For many MPs cutting disability benefits went against the grain of all they stand for, while the government was desperate to avoid a repeat of the controversy that dogged the scrapping of the winter fuel payment – but also needing, in their view, to bring down a benefits bill projected to hit £70bn a year by 2030.
The majority of MPs on the Labour benches are supportive of moves to help people into work and more secure income streams.
The reforms amounted to a promised £5bn cut to the benefit budget.
Kendall has not ruled out making more cuts to welfare in future despite the fact she maintains her focus is not on saving money, but getting people into work.
And they are highly skeptical about how any savings could actually be found without the government resorting to freezing universal credit – therefore implementing real terms cuts – or changing the benefit cap to reduce the amount households are entitled to.
Ed Davies, Policy Director of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), told The i Paper there are two surefire ways to make savings in the short term.
“And longer term they are almost certainly going to have to come back for more because these people are not in work.”
It proposes structural reform to save money by reducing the number of people relying on benefits, such as healthcare and societal interventions as well as reform of the “fit note” system.
Those who require other support, such as counselling, should be offered services in kind, instead, it argues.
“Mental health is a difficult area to talk about and it is not about making savings, it’s about getting people into work. We have made recommendations around fit notes, not writing people off, and ensuring you have reassessments so you can get people back up and running when they are feeling better,” he said.
“If you had a ‘low level’ mental health problem, you would not reach the new 4-point criteria, so it is not that you are withdrawing help but you are providing help but not the cash.”
Cuts could cost more
Gideon Salutin, Senior Researcher at the Social Market Foundation think tank, warned cutting welfare crudely would end up pushing the cost to other government departments.
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“During austerity, when different benefits were cut, you saw rising demand for homelessness on local authorities, for example. So that way you are not actually saving the state any money, you are just shifting the cost and the responsibility.”
But Mr Salutin said he was “skeptical that much [the 5bn figure] can be cut from the budget”.
The lock – which is currently supported by the government – has drawn criticism over the fact it has ratchet up the annual rise in state pension. It ensures the pensioner benefit rises in line with the highest of either average earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent.
The think tank has calculated it would save £2.6bn over five years.
Longer term savings
The CSJ, which was set up and is now chaired by former Work and Pensions Secretary Sir Iain Dunan Smith, has argued for early intervention to improve training and education and prevent younger people falling out of employment.
“And there are a lot of things in the education system. When we are thinking about youth benefits bill you have to start upstream about how you create employable people.
He said, in the long term, the government must look at why there is a discrepancy between young men who are economically inactive, compared with women, as well as the impact of the “collapse” of the traditional family formation.
“These are policies that are hard to do but if you don’t broach it we are just going to be forever salami slicing,” he said.
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