It's too easy to claim benefits in UK, Badenoch says

Kemi Badenoch has said it is too easy for people to claim benefits in the UK, as she set out proposals to restrict welfare payments.

The Conservative leader told the BBC there needed to be a "crackdown on people exploiting the system".

In a speech setting out her party's plans, she called for foreign nationals to be barred from claiming disability and sickness benefits, while arguing that those with less severe conditions like anxiety and mild depression should not be signed off work.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: "The Conservatives had 14 years to reform welfare. Instead, they left the country with a broken system that holds people back and fails to support the most vulnerable."

In her speech Badenoch described Britain's benefits bill as a "ticking time bomb" that could "collapse" the economy.

It comes after Labour largely gutted its own plan for benefits cuts after a backbench revolt.

Legislation to bring in remaining government cuts to sickness benefits was approved by MPs on Wednesday evening.

But other proposals, including changes to the eligibility criteria for disability benefits, have effectively been put on hold.

Badenoch told the BBC: "Our welfare system is being exploited by a whole bunch of people, both British and non-British, who should not be claiming benefits."

The Tories have proposed that disability and sickness benefits should only be paid to British citizens, with exceptions for those covered by international agreements, such as citizens from EU countries who have acquired settled status in the UK.

At the moment, foreign nationals gain access to the welfare system when they are granted indefinite leave to remain or refugee status. Applicants for personal independence payments (Pips) generally need to have lived in Britain for at least two of the last three years.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to apply for benefits, although they have access to taxpayer-funded accommodation and separate financial support.

"It is not unreasonable to expect someone to have paid in and become a British citizen before they unlock access to sickness benefits," Badenoch said.

Labour warned that the Conservative proposal could see disabled British nationals living abroad being denied support if other countries decided to take a similar approach.

Badenoch told the BBC "we can look at reciprocal arrangements with different countries" but the overall principle was that "we cannot have an international benefits system".

Other Tory proposals include making it harder for people with "less severe" mental health conditions to claim disability payments and the health-related part of universal credit, and preventing claimants from receiving payments without a face-to-face assessment.

"Anxiety and mild depression are real conditions, but that doesn't mean that those suffering should be signed off work at the expense of the taxpayer," Badenoch said.

Challenged that face-to-face assessments failed to return to pre-Covid levels under the Tories, Badenoch blamed the pandemic for the fall.

She acknowledged "there are things we could have done faster" but added "we're not in government now".

In March the government announced plans to cut benefit spending, warning the working-age welfare bill was set to rise by nearly £30bn by 2030 and reforms to the system were required to ensure it remained sustainable.

It wanted to make it harder to claim personal independence payment (Pip), the main disability benefit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and make health-related top-ups for universal credit less generous.

But ministers significantly watered down the cuts earlier this month after a huge rebellion from Labour MPs, all but wiping out savings estimated to be worth £5bn a year by the end of the decade.

Plans to freeze the higher rate of universal credit for existing health-related claimants have been reversed, whilst all changes to the Pip system have been parked pending a government review into the assessment regime.

In her speech on Thursday, Badenoch accused Labour of being "beholden to left-wing MPs" and "turning a blind eye" to rising benefit costs.

She also sought to create a dividing line with Reform UK over the two-child benefit cap, which Nigel Farage's party has pledged to scrap, branding him "Jeremy Corbyn with a pint and a cigarette".

"On welfare he shows his true colours - promising unaffordable giveaways with no plan to fix the system," she said.

Labour is under pressure from some of its own MPs to lift the cap, which was introduced under the Conservatives and prevents most families from claiming means-tested benefits for any third or additional children born after April 2017.

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