After eight months in power, Labour's proposed benefit cuts are facing backlash for their harsh impact on disabled individuals. While they have dropped the freeze on personal independence payments (PIP), eligibility will be tightened, risking support for about one million disabled people. The controversial work capability assessment will be eliminated, and funding mostly cut from PIP. Though the basic rate of universal credit (UC) will increase for job seekers, the cuts represent 5bn in reductions, the most significant since prior government measures. Critics highlight the contradictions and potential harm these changes could impose on vulnerable individuals.
Plans to freeze the personal independence payment (Pip) have been dropped after a backlash from Labour MPs. But eligibility for the benefit will be severely tightened.
The package amounts to 5bn worth of cuts, the largest since George Osborne slashed benefits support a decade ago. With the benefits bill rising and a record number of people off work owing to long-term illness, the government is banking on all this sounding reasonable.
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