PIP cuts will stop claimants from working – the government has been told, but why do Liz Kendall, Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer need to be reminded?

Don’t they know that the Personal Independence Payment is an in-work benefit and that cutting it in order to save nearly £5 billion is bound to stop working disabled people from being able to keep their jobs?

We have been told all the way through that the cuts are meant to incentivise people with less serious disabilities to take work – but in fact they are being faced with a merciless Catch-22: if they are in the group the government is targeting, they will be denied the help they need in order to keep a job.

Here‘s Birmingham Live:

Rebecca Florisson, Principal Analyst, Work Foundation at Lancaster University – a leading think tank for improving working lives in the UK – says the currently announced benefit reforms are counterproductive.

Ms Florisson said: The Chancellor pledged to restore stability in part by making cuts to welfare, but in doing so the Government is likely to inject instability into the lives of up to 3.2 million households with a disabled person as a result of this package.

“One in six people receiving the payment were in work in 2023, and it is often crucial in helping disabled workers to remain in a job.

“For people who lose their PIP entitlement at their next assessment, which is estimated to happen for 370,000 current recipients at a loss of £4,500 per year, this could be devastating for their ability to remain in work.

“Much now hinges on the success of the Government’s additional investment in employment support. It must connect disabled people who want to work with secure and well-paid employment opportunities. Failure to do so will risk eroding the living standards of already vulnerable people.”

Of course the big question is whether “secure and well-paid employment opportunities” even exist for disabled people.

My guess is that the Labour ministers named above have not done their homework and those choices are not available.

Without that, their cuts are nothing but an attack on the vulnerable. And the MPs committing this attack are getting a salary rise this month, equivalent to what they are taking from many disabled people.

One questions why they think they deserve it, when the work they are doing is so far below any acceptable standard.

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