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Sir Keir Starmer told MPs anxious work that it was right to break through billions of pounds from the Proposal of the Welfare Act, in the midst of a warning that the reduction could be the greatest threat to his authority since he became Prime Minister.
Labor officials say that the Government wants to reduce about £ 5 billion from the cost of paying personal independence (PIP) – major disability fees – while Chancellor Rachel Reeves is trying to fix a hole in public finances and bring more people to work.
The Prime Minister said on Monday, a crowded meeting of MPs that the broken social welfare system with the wrong incentives created a “lost generation” and one of eight young people who are not in education, employment or training.
“I’m not afraid to make big decisions,” Starmer said, warning that a taxpayer without action will spend £ 70 billion annually by 2030 on a disease at work and disability fees.
Ministers are expected to publish a green book of social welfare reform next week. Starmer’s party was already in a conflicting mood over the proposed cuts when he met the laborers of MPs and peers to defend the strategy.
One Labor MP said: “There is no doubt that this question is the biggest challenge to Keir’s government we have seen so far, it goes to the core of people’s beliefs.”
Work data confirmed that ministers plan to reduce the £ 5 billion for PIP, which should help in additional living costs with a long -term health condition or disability. ITV News first reported to plans.
Louise Murphy, a senior economist Think-Tank-Tank’s resolution Foundation, said that the current cost of PIP, which he claims 3.6 million in England and Wales, was about £ 25 billion, with screenings that would increase to £ 41 billion by 2029-30.
If the government sought to save annual savings of £ 5 billion by 2029-30. By imposing far more difficult tests for the eligibility for new applicants, it would mean reducing 40 percent of people who are currently qualifying, Murphy said.
Ministers believe that the PIP system has never been intended to pay so many people with mental health conditions – Murphy says they make about 40 percent of new claims.
Savings can also be achieved by introducing the testing of funds in favor, so that only people who receive health benefits through Universal Credit have been paid.
Paul Johnson, director of the Fiscal Studies Institute, said another proposed reduction – freezing PIP next year so as not to increase with inflation – could save an additional £ 1 billion, but that would be unpopular with work deputies.
Welcome experts say that the relative generosity of health benefits is a tacit recognition that it is almost impossible to live at the basic rate of universal loan in the long run.
But big reduction in consumption for well -being they became inevitable because of the exacerbation of fiscal prospects facing Reeves ahead of her spring statement on March 26, along with the growing demands Spend more on defense.
On the eve of the meeting of the Parliamentary Labor Party on Monday, Rachael Maskell, a former shadow minister, said planned reductions creating a “deep, deep concern” among their colleagues.
One MP said, “Some feel very rebel and these are not the usual suspect. It is very difficult for many people to cut their stomachs on the benefit of the benefits that surpass the Tories.”
One minister confirmed that the Starmer had resolved multiple working care representatives to reduce the benefits, but that many held the fire until they saw the final package of reforms.
The minister added: “Many think it’s a job with work. The trace is on behalf of: We are a party party.”
Starmer is supported by about 35 workers who have formed a new “Get Britain Working” group, which claimed that the current social welfare system “often acts as a barrier to finding work.”
For Reeves, stopping the spread of disability benefits has become necessary. It is expected that slower growth and higher borrowing costs will delete a punching room of £ 9.9 billion, which it had in October against its self-imposed fiscal rules, which require that it has a current budget in excess by 2029-30.
Although Reeves signaled that he did not want to pick up taxes in a spring statement, some analysts expect to be forced to grow into taxes later this year. One option would be expanded freezes on personal tax thresholds For another two years, collecting £ 10 billion in 2029-30.
