Reform UK unveils massive £50bn welfare overhaul to scrap PIP

Reform UK has set out plans to revolutionise the welfare state that would see almost three million people’s disability and sickness payments withdrawn or modified. Under the plans, Reform would abolish personal independence payments (Pip) and the health element of Universal credit for working-age adults, The Telegraph reports. Reform’s Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick claimed that the proposals would cut £50bn from the welfare bill. He said that Reform would introduce a new, regularly reviewed, health security allowance that would provide support only for the “gravely ill and severely challenged”. Labour said the £50bn claim was “fantasy economics” and said stripping people of benefit payments would shift costs onto employers. Mr Jenrick said 6.9 million people were receiving disability benefits but “this is not an epidemic of broken backs and lost limbs” as since 2002 the share of working-age people claiming for mental health and behavioural conditions had tripled. Under the planned reforms, due to be unveiled in detail on Monday, cash payments for low-level conditions would end and be replaced with disability support accounts, run , to cover costs such as equipment, adaptations, transport and personal assistance. And employers could be obliged to pay a “return to work cover” insurance to fund the cost of the first two years after an employee is signed off sick. Mr Jenrick said firms would then have a “strong economic incentive” to return the employee to work. People who had not returned to work within two years would go through a single, rigorous assessment conducted in person to “screen out vexatious and fraudulent claims”. open image in gallery Robert Jenrick said ‘dumping our young people onto welfare isn’t compassion’ (PA) Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said: “We will not pretend this is painless. Existing claimants will be reassessed over three to four years: we estimate that 2.16 million will keep their present cash entitlement in full, while 2.89 million will see theirs modified or withdrawn, concentrated where recent growth has been most explosive.” He said the state must be there to support people who need it, but “dumping our young people onto welfare isn’t compassion; it’s neglect”. “We are not lifting people out of misfortune. It’s not an unemployment benefit.” He added: “Young disabled people are facing a multitude of barriers getting into work, but slashing billions in financial support for disabled people won’t fix that. We need to be far more ambitious about tackling inaccessible workplaces, improving employment support, and ensuring employers provide the adjustments disabled people need to work.” Jackie O’Sullivan, from learning disability charity Mencap, said: “We don’t have the detail of these proposals yet, but any government that chooses to make drastic cuts to PIP risks plunging hundreds of thousands of disabled people into poverty and isolation.