Tories pledge to use their disability benefits review to cut ‘welfare’ spending by even more than £23 billion

The Conservatives will use a new review of disability benefits to justify cuts to spending on social security of even more than the £23 billion a year they have already announced, their work and pensions spokesperson announced this week.

In a further shift to the right for her party – likely aimed at trying to fend off recent gains by Reform – shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately promised that a future Tory government would set about “toughening up the welfare system”.

Whately, who is slowly building a reputation for making misleading statements about disability benefits, repeatedly suggested that there was widespread fraud in the system – without offering any evidence – despite official government figures which show personal independence payment (PIP) fraud at just 1.4 per cent.

She said her party would not “tinker round the edges” in the review of what she called “the sickness benefit system”, which appears to be focused on both PIP and the health element of universal credit.

She told a launch event at the thinktank Re:State on Tuesday (pictured): “Disability and sickness benefits have become tantalisingly low-hanging fruit for those who are seeking easy cash from our benefits system… The system is perverse and we will change it.”

Appearing to encourage hostility towards disabled people who rely on support from the stated, she said it was “no wonder tax-payers are angry” at the significant benefits some families with disabled members can receive and at “the stories of people making up their benefit claims”.

She said her party had already announced that it would restore face-to-face assessments, and end access to disability benefits for “low-level mental health conditions and neurodiversity”.

But she said her party “won’t tinker round the edges” in its review.

Whately said: “We have to stop seeing toughening up the welfare system as a bad thing to do and start sticking up for the taxpayer footing the bill.”

And she added: “We have already identified £23 billion in welfare savings. This review will go further.”

She also made it clear that her party wanted to replace some benefits with practical support, describing cash benefits as “incentives”.

She told the launch event: “Our cash system isn’t working, so should that system be more practical and specific to individual needs?

“Where can we offer better support, really helping disabled people get into work or in fact live their lives to the full, and also avoid some of the incentives that cash inevitably provides.”

This appears to be a return to policy proposals firmly rejected by disabled people’s organisations when the Conservative government floated them shortly before the 2024 election.

Conservative ministers had suggested replacing a monthly cash payment for disability benefits with equipment, vouchers or one-off grants.

These policies and others were described at the time as a “brutal, ideological attack” on disabled people’s support.

Whately said her review would consider “whether the scope of the welfare system has grown too broad and whether we should draw a firmer line about kinds of needs and conditions our welfare system can and should support”.

The Conservative party failed to respond this week to requests for more information about Whately’s review.