Rachel Reeves has denied her own government’s findings that her welfare reforms will push 250,000 people into poverty while refusing to rule out further cuts.
The chancellor wants to save £5 billion from the UK’s ballooning welfare bill by making it harder to claim Personal Independence Payments and cutting Universal Credit.
An impact assessment published today by the Department of Work and Pensions, said 3.2 million families – including current and future benefit claimants – will lose an average of £1,720 a year as a result of the changes.
It added: “We estimate there will be an additional 250,000 people (including 50,000 children) in relative poverty after housing costs in 2029/30 as a result of modelled changes to social security.”
But in an interview with HuffPost UK after delivering the Spring Statement, the chancellor rejected those findings, claiming they did not take account of what the government is doing to get people back into work.
She said: “Those numbers are based on not a single person moving from welfare into work and we are, alongside this package of welfare reforms, putting in £1 billion of targeted, personalised and guaranteed support for anybody on sickness and disability benefits to help them find work that’s appropriate for the situation that they are in.
“I know that there are thousands of people with disabilities who are desperate to work if only they were provided with the support. I understand where these numbers come from, they’re a static set of numbers as if nothing changes, but of course things will change.”
Disability campaigners have reacted angrily to the welfare cuts, which they say will have a “catastrophic” impact on benefit claimants.
Asked whether she can guarantee no one will be pushed into poverty by the welfare reforms, Reeves said: “I want more people to benefit from the security, the dignity, the extra money that comes from having a job.
“We’re also increasing the national living wage, which means that if you’re working full time you’ll be earning £1,400 more. We want people to move into secure, well-paid employment [and] we’re going to give people the support to get there.”
The chancellor was forced to find another £500 million of welfare cuts on the eve of the Spring Statement after the Office for Budget Responsibility said what had been already been announced would not deliver the savings needed.
Asked whether she can rule out more cuts to welfare in the future, Reeves said: “We’ve set out the welfare reforms that we want to make and alongside the changes we’re also publishing a green paper to consult on more targeted measures to provide support for the most severely disabled, but also looking at how we can incentivise young people not to move on to benefits and never come off them.
“We do need to make sure that our welfare system is sustainable for the future and that’s what the reforms we have set out will do.”
Asked a second time whether more cuts were possible, she said: “This is not about cuts, this is about reforming the way the welfare system works.
“The welfare system should be much more focused on giving people the support that they need to find employment rather than parking people on benefits, which I’m afraid was the approach of the previous government.”