"Government fails to deliver £4bn savings after cutting disability benefit"

[dutchman]

Office for Budget Responsibility says forecasts initially predicted £13.6bn would be spent on disability benefits in 2018-2019 but now this figure is now thought to be £18bn



The Government has failed to deliver the £4bn of savings it was expecting to make after cutting disability benefit, according to new analysis.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the Government was hoping to cut spending by 20 per cent by moving from the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

Forecasts initially predicted £13.6bn would be spent on disability benefits in 2018-2019 but now this figure is thought to be £18bn.

Senior Labour MP’s accused the Tories of “creating further waste and expense” resulting in the need for cuts elsewhere.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams said: "This analysis clearly shows that the Government's social security cuts are failing disabled people. It is becoming increasingly clearer that these flawed Tory assessments only create further waste and expense."

Frank Field, chairman of the Work and Pensions select committee, added: "Clearly the Government was as over-optimistic with PIP as it has been with universal credit.

"Its failure to deliver either project on time, as well as to achieve the savings it had assumed would be possible, has resulted in a series of cuts having to be made elsewhere in the welfare budget. One way of saving money, of course, would be to ensure a higher percentage of PIP assessments return accurate decisions.

"This would prevent both the immediate hardship among claimants as well as the need for lengthy, costly appeals which serve in many cases to delay justice."

The rise in payments has been attributed to an ageing population and more pay-outs to those with behavioural and mental health conditions.

There has also been an increase in the number of people fighting decisions to be rejected for PIP. A total of 161,000 people have had rulings overturned since 2013.

[rebbonk]

Governments rarely make savings with cuts like this. All they have done is make life unbearably harder for those they ought have been protecting.

[Melisandre]

It also will make a lot jobless and homeless especially those having to pay bedroom tax.

[dutchman]

I can't remember any government measure which was supposed to 'save money' which didn't end up costing the taxpayer a lot more?

[Melisandre]

I always thought it was to keep the rich boys in a job with extra pocket money for them while others suffer for their stupid thoughtless cruel ideas.

[dutchman]

Theresa May refuses to rule out further disability benefits cuts

Theresa May has refused to rule out making further cuts to disability benefits in the next Parliament if the Conservatives are returned to government.

Asked by The Independent at a campaign event in Mansfield whether she would rule out any further cuts to support, the Prime Minister avoided giving a direct answer.

“If you look at what we’ve been doing on disability benefits, what we have done is look at focusing disability benefit payments on those who are most in need. In fact we are spending more on disability benefit payments than has been done by any government in the past,” she replied.

“We have changed the way that disability benefits have been paid and I know there are some issues that people continue to raise about assessments that are made on those payments. But we will continue to be moving to a system that ensures we are supporting those most in need.”

A £30-a-week cut to some new claimants of the Employment and Support Allowance came into effect last month despite opposition from more than 30 disability charities.

Disabled people put in the Work Related Activity Group will now receive £73 a week instead of £103 – the same rate as non-disabled people claiming jobseekers’ allowance.

The Department for Work and Pensions says the lower rate of cash support will encourage disabled people to find work. Charities say the cuts do not incentivise work, make life harder for disabled people who face extra costs, and mean some people will be unable to afford basic necessities.

The Government was also forced to U-turn on a £4.4bn cut to the personal independence payment (PIP) in March last year after signs of a rebellion amongst its own backbenchers and the resignation of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who said he could not back the policy.

But with polls showing the Conservatives likely to return to office with a larger majority than before, the threat of backbench rebellion would be unlikely to constrain the Government in the same way.

Labour slated Ms May’s position on further cuts.

“It should come as no surprise to disabled people who have borne the brunt of Government cuts that the Prime Minister has refused to rule out further cuts to their support in the next Parliament,” Debbie Abrahams, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, told The Independent.

“If the Prime Minister really cared about disabled people she wouldn’t have supported punitive and unjust cut including for PIP affecting over 160,000 people with chronic mental health conditions and ESA WRAG affecting half a million sick and disabled people. Only Labour will stand up for disabled people.”