Labour gives update on sickness and disability benefit reforms as spending cuts expected soon
Labour gives update on sickness and disability benefit reforms as spending cuts expected soon
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This government will control the UK’s benefit bill ‘once and for all’ says Reeves. Labour has given a major update on planned reforms to the benefits system as chancellor Rachel Reeves says she “will not hesitate to act” to cut back on welfare spending.
![[Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will spearhead changes to the UK’s welfare system (Lucy North/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/22/00/8b5ad9b185871fbb152e9b6fe7ed0d69Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NTgzODU0-2.78512406.jpg)
Her comments come ahead of propsals which are set to outline how the government will overhaul sickness and disability benefits in the UK. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said more details on the plans are coming in Spring when a green paper on the plans is released – but the chancellor has revealed that more detail will come as soon as this week.
Sharing her plans in the Sun on Sunday, Ms Reeves said she will “expose how the Conservatives lost complete control of the benefits bill – with a project overspend of more than £8 billion and no action taken to address that.”. “That includes looking closely at the rising cost of health and disability benefits,” she adds. “This is an urgent problem. It can’t be ignored. We can’t walk around it, as the Tories did. We’ve got to grip it, once and for all.”.
The chancellor will be making a speech on Wednesday in Oxfordshire, sharing her plans to boost economic growth, with changes to pensions and news on the possible Heathrow airport expansion rumoured. Her latest comments may indicate that the much-anticipated detail on benefit changes will also make the agenda.
The planned changes are understood to focus largely on disability benefits with aims to bring down the number of people who are claiming them. There are now 3.7 million people of working age receiving health-related support – 1.2 million more than in February 2020.
