BBC news: Disability cuts ‘a suggestion’, cabinet minister Nicky Morgan says 18 March 2016
Plans in the Budget to cut disability benefits, which have sparked threats of a Tory revolt, are “a suggestion”, cabinet minister Nicky Morgan has said. The proposals were “still under consultation”, but aimed to make sure “the right people” got help, the education secretary said.
The cuts would hit 370,000 people, with an average loss of £3,500 a year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said. A number of Tory MPs have written to the chancellor urging a rethink.
The government had announced it was changing the way it calculated the daily living component of Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) from January 2017. Budget documents made clear it would save the government more than £4bn by 2020-21.
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But ministers have faced intense criticism over the plans, with Labour and some Tory MPs threatening to derail them in the Commons.
Speaking on BBC Question Time on Thursday, Ms Morgan said that the government was “continuing the conversation” to make sure money was “going to the right people to help them with the right needs”.
“First of all we’ve got to finish the consultation and the conversations that we’re having with MPs, but also with disability groups and others, before we even bring any legislation forward. “It is something that has been put forward, there has been a review, there has been a suggestion, we are not ready to bring the legislation forward,” she said.
The government’s public consultation on PIPs closed last week.
‘Backwards step’
Fellow panel members responded with incredulity to Ms Morgan’s comments, with UKIP’s Roger Helmer asking: “The Budget is merely a suggestion, is it?”
Meanwhile, there have been growing calls within the Conservative Party for a U-turn.
Backbench MP David Burrowes said the proposals were a “backward step” and urged ministers to “press ‘pause’ on it”. “There’s lots that we are doing so much better but this puts us on the back foot,” he told BBC Two’s Newsnight.
What are the proposed changes?
Recipients of PIPs are assessed using a points system to determine what level of help they receive. Claimants can get between £21.80 and £139.75 per week.
The money is meant to help people cope with the extra cost of living with a disability or long-term health problem and are used to fund everything from mobility cars to adapted baths and showers.
The weight given to the use of aids and appliances in two of the 10 daily living activities – dressing and managing toilet needs – will be reduced from January.
It follows an independent review, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, which said a “significant number of people” were likely to be getting the benefit despite having “minimal-to-no” ongoing daily living extra costs.
But disability campaigners say the changes will make it harder for some disabled people to qualify for the benefit and prevent people hit by other benefit cuts from living independently.
Who will disability ‘cuts’ impact?
Tory backbencher Andrew Percy – who has organised a letter to Chancellor George Osborne urging him to reconsider – warned the government would suffer a defeat in the Commons if it tried to push the changes through.
Mr Percy said the proposals “send out the wrong message about the priorities of the government” and suggested they were more about helping Mr Osborne meet his self-imposed cap on overall welfare spending than reforming the benefits system.
Conservative MP Johnny Mercer also expressed reservations on Twitter, writing: “Concerned by proposed changes to PIP. Not sure right direction.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has written to his party’s MPs to insist consultations were continuing.
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Justin Tomlinson, minister for disabled people, has defended the changes, saying there would still be an increase in the number of people claiming PIPs, and more money would be directed at the people who “needed it most”.
He told the BBC that although hundreds of thousands of people would be hit by the cut in 2020-21, many would not lose out completely. “A significant chunk of that 640,000 will continue to receive the benefit,” he said.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Osborne had “declared war on the disabled”.
Telegraph: Nicky Morgan: Disability cuts ‘a suggestion’ – Budget plans to cut disability benefits that have brought threats of a Tory revolt are “a suggestion”, cabinet minister Nicky Morgan says on BBC Question Time
ITV news: Disability cuts are ‘a suggestion’, Tory MP says
Independent: Disability benefit cuts included in the Budget were just ‘a suggestion’, cabinet minister Nicky Morgan says – The Government appears to be rowing back on the PIP cuts
Mirror: Watch Tory minister’s hapless bid to row back over PIP disability cuts on Question Time
Huffington Post: Cabinet Minister hints at a PIP U-turn in disastrous performance
