Welfare

Debate between Helen Whately and Chris Vince

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Helen Whately]

The hon. Member asks “How?” from a sedentary position. I have our plan with me here and, if he will just listen, I will set it out.

As I said, our reforms will save £36 billion. When the Prime Minister was asked about them, he said that they were just a number. He could not be more wrong. Savings are important, but reforming the welfare system is a good thing to do in its own right. We have not just plucked a big round number out of thin air; it takes hard graft to work out who should get support and what help they should get. It also involves saying who will not get benefits any more, which is not something that welfare party Members will ever have the courage to do.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

The hon. Lady knows that I always try to find cross-party consensus where possible. [Interruption.] I know—sometimes it is difficult, right? She referred to the Timms review. I am very pleased that my right hon. Friend the Minister is leading that review, because he is absolutely the right man for the job. Does she recognise that one of the things that the Timms review is looking at is the importance of bringing back in-person assessments for PIP? Those were scrapped by the previous Government. I am sure that she will come up with reasons for why that happened, but does she not recognise that it is good to bring them back? In-person assessments mean that we can get PIP to the people who need it, and fraudulent claims will go down. I did not mention Harlow—sorry!

[Helen Whately]

The hon. Member—for Harlow—has indeed found an opportunity for consensus across the House. We do want to see face-to-face assessments brought back. In fact, we want to see the Government get on with it—the sooner, the better.

If the Government are asking people to fund our welfare system, that system needs to do what the public want it to do. Our plan is grounded in five clear and widely held principles: fairness; contribution; responsibility; welfare as a safety net, not a lifestyle choice; and living within our means. Unlike the Timms review, we will not shy away from reforming sickness and disability benefits. We should not be telling millions of people that they need handouts from the state for milder conditions, neurodiversity and anxiety. The state is telling people that what matters is what they cannot do or what they find difficult, not what they can do. We will stop giving PIP for mild mental health conditions and routine back and joint pain, and shift from cash handouts to support, backed by an extra £1 billion of funding. This will save £13.7 billion a year.

The same tragedy is unfolding in children’s benefits. The number of child disability living allowance claims for behavioural conditions, learning difficulties and ADHD has doubled since 2020, as Policy Exchange’s recent excellent paper has highlighted. Even the Government’s own adviser, Professor Fonagy, has said that the actual prevalence is not going up at the same rate, yet half a million more children will be signed on under this Government. That is half a million children being told that they have something wrong with them, that they cannot succeed and that they need handouts, which can be up to £20,000 a year. I have heard stories of children saying that they do not want these labels foisted on them, but they are not being given a choice. Child disability living allowance is a conveyor belt on to PIP and then a clear path to becoming another of the 1 million NEETs, so we will reform DLA. Yes, cash should go to the families of seriously disabled children, and we will provide £1 billion of extra support for those with milder conditions. After that, we will save £2.8 billion from these reforms.