Keir Starmer has been warned his £5billion benefits cuts might fail because people ‘game’ disability tests – as he pleaded for Labour rebels to get behind the reforms.
The PM insisted there is no choice about reforming the ‘shocking’ system arguing that ‘those who can work should work’.
But critics have branded the changes to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Universal Credit (UC) a ‘flea bite’ – pointing out that the health and disability benefits bill is still set to soar in the coming years.
The respected IFS think-tank questioned whether the £5billion savings will even be achieved, highlighting that similar attempts have been thwarted in the past because claimants just shift their approach to assessments.
The Disability Policy Centre suggested that it could be ‘all pain no gain’ with just £100million saved overall, as lower benefits would be offset by more burden on the NHS.
Sir Keir also came under fire from his own MPs at PMQs this afternoon, with former frontbencher Diane Abbott saying there is ‘nothing moral about cutting benefits for what may be up to one million people’.
‘This is not about morality. This is about the Treasury’s wish to balance the books on the back of the most vulnerable and poor people in this society,’ she said.
Sir Keir responded: ‘I think one in eight young people not in employment, training or education, that’s a million young people, I think that’s a moral issue.’
SDLP MP Colum Eastwood highlighted the case of a woman who needed her children to help cut up her food, wash and supervise her going to the toilet.
‘Under the Tory welfare system we were able to get that lady on Pip (personal independence payments), under the Prime Minister’s new proposed system, she will get zero, nothing,’ he said.
‘After 14 years of the Tory government – and many of us wanted to see the back of them – can the Prime Minister answer one question: what was the point if Labour are going to do this?’
Sir Keir replied: ‘I’ve lived with the impact of disability in our family through my mother and brother all my life, I do understand the human impact of this but the current system is morally and economically indefensible and we’re right to reform it.’
The clashes came after Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall laid out moves to trim ‘unsustainable’ costs in a highly-anticipated Commons statement yesterday.
Eligibility is being tightened for the main PIP disability benefit.
Handouts will stop unless people can show they are unable to cope with basic daily tasks such as going to the toilet unaided.
Claimants will need to score at least four points on scales of disability for one of 12 essential activities.
Personal Independence Payment will remain an ‘important non-means tested benefit’ for disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, the Government said.
But ministers warned the rate of increase in PIP claims and Government spending on the benefit was ‘not sustainable’ and ‘outstripping’ the growth in the prevalence of disabilities.
As part of its welfare crackdown, Labour will introduce an additional eligibility requirement before claimants are granted PIP.
This means, from November next year, claimants will need a minimum of four points to be scored on one of the ‘daily living activities’ used to assess PIP claims in order to receive the daily living element of the benefit.
Daily living activities are classed as ‘preparing food’, ‘taking nutrition’, ‘managing therapy or monitoring a health condition’, ‘washing and bathing’, ‘managing toilent needs or incontinence’, ‘dressing and undressing’, ‘communicating verbally’, ‘reading and understanding symbols and words’, ‘engaging with other people face to face’, and ‘making budgeting decisions’.
Currently, if you get between 8 and 11 points in total, you’ll get the daily living componment of PIP at the standard rate.
If you get at least 12 points in total, you¿ll get the daily living component at the enhanced rate.
But Labour aims to restrict entitlement to the daily living component to only those who are more severely disabled.
For example, to score four points on ‘washing and bathing’, a claimant ‘needs assistance to be able to wash their body between the shoulders and waist’.
The Government said their planned changes would mean ‘that people who only score the lowest points on each of the PIP daily living activities will lose their entitlement in future’.
The Resolution Foundation suggested between 800,000 and 1.2million people will lose up to £6,300 per year by 2029-30 as a result.
However, the IFS said the savings from tightening PIP criteria were ‘relatively uncertain’ and could be ‘much less than hoped’.
In its response to the proposals the think-tank said: ‘The impact of reforms to assessment criteria are more difficult to predict than changes in amounts paid, as the way claimants approach the assessment is likely to change in response.
‘Previous governments attempting similar reforms have found that they have saved much less than hoped.’
Reassessments are also being ramped up, while benefits specifically for being unable to work will be done away with altogether – something that the IFS said might affect 600,000 current claimants.
Those with mental health complaints could find it more difficult to claim, while the disabled will be incentivised to try work with guarantees they will not lose out if it proves impossible.
The government wants to bar young adults from getting the health-related element of Universal Credit, worth up to £419 a month, until they are aged 22. That potentially covers 66,000 people and might raise up to £330million.
However, the idea of freezing PIP in cash terms was ditched in the face of a mutiny on the Left.
And the initiative is only set to slow the alarming increase in overall health and disability benefits spending forecast for the coming years.
Official figures show the total cost of paying sickness and incapacity benefits is set to jump from £65billion to £100billion by the end of the decade. The bill for those paid to working age people will rise to £70billion.
One expert last night said the proposed savings were a ‘flea bite’ compared to the overall growth in the welfare bill.
Writing in The Times newspaper, Sir Keir pointed to the 2.8million working age people out of work due to long-term sickness, claiming this was a ‘damning indictment of the Conservative record’ on welfare.
The PM added: ‘The result is devastating for the public finances. By 2030 we are projected to spend £70 billion a year on working-age incapacity and disability benefits alone.
‘But more importantly it has wreaked a terrible human cost. Young people shut out of the labour market at a formative age. People with complex long-term conditions, written off by a single assessment.
‘People who want to return to work, yet can’t access the support they need. All this is happening at scale and it is indefensible.’
Touring broadcast studios this morning, social security minister Stephen Timms was asked whether people with anxiety will not be able to claim PIP.
‘No, it depends what the effect of the condition is on people’s wellbeing, and the indicators are all published and set out,’ he told Times Radio.
‘So if you have difficulties doing certain things, then you get points on the Pip assessment. And the number of points you get determine how much Pip you get.’
He conceded that the cost of PIP will still rise, but ‘nothing like as fast as if we didn’t act’ and said the changes will make the cost ‘sustainable in the long-term’.
He said an impact assessment for the proposals cannot yet be published as it contains ‘market sensitive data’. It is due to be published alongside the Chancellor’s spring statement next week.