As the Tories unveiled a blueprint to cut £36.1billion a year from the welfare bill, Child Poverty Action Group said it would cause child poverty to rocket overnight
Campaigners said Tory plans would cause child poverty to rocket overnight(Image: Getty Images)
Kemi Badenoch’s draconian plans to slash benefits and reinstate the two-child benefit limit would drag the UK back to the “dark ages”, campaigners have warned.
As the Tories unveiled a blueprint to cut £36.1billion a year from the welfare bill, Child Poverty Action Group said it would cause child poverty to rocket overnight.
Labour also branded the plans a “charter for homelessness and human misery” that would only end up costing the state more in emergency support.
Ms Badenoch announced plans for the £36billion in cuts at the Tory conference last month – but today set out further details on how the party would get there. The plans involve claims cuts to disability and sickness benefits – including scrapping payments for mild mental health conditions and routine back and joint pain – would save £13.7billion.
Another £9.5billion will come from ending benefit claims for foreign nationals without EU settled status. And a further £3.1billion by reinstating the two-child benefit limit – a policy scrapped by Labour last year.
Officials have estimated scrapping the cruel two-child benefit limit – which restricts parents from claiming additional Universal Credit for more than two children – would lift 450,000 children out of poverty by the end of the Parliament.
But at a press conference on Tuesday in central London, Ms Badenoch said: “The question of whether we should cut welfare goes to the heart of what sort of country we want to be. It exposes a fundamental difference between Labour and the Conservatives. Labour MPs think cutting welfare is always cruel.
“They believe the kindest thing you can do for someone who is struggling is to tell them it’s okay not to look after themselves. That there’s nothing wrong with a life of dependency.”
She admitted that there must be a safety net for those who “genuinely cannot work”.
She added: “But the reality is that millions of people can and do contribute – to our economy, to their families, to their communities – even when they face serious challenges. Double amputees run marathons. People who are housebound do wonderful creative work from home. People with autism run some of the biggest tech companies in the world.
“If you tell a young person that their ADHD means they are defective and will never amount to anything, that mindset is likely to be more destructive to their future than the condition itself.
But Child Poverty Action Group’s Sara Ogilvie slammed the measures, saying: “These proposals would take the UK back to the dark ages, causing the biggest overnight increase in child poverty since records began.
“We need all our politicians to commit to a plan to reduce child poverty rather than condemn the next generation to a future of struggle.”
A Labour spokesman added: “The Tories’ so-called ‘plan’ is a charter for homelessness and human misery that would push people into hardship and end up costing the state more.
“The crude cuts they want to make would compound the mistakes they made in government, which led to the welfare bill rocketing by nearly £114 billion and a NEETs crisis.
“Labour is tackling the Tories’ collapse in face-to-face assessments, bringing in personalised employment support for sick and disabled people, and spreading opportunity to young people through the Youth Guarantee.
“Further reforms will follow the Milburn and Timms Reviews, which will be about bringing the welfare bill down in a Labour way by shifting funding to invest in success rather than paying for failure.”
