Reform accused of targeting the most vulnerable with £50bn benefit cut

Robert Jenrick said it was ‘just plain immoral’ to pay social security to non-British people. Photograph: Anadolu/ View image in fullscreen Robert Jenrick said it was ‘just plain immoral’ to pay social security to non-British people. Photograph: Anadolu/ Reform accused of targeting the most vulnerable with £50bn benefit cut Robert Jenrick takes aim at disabled people and foreign nationals after saying UK guilty of ‘suicidal empathy’ Reform UK has been accused of excluding the most vulnerable from society and punishing non-Britons living in the UK as it prepared to outline £50bn of cuts to benefits for disabled people and foreign nationals. Robert Jenrick, Reform’s finance spokesperson, will detail the plans for £20bn of cuts to disability benefits overall, as well as another £21bn from stopping foreign nationals – including EU citizens with settled status – claiming almost any benefits, among other cuts. The party said the plans were aimed at reducing the welfare bill by a quarter, with personal independence payments (Pip) replaced “gravely ill and severely challenged”. It said “lower level conditions” would get support overseen . In relation to foreign nationals, the plans extend proposals set out £234bn over several decades. Jenrick’s policy paper goes further -born households claiming universal credit, housing benefit, pension credit, jobseeker’s allowance, child benefit, free childcare, free school meals or disability benefits. The paper says the change would save the taxpayer £21bn a year , and would also apply to those with EU settled status. However, foreign-born parents with British-born children would still be eligible for child benefit and free school meals. Best for Britain, the pro-EU campaign group, said denying benefits to those with indefinite leave to remain would tear up Britain’s EU withdrawal agreement. Tom Brufatto, the executive director of policy at the organisation, said: “Our polling shows that people do want to renegotiate our relationship with Europe, but , not , colleagues and friends who have settled status here.” Disability benefits system ‘not working’ Timms review finds Jenrick claimed paying benefits to non-British people was “plain immoral” – even though many would have paid into the tax system through working. He also wrote in the Telegraph over the weekend that the amount spent on disability benefits was “not generosity … it is suicidal empathy”. Mothin Ali, the Green party deputy leader, said the “establishment parties are all trying to outdo each other when it comes to who can be the most xenophobic, who can punch down the hardest to the most vulnerable in our country, and who can cut the most support from disabled people”.