The changes were announced as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published a paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper.
The DWP said the Government needs “to confront the broken welfare system we’ve been left with”.
Kendall said the changes will better support those who need the system while reducing barriers to work, saying that the proposals “will unlock work, boost employment, and tackle the broken benefits system to unlock growth as part of the Government’s Plan for Change”.
She said the new measures are designed to ensure a welfare system that is fit for purpose and available for future generations – opening up employment opportunities, boosting economic growth and tackling the spiralling benefits bill.
According to Government figures, since the pandemic, the number of working-age people receiving Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) has more than doubled from 15,300 to 35,100 per month. The number of young people (aged 16-24) receiving PIPs per month has also skyrocketed from 2,967 to 7,857.
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Over the next five years, if no action is taken, the number of working-age people claiming PIPs is expected to increase from two million in 2021 to 4.3 million, costing £34.1bn annually.
All this has driven the spiralling health and disability benefits bill, forecast to reach £70bn per year by the end of the decade, or more than £1bn per week. This is equivalent to more than a third of the NHS budget, and more than three times as much as is spent on policing and keeping communities safe.
The changes include ending reassessments for disabled people who will never be able to work and people with lifelong conditions to ensure they can live with dignity and security.
The controversial ‘Work Capability Assessment’ will be scrapped “to end the dysfunctional process that drives people into dependency”.
Other changes include:
- Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance will be merged into a time-limited ‘unemployment insurance’
- The PIP will stay in place, but the number of people eligible will be cut
- The standard Universal Credit allowance will be raised by £775 in 2029/30
- A ‘right to try’ initiative will be introduced, so people who want to attempt to get back into work won’t lose their benefits while they do
Kendall said: “Our social security system must be there for all of us when we need it, now and into the future. That means helping people who can work to do so, protecting those most in need, and delivering respect and dignity for all.
“Millions of people have been locked out of work, and we can do better for them. Disabled people and those with health conditions who can work deserve the same choices and chances as everyone else.
“That’s why we’re introducing the most far-reaching reforms in a generation, with £1bn a year being invested in tailored support that can be adapted to meet their changing circumstances – including their changing health – while also scrapping the failed Work Capability Assessment.
“This will mean fairness for disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, but also for the taxpayers who fund it, as these measures bring down the benefits bill.”
Widespread criticism
However, the proposed changes have been widely criticised, with experts saying that welfare cuts could hit the living standards of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Ben Harrison, director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, said: “A commitment to invest £1bn in new, more tailored employment support programmes and a new ‘right to try work’ for disabled people and those with long-term ill health could boost the number of people able to enter employment.
“But in reducing and constraining access to health-related benefits, the Government risks prioritising short-term cost savings over effectively reforming the welfare system for the long haul. For example, new claimants to the health-related element of Universal Credit stand to be £40 per week worse off as a result of the changes proposed today.
“Indeed, with several cuts to health-related benefits due to be introduced ahead of new employment support becoming available, those impacted may be left without the support they need, or find themselves with little choice but to opt in to insecure and low-paid employment. This could further impact their health and wellbeing, and lead to them bouncing in and out of work, and remaining reliant on the welfare system.”
Steve Darling MP, Liberal Democrats’ work and pensions spokesperson, said: “If the Government was serious about cutting welfare spending, it would get serious about fixing health and social care and the broken Department of Work and Pensions.
“That is why it has been so disappointing to see the Government’s lack of urgency in this area, putting their social care review on a three-year timeline, kicking projects like new hospitals into the long grass, and still no overhaul of the department.
“Until that changes, no meaningful drop in the welfare bill will arrive, and the misery that people are suffering will continue.”
