The government will not follow the advice of the previous Tory administration when it comes to slashing the welfare bill, a minister has said following reports the chancellor is eyeing up £3bn worth of cuts.
Work and pensions minister Alison McGovern said the UK was “paying the price of failure” from the previous government, with around 1.8 million people out of work who say they want a job.
Ahead of the budget, the government is looking to raise up to £40bn through tax hikes and spending cuts, to the alarm of some ministers who are concerned by the scale of the chancellor’s plans.
There have been reports that the Department for Work and Pensions is one target for cuts, with Rachel Reeves seeking to slash around £3bn from the welfare bill over the next four years by restricting access to sickness benefits.
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According to The Daily Telegraph, Ms Reeves hopes to achieve this by following the previous government’s plans to reform work capability rules by tightening eligibility, so that around 400,000 more people who are signed off long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for employment by 2028/29 – a move that would reduce the benefits bill by an estimated £3bn.
Asked whether those who are not currently in work could expect to see their benefits cut, Ms McGovern said there had “always been rules” in the UK’s social security system, with a “duty on both sides”.
“People who are receiving social security have a duty to comply with those rules and the government has a duty to help people,” she said.
But she appeared to distance herself from the suggestion that Labour would follow the Conservatives’ blueprint, telling Sky News: “Like all departments, the Department for Work and Pensions has to make savings because the financial situation our country is in is not good at all.
“But I don’t think we should follow the advice of a Conservative government that failed over 14 years – so we will bring forward our own proposals.”
Before the election, The Tories pledged to reform the disability benefits system and target it at those most in need by tightening the criteria for work capability assessments.
They also proposed to pass on the responsibility for issuing sick notes from GPs to specialist work and health professionals.
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Rishi Sunak also pledged to take benefits away from people who were fit to work but did not accept job offers after 12 months, and to tighten the work capability assessment so those with less severe conditions would be expected to seek employment.
It is understood the chancellor will commit to the plan to save £3bn over four years, but Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, will decide how the system will be changed in order to achieve this.
The reforms will also include overhauling job centres, delivering a “youth guarantee” to ensure young people are either working or learning, and devolving power to local leaders.
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Ms McGovern said it was the government’s ambition to get 80% of people into work, which would translate to more than two million extra people in the Labour market.
She said this could be achieved in part by reforming job centres, which she called “the most unloved public service”, adding: “The system we have means that people go into a job centre, they see somebody for ten minutes, tick the box and you’re off.
“And that has got to change because we’ve had 14 years of failure when it comes to our economy and getting people into work.”
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