Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced major changes to the welfare system in the UK. In a speech on Friday morning, Mr Sunak said there is a “moral mission” to reform welfare to “give everyone who can the best possible chance of returning to work”.
A consultation on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) will be published in the coming days which will explore changes to the eligibility criteria, assessment process and types of support that can be offered so the system is better targeted towards individual needs and more closely linked to a person’s condition rather than the current “one size fits all” approach.
It comes as many more working age people are being awarded PIP for mental health conditions than when it was first introduced over a decade ago, as well as concerns that the assessment process is significantly easier to game by individuals who seek to exploit the system.
In 2019, there were an average of around 2,200 new PIP awards a month in England and Wales where the main condition was anxiety and depression - this has more than doubled to 5,300 a month last year. This is driving up the cost of the disability benefits bill at an unsustainable rate and PIP spending alone is expected to grow by 52% from 2023/24 to £32.8bn by 2027/28.
The Prime Minister said there is a “longstanding and proudly British view that work is a source of dignity, purpose, of hope.” He said: “For me, it is a fundamental duty of Government to make sure that hard work is always rewarded.
“I know, and you know, that you don’t get anything in life without hard work. It’s the only way to build a better life for ourselves and our family, and the only way to build a more prosperous country.”
He said since the pandemic “something has gone wrong”, adding 850,000 more people are now economically inactive in Britain. The changes to the benefits system and the DWP are designed to crack down on fraud and long-term sickness and get people back into work.
The Prime Minister said in his speech: “We now spend £69 billion on benefits for people of working age with a disability or health condition. That’s more than our entire schools budget, more than our transport budget, more than our policing budget.
“And spending on personal independence payments alone is forecast to increase by more than 50% over the next four years… That’s not right, it’s not sustainable, and it’s not fair on the taxpayers who fund it.”
“So in the next parliament, a Conservative government will significantly reform and control welfare.”
He said it was about “eligibility, about who should be entitled to support and what kind of supports best matches their needs”.
Mr Sunak said: “I want to be completely clear about what I’m saying here. This is not about making the welfare system less generous to people who face very real extra costs from mental health conditions.
“For those with the greatest needs, we actually want to make it easier to access, with fewer requirements.”
He added that the Government’s “overall approach is about saying that people with less severe mental health conditions should be expected to engage in the world of work”.
Mr Sunak detailed plans for new legislation to prevent “fraudsters” from exploiting “the natural compassion and generosity of the British people”. The Prime Minister said: “We are preparing a new fraud Bill for the next parliament, which will align DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) with HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs), so that we treat benefit fraud like tax fraud, with new powers to make seizures and arrest, and we’ll also enable penalties to be applied to a wider set of fraudsters through a new civil penalty.
“Because when people see others in their community gaming the system that their taxes pay, it erodes support for the very principle of the welfare state.”
Rishi Sunak said his planned new fraud Bill would expand the Department for Work and Pensions’ powers in tackling benefit fraudsters.
The Prime Minister said: “There’s a little bit of a difference and a gap between how HMRC is able to go after tax fraudsters and how DWP is able to go after welfare fraudsters. And we just want to make sure that DWP has all the same powers and tools that HMRC has.
“There’s a range of things, there’s information-gathering powers, there’s the ability to make arrests and seizures, but there’s also introducing a new civil penalty so it can capture a wider group of people in the way HMRC does, in the way that DWP is a little bit limited at the moment in what it can do.”
The Prime Minister has set out his ambition to redesign the disability benefits system to ensure it is fair and compassionate, but also sustainable and fit for the future. The consultation will consider whether alternative interventions to cash payments – such as treatment or access to services – could drive better long-term outcomes particularly for individuals who have less severe or well-managed health conditions.
A disability equality charity has criticised Rishi Sunak’s welfare reforms as “a full-on assault on disabled people”.
James Taylor, director of strategy at Scope, said calls were “pouring into our helpline” from concerned disabled people.
Reacting to the reforms announced by the Prime Minister in a speech on Friday, Mr Taylor said: “This feels like a full-on assault on disabled people. These proposals are dangerous and risk leaving disabled people destitute.
“In a cost-of-living crisis looking to slash disabled people’s income by hitting PIP is a horrific proposal.
“Life costs more for disabled people. Threatening to take away the low amount of income PIP provides to disabled people who face £950 a month extra costs isn’t going to solve the problem of economic inactivity.
“Sanctions and ending claims will only heap more misery on people at the sharp end of our cost-of-living crisis.
“Much of the current record levels of inactivity are because our public services are crumbling, the quality of jobs is poor and the rate of poverty amongst disabled households is growing.”
The British Medical Association (BMA) has urged Rishi Sunak to avoid using a “hostile rhetoric on sicknote culture” following his welfare reform announcement.
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chairwoman of GPC England, the BMA’s GP committee, said: “Fit notes are carefully considered before they are written, and a GP will sign their patient off work only if they are not well enough to undertake their duties.
“We do recognise the health benefits of good work, and that most people do want to work, but when they are unwell, people need access to prompt care.
“With a waiting list of 7.5 million – not including for mental health problems – delays to diagnostics, and resulting pressures on GP practices, patients cannot get the treatment they need to be able to return to work.
“So rather than pushing a hostile rhetoric on ‘sicknote culture’, perhaps the Prime Minister should focus on removing what is stopping patients from receiving the physical and mental healthcare they need, which in turn prevents them from going back to work.”
The review to the disability benefits system to ensure benefits are targeted to those who need it most comes as part of the Prime Minister’s core welfare reforms to deliver a fairer and more sustainable welfare system for the future. This includes:
Removing benefits entirely from the long-term unemployed who don’t accept a job
Being more ambitious in assessing people’s potential for work
Putting work at the heart of welfare
Cracking down on fraud
