An extra 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, will be living in “relative poverty” by 2030 as a result of the plans, the Department for Work and Pensions’ own impact assessment said — although it stressed the figures don’t take into account the effect of the government’s proposed initiatives to get people back into work.
“If we do nothing, that means we are writing off an entire generation,” Reeves told MPs in defense of the plans, as she insisted Labour had “inherited a broken system” from the Conservatives.
But plenty on her own side will need more convincing than that — even if Labour’s thumping House of Commons majority makes a major legislative upset only a remote possibility.
“I want a society that looks after our most vulnerable people and the statement I’ve just listened to has some appalling cuts that disabled people will be the victims of,” Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman said. He would, he said, be voting against the “horrendous cuts” when the moment comes.
Grim toll
Reeves’ Treasury has in recent days been left scrambling to find fresh cuts after Britain’s spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), judged that the blueprint outlined in a welfare paper unveiled only last week would in fact save less than expected.
Reeves’ team hastily drew up a plan for a£500 million of extra savings. That plan includes freezing incapacity benefits for new claimants of Universal Credit (instead of allowing payments to rise with inflation) until 2030, and cutting the basic rate of the benefit in 2029 from £107 to £106 per week.
