also widespread concern about reported plans to cut - or potentially freeze - the top rate of benefits for disabled people who are unable to work, though that may be mitigated by a rise in universal credit for those seeking or in work.

People signed off sick can currently have an income twice as high as that of jobseekers. Ministers are motivated to try to equalise their incomes as they perceive the current setup to be an incentive to be permanently signed off sick.