THE country is considering making changes to disability and mental health benefit payments as prime minister Rishi Sunak aims to slow the rise in the government's welfare bill and get more people into work.
Ahead of a national election expected later this year that opinion polls show he is likely to lose, Sunak wants to appeal to core Tory voters by warning that future rises in welfare spending are fiscally unsustainable.
Work and pensions minister Mel Stride said that the government was starting a 12-week consultation on personal independence payments (PIP), a cash benefit paid to 3.3 million people with health problems and disabilities in Britain.
Projections from official budget forecasters show that PIP payments are set to rise by 63 per cent over the next five years, or £13 billion a year, Stride said.
"There is a sustainability issue here that we need to have a grown-up conversation about," he told Times Radio.
"We should be thinking about and examining the possibility that we take a different approach than straightforward cash benefits paid."
The proposal also suggest shifting away from a fixed monetary benefit system. This implies that individuals with certain conditions may no longer receive regular payments but rather access treatment if their condition doesn't incur additional expenses.
James Taylor, the executive director of strategy at disability equity charity Scope, called for an end to the “reckless assault” on disabled people and to fix the “real underlying issues”.
“It’s hard to have any faith that this consultation is about anything other than cutting the benefits bill, no matter the impact,” Taylor was quoted as saying.
“Life costs a lot more for disabled people, including people with mental health conditions. Threatening to take away the low amount of income Pip provides won’t solve the country’s problems.
“The government needs to end this reckless assault on disabled people and focus on how to fix the real underlying issues.”
Sunak, who faces the prospect of heavy losses in local elections on Thursday (2), has said that, if re-elected in the next national election, he wants to do more on welfare reform.
He said earlier in April that the government would consider tightening rules for long-term sick leave to reverse a rise in the number of Britons who have permanently dropped out of the workforce.
(with inputs from Reuters)
Some panic-stricken commuters reportedly considered jumping off the trains, but were eventually rescued safely (PTI photo)
