Labour’s welfare reforms will see an additional 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – pushed into relative poverty, government analysis has found.
Published yesterday alongside chancellor Rachel Reeves' Spring Statement, the Department for Work and Pensions assessment looks at how benefits cuts being introduced by the government will affect those impacted.
It forecasts that by 2029-30, 3.2 million families will suffer an average financial loss of £1,720 a year.
For example, people who are no longer eligible for the Personal Independent Payments as a result of the changes will lose £4,500 on average, according to the assessment.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, rejected the findings, telling Huffington Post UK: “Those numbers are based on not a single person moving from welfare into work and we are, alongside this package of welfare reforms, putting in £1bn of targeted, personalised and guaranteed support for anybody on sickness and disability benefits to help them find work that’s appropriate for the situation that they are in.
“I know that there are thousands of people with disabilities who are desperate to work if only they were provided with the support. I understand where these numbers come from, they’re a static set of numbers as if nothing changes, but of course things will change.”
The government argues that major reform of the welfare system is needed because the amount of money paid out in the form of benefits is not sustainable.
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said last week that the changes would "help people stay in work" and "get back to work more quickly".
Helen Barnard, director of policy, research and information at Trussell, said that the welfare cuts risked forcing “more people to skip meals and turn to food banks to get by”.
“These cruel cuts are out of touch with what voters want from this government,” she said following the chancellor's Spring Statement this afternoon.
"The government says people voted for change, but we know that seven in ten voters across political parties agree the social security for disabled people should at least be enough to cover essential living costs. This is a change for the worse, and it is disabled people who will pay the price.”
Reeves told MPs yesterday that she would have broken her own fiscal rules had she not brought in further welfare cuts on top of what was announced by Kendall last week.
Paul Novak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said the government should not base long-term policy making on short-term forecasts produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility, and urged ministers to think again on the welfare reforms.
"Decisions that affect millions of people’s lives must be made with care – not as a last-minute response to changed fiscal forecasts," he said.
Tom Scotson is a political reporter for CSW's sister title PoliticsHome, where this story first appeared. CSW has made additional changes to the story.