Thank you to those constituents who brought the latest work by the Trussell Trust to my attention and to those who invited me to the parliamentary event hosted by Scope in April. It is incredibly important the voices of disabled people are part of the conversation. I grew up with a father who became disabled - I know this can be life changing and we must always protect the most vulnerable. Unsurprisingly, I have been contacted by a lot of worried constituents who had real concerns about the welfare reforms the Labour Government announced just ahead of the Spring Statement 2025, especially with regard to the impact on disabled people and those with serious health conditions.
I do completely understand the strength of feeling on this matter and I am firmly of the belief that the Government has a duty to ensure the most vulnerable in our society are able to live with the dignity they deserve and without fear of losing vital support. Most of us accept the UK’s welfare system is one which should encourage and help people into work, while providing an appropriate safety net for those who need it most, underpinned by a sustainable approach to funding and supporting it. If that net becomes too broad or ends up trapping people instead of helping them into work then it is not fulfilling its purpose.
Under the previous Conservative Government, benefits were rightly uprated by inflation in April 2024, meaning that the 5.5 million households on Universal Credit saw an average increase of £470 in 2024/25. This ensured that benefits retained their value and the challenging economic backdrop the UK has faced, between the Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine in recent years, saw additional support being provided as and when needed. More than 6.4 million individuals received a £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment in 2023 as well as an additional three payments totalling £900 for those on means-tested benefits, and the extension of the Household Support Fund which has provided 26 million awards for vulnerable families.
We should also note that Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is not an unemployment benefit but is there to support people with disabilities and health conditions with the higher living costs associated with these. Serious conditions require long-term support and many recipients have been able to get to work as a direct result of the extra costs support offered by the previous Government to help disabled people into the workplace. Between Q1 2017 and Q1 2022, the number of disabled people in employment increased by 1.3 million, meaning the previous Conservative Government exceeded their goal to see one million more disabled people in employment between 2017 and 2027, five years ahead of schedule.
As the Leader of the Opposition, the Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP put it, ‘Talent, energy and ingenuity are not confined to those in perfect health.’
Therefore, I am pleased the Labour Government has chosen to build on the success of the WorkWell pilot scheme introduced by the previous Conservative Government which has a strong record on getting people back into work while supporting their health. This is a programme I worked on myself.
All of this is a stark contrast to the approach being taken in the current Labour Government’s 'Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working' Green Paper published on 18th March 2025 outlines the Government's rushed decisions on welfare reform with savings being so poorly calculated, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had to revise the announcement only a short while later to compensate for the botched figures. As the Government pursues the changes outlined in this Green Paper, my Conservative colleagues and I will hold them properly to account on the details of their proposals as they become clearer and call for transparency when making changes.
I know many people already feel let down by the lack of transparency shown by Labour in their manifesto before the General Election on their plans to reform welfare which was not flagged. I was also disappointed, after the Government’s constant shifting of their position, the Prime Minister initially decided some of their changes to benefits did not need to be consulted upon. Government Ministers need to be acutely aware of the real and deep anxiety they cause families and disabled people when leaking discussions on welfare to the media before formally announcing detailed policy proposals in Parliament.
It is, however, undeniable, with the bill for sickness benefits forecast to cost £100 billion by the end of the decade, the system as it stands is simply unsustainable in the long term for the currently shrinking pool of taxpayers to fund and keep sustainable. The disability benefits system isn’t currently working in the way it was intended and this is becoming increasingly clear. As the UK’s health landscape continues to change, exploring reforms can help us design a welfare system which is fit for the future whilst also being fair to the taxpayers who work to fund it. The basic principle was, and remains, that everyone who can work, should work and if you cannot work, you should be supported to live with dignity.
As the Shadow Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, Helen Whately MP explained,
“In the period between 2010 and the pandemic, we brought the welfare bill down. We did a particularly good job at getting people back into work, introducing Universal Credit, which was a big reform and hard to do.”
More recently, coming through the pandemic was this rise in people claiming sickness benefits and the sickness benefit system not working for the world that we live in.”
