The Government announced plans for a major overhaul in the benefits system last week and here are the five main benefit changes proposed.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unveiled a stringent new approach to benefit claimants, announcing significant overhauls to the benefits system in a speech at the Centre for Social Justice last week. This included alterations to Personal Independence Payments (PIP), enhanced powers for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to issue fines, and a targeted effort to tackle what he terms "sick note culture".
The Government's latest move could result in millions of benefit recipients seeing their DWP payments slashed or halted as it seeks to trim the burgeoning benefits bill, which has ballooned by two-thirds since the pandemic began, coinciding with a sharp rise in unemployment figures.
Reacting to the welfare overhaul, disability charity Scope has slammed the reforms as "dangerous" and tantamount to a "full-on assault on disabled people". The changes are poised to affect millions, potentially reducing their benefits as part of the Government's push to get more of the 2.8 million long-term sick individuals in the UK into employment.
As the nation gears up for an election later this year, it remains uncertain whether these reforms will be implemented during the current Parliament, with their fate likely resting on the outcome of the General Election. While the Labour Party has not yet detailed its stance on the benefits system, shadow DWP secretary Liz Kendall remarked last month: "Under our changed Labour party, if you can work there will be no option of a life on benefits."
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Here are five key changes to the benefits system that the Prime Minister announced on Friday (April 19).
Significant PIP reforms
The Prime Minister's speech highlighted a significant increase in government spending on Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which are provided to individuals with long-term physical or mental health conditions or disabilities.
Sunak expressed concern over the growing number of people being signed off work due to mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, who then become dependent on PIP and other benefits to get by. The prime minister indicated that changes could be made to the eligibility criteria and evidence requirements for the benefit. In his speech, he suggested that payments for those with mental health conditions could decrease.
He stated: "For all the challenges they face it is not clear they have the same degree of increased living costs as those with physical conditions. We'll also consider whether some people with mental health conditions should get PIP in the same way through cash transfers or whether they'd be better supported to lead happier, healthier and more independent lives through access to treatment like talking therapies or respite care."
For individuals with physical conditions, payments may also be reduced with the focus potentially shifting towards providing essential equipment. The Prime Minister said: "Often they're already available at low cost, or free from the NHS or Local Authorities. And they're one-off costs so it probably isn't right that we're paying an ongoing amount every year."
The government is also pushing for more medical proof when it comes to PIP claims and aims for "a more objective and rigorous approach that focuses support on those with the greatest needs and extra costs" setting boundaries on "the type and severity of mental health conditions that should be eligible for PIP."
Benefits could be stopped for 250,000 people
Sunak's stringent benefits policy particularly targets individuals who have been jobless for over a year yet are deemed fit for work. He suggested such claimants might see their benefits "removed entirely". Those receiving DWP aid could be compelled to take any job offered or risk losing their support.
The Prime Minister said: "More than 500,000 people have been unemployed for six months and well over a quarter of a million have been unemployed for 12 months. These are people with no medical conditions that prevent them from working and who will have benefitted from intensive employment support and training programmes. There is no reason those people should not be in work, especially when we have almost 1 million job vacancies. So we will now look at options to strengthen our regime."
The Prime Minister expressed his concern for young people who are out of work for a long time, stating: "There's nothing compassionate about leaving a generation of young people to sit alone in the dark before a flickering screen watching as their dreams slip further from reach every single day."
GPs might no longer issue sick notes
In an attempt to tackle the high number of people out of work, the Prime Minister unveiled plans to shift the responsibility for determining someone's fitness to work from GPs to other "health professionals". This could potentially mean pharmacists, or other yet-to-be-named healthcare workers, issuing sick notes. Under the plans, these assessments would be conducted alongside a work coach who would find ways to assist people with ill health or disability back into work - potentially pushing large numbers of claimants back into work.
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He stated: "We're also going to test shifting the responsibility for assessment from GPs and giving it to specialist work and health professionals who have the dedicated time to provide an objective assessment of someone's ability to work and the tailored support they need to do so."
DWP to get new powers to arrest and fine
A huge shift in the functioning of the DWP was also unveiled at the Centre for Social Justice, including new powers to penalise and arrest claimants. Post-General Election. The Fraud Bill will be debated but plans to give the DWP similar authority to HMRC in combating fraudsters. About 3% of the entire benefits bill, now inflated to £69billion following the pandemic, is attributed to fraud and overpayment.
In his address, Sunak stated: "A new Fraud Bill for the next Parliament which will align DWP with HMRC so we treat benefit fraud like tax fraud with new powers to make seizures and arrests. And we'll also enable penalties to be applied to a wider set of fraudsters through a new civil penalty.
Work Capability Assessments set to become more stringent
Sunak revealed that through Work Capability Assessments (WCA), the percentage of people deemed unfit to work soared from 20% in 2011 to 65% just thirteen years later. He expressed his disagreement with these figures saying: "That's wrong. People are not three times sicker than they were a decade ago."
Though the Government has not disclosed or announced the new criteria for WCA, Sunak explicitly communicated his intention to reduce the number of individuals qualified for disability benefits due to illness or disability. He stated: "So we are going to tighten up the Work Capability Assessment such that hundreds of thousands of benefit recipients with less severe conditions will now be expected to engage in the world of work and be supported to do so."
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to webhomepage@mirror.co.uk
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