Liz Kendall faces fresh benefits backlash
On Tuesday, the influential Work and Pension Committee said it was alarmed by Ms Kendall's proposed changes to UC, which will see top-up payments to new claimants who are disabled halved from £423.27 to £217.26 a month from 2026.
The committee, chaired by Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, warned that slashing the benefits risked forcing more disabled people into poverty. The reforms risk reducing payments for people with severe mental health conditions, the committee said, because their condition may not qualify for a full UC payment.
Ms Abrahams said that the Government's own analysis showed that the reduction in the UC health top-up payment would push approximately 50,000 people into poverty by the end of the decade.
However, Helen Whately, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: 'Politicians should be trying to get welfare spending under control, not handing out even more cash. It's a sobering fact that the British Government spends more on sickness benefits than on defence – this cannot be allowed to continue.'
UC is Britain's main benefit and it replaced a myriad of other payments, such as jobseekers' allowance, child tax credits and housing benefits in 2012.
Claimants who are disabled can claim a top-up payment in addition to standard UC, but the Government is hoping to change this amid fears too many people are claiming it on spurious grounds.
Welfare battle
Ms Kendall had been battling rebels from her own party to push through a watered-down version of her welfare reforms. Following a government policy reversal and a series of major concessions to Labour rebels, it eventually passed at the start of the month.
As part of her reforms, Ms Kendall, who is the Work and Pensions Secretary, has sought to address Britain's ballooning welfare spending, which is estimated to reach £378bn by 2029-30 – almost double the £210bn paid out to claimants in 2013-14.
Yet concessions made to the bill are expected to wipe out a third of the £5bn they had been expected to save taxpayers, piling further pressure on the Treasury.
Ms Kendall warned earlier this month that once workers start receiving the health element of UC, only 3pc a year manage to get off the benefit again.
Despite this, Ms Abrahams said: 'There are still issues with these welfare reforms, not least with the cut in financial support that newly sick and disabled people will receive.'
Ms Abrahams has been a staunch critic of the Government's welfare reforms bill alongside other Labour rebels, including Meg Hillier and Rachael Maskell, who had pushed for changes to the bill.
The fallout over the bill is far from over, as Ms Abrahams told Sir Kier Starmer at the Liaison Committee that the 'fear and anxiety' felt by disabled people following the Government's welfare reform bill 'cannot be underestimated'.
In a tense exchange between the Left-wing MP and the Prime Minister last week, Ms Abrahams said the reforms were 'far removed from Labour values' and warned that the Government 'must do better'.
A recent report from the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that the UK's national debt is on track to spiral from just under 100pc of GDP to 270pc in the next 50 years if nothing is done to reduce the benefits bill.
A government spokesman said: 'Our welfare reforms will support those who can work into jobs and ensure there is always a safety net for those that need it. The impact assessment shows our reforms will lift 50,000 children out of poverty – and our additional employment support will lift even more families out of poverty.
'The reforms will rebalance universal credit rates to reduce the perverse incentives that trap people out of work, alongside genuinely helping disabled people and those with long-term health conditions into good, secure work – backed by £3.8bn in employment support over this parliament.'
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