Liz Kendall has been condemned after she unveiled plans to impose £5 billion-worth of cuts to disability benefits.
The work and pensions secretary announced the controversial move as part of major reforms to the welfare system.
She told MPs that the present set-up was “failing the very people it is supposed to help and holding our country back”.
Under the changes, the eligibility criteria to qualify for personal independence payments (PIP) will be made tougher so that only the most disabled people will qualify for it.
It is estimated that around 1 million people will lose out on the payment as a result.
Other changes will see the top rate of Universal Credit paid to those who are unfit to work will be halved from £97 to £47 a week for new claimants.
And for those already receiving it, the £97 a week payment will be frozen until 2030.
However, Kendall did confirm that plans to freeze PIP at its current rate will not go ahead following a backlash by Labour MPs.
The secretary of state said spending on sickness and disability benefits had gone up by £20bn since the pandemic and set to rise by another £18bn by the next election to £70bn a year.
Kendall said: “This is a significant reform package that is expected to save over £5 billion in 2029/30.”
But critics said the reforms will make life even harder for the disabled, while also pushing up poverty levels for some of the most vulnerable people in the country.
‘Shame the government to its core’
James Taylor, executive director of strategy at disability equality charity Scope, said: “The biggest cuts to disability benefits on record should shame the government to its core.
“They are choosing to penalise some of the poorest people in our society. Almost half of families in poverty include someone who is disabled.
“Life costs more if you are disabled. Ripping £5bn out of the system by 2030 will be a catastrophe for disabled peoples’ living standards and independence.”
Charles Gillies of the Disability Benefits Consortium, which represents more than 100 charities and organisations, said: “These immoral and devastating benefits cuts will push more disabled people into poverty, and worsen people’s health.
“We are united in urging the government to abandon these cruel cuts.”
Oxfam’s domestic poverty lead, Silvia Galandini, said: “After the recent slashing of international aid, the government’s plans to cut £5bn in support for people living with illness and disabilities is another deplorable political choice.
“It unnecessarily risks pushing more people into poverty and hardship while the ballooning bank balances of the UK’s super-rich once again escape scot-free.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “It is hard to conceive of a Labour government treating the most vulnerable members of society any worse.
“For pensioners who have lost the winter fuel allowance, parents coping with the two-child benefit cap, and now the targeting of disabled adults, cruelty is becoming a hallmark of this government. It is simply indefensible.”
Labour MP Clive Lewis said: “When [the government] made the decision to go down this route did they understand the pain and difficulty this will cause millions of our constituents who are using food banks, who are using social supermarkets, people who are on the brink?
“This £5bn cut is going to impact them, more than her department is giving credit for.
“My constituents, my friends, my family are very angry about this and they do not think that this is the kind of action that a Labour government takes.”
‘Tackling inequality is what Labour is about’
But Kendall told him: “I know that I can look my constituents in the eye and say to them I know that getting more people into better paid jobs is the key to their future success.
“We, the Labour Party, believe that if you can work we will help you to get back on your feet, because that is the route to tackling poverty, tackling inequality, which is what this Labour Party is all about.”
Debbie Abrahams, a Labour MP and chair of the work and pensions select committee, said: ”
“There are alternative, more compassionate ways to balance the books rather than on the back of sick and disabled people.
“I believe [Liz Kendall] is on the right course, and I implore my party to try and get the reforms to bed in first before looking to make the cuts.”
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “The Labour Party’s devastating cuts to disabled people are a total betrayal of the promises they made to voters at the election.
“They will harm the most vulnerable, push disabled people into poverty, and mark the start of a new era of austerity cuts under the Labour Party, which will hit the whole of society.”