“We did work that reduced the stigma of mental health, but what we have seen is this huge rise in people coming forward with claims to do with mental health.”
I acknowledge the rising cost of an expanding welfare system is a growing challenge for any Government and requires urgent and detailed attention. It is, however, vital we fight for this to be achieved in a fair and open way. For example, whilst I do feel, following the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been exceptional and unjustified increases in the number of claims made (and it is worth noting the UK is an outlier to other European countries in this rise in people claiming benefits for their mental health), the Government can grapple with this through fundamentals like a return to face-to-face assessments that will also bring a more personal touch to the experience claimants have with the Department for Work & Pensions, changing the process of issuing ‘FIT’ notes and taking the pressure off GPs - again, something I was working on when I was in the DWP.
The message I had from the Scope parliamentary event clearly reinforced this – they want to see a depth of support for those who are disabled or with serious health conditions, with In Person assessments along with considered, incremental reforms under consultation. It was acknowledged it has been the broadening of disability awards to include health conditions that can be alleviated with support or medication that has led to these unsustainable, ballooning costs. The Motability scheme was mentioned as one that has been expanded far beyond its original remit. The points based, tick box assessments over the phone were criticised as unsuitable, unfair and open to abuse.
In the debate on the 1st of July 2025, the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch pointed out,
‘We need to fix a whole load of problems. For instance, we need to filter out people who are gaming the system, we need to redesign the system so that genuinely disabled people do not find it so Kafkaesque, and we need a fundamental rethink of who we can afford to support and why. One in four people in this country now self-report as disabled—that is an extraordinary state of affairs. We clearly cannot afford to support all of them; rather, we should focus that support on those with the greatest need.
Research published by the Centre for Social Justice last week shows that we could save up to £9 billion by restricting benefits for lower-level mental health challenges such as anxiety. Labour Members ask what we would change—that is one of the things we would change. Findings published by the TaxPayers’ Alliance today show that people with conditions including acne and food intolerance are getting benefits and entitlements such as Motability. The impact assessments for the Bill—not my impact assessments, but the Government’s—show that it will get no one into work, so the Government should think again. We will support them to do so.’
While the Prime Minister was right to call these figures both a financial and a moral problem, in the end, the Labour Government only got its severely weakened welfare bill through after major concessions. Even its name changed from the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Bill to the Universal Credit Bill with the limited changes agreed coming into force in April 2026. Rushed Bills are poor Bills and this one was rushed, ill-thought- out and chaotic, unsupported by its own party and clearly intended to plug the Chancellor’s fiscal black hole rather than introduce much-needed, fundamental reforms to sustain the system and protect the most vulnerable.
With regards to PIP, there will now be no changes until after the Timms review has been completed, currently expected to be in Autumn 2026. Please be assured, I will support any measure that go someway to reintroducing fairness into the welfare system, better targets those genuinely with a limited capacity for work and properly supports our most vulnerable. I know the Conservative Party is asking the tough questions in our policy review; however, I am extremely concerned , as health and disability benefits are forecast to rise to £100 billion, meaning that one in every four pounds raised in income tax will pay for those benefits, without a thorough, serious, major reform of our welfare spending by this Government, there is a real risk the system could collapse. This is not something anyone wants but
‘Under this Government, every working day 3,000 people move on to incapacity benefits—3,000 every single day. That is a 50% increase from when we left office. The Government have been in power for only one year; imagine what it will be like after the next four years. A 50% increase and 3,000 people going on to incapacity benefits every day is not normal, sustainable or acceptable...
28 million working people propping up 28 million people who are not working—the rider is getting heavier than the horse.’
The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill - Hansard - UK Parliament
With the growth forecast down and businesses struggling, unemployment rising, government borrowing costs increasing, councils going bankrupt, public-sector strikes looming and the Chancellor’s headroom for spending seemingly wiped out, I hope the Government is listening.
The Universal Credit Bill has now been debated in the House of Lords (22nd of July 2025) and I have provided the link to that transcript here for your interest:
