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Starmer says vote on welfare cuts bill happening on Tuesday amid growing Labour revolt – UK politics live

MPs are due to vote on cutting disability and sickness benefits worth around £5bn but number of Labour MPs signing amendment is growingTimms told the work and pensions committee that the government had to cut welfare spending urgently.Asked by Debbie Abrahams, the committee’s chair, why the government had not consulted on the key cuts in the bill, Timms replied:Essentially because of the urgency of the changes needing to be made. So if we look at personal independence payment (Pip) – the year before the pandemic, in current prices, Pip cost the then government £12bn. Last year it cost the government £22bn and the cost of it went up by £3bn per year – or £2.8bn per year – last year alone.And that is not a sustainable trajectory. So there was a need for urgency with the changes.I think you are absolutely right. I am sure that the cost of living challenges are a very big factor in what’s happened. That people who may well have always been eligible but have not in the past claimed benefit, are now doing, and that’s what’s driven this very substantial increase.It’s not in the interests of people who depend on Pip for it to be on a financially unsustainable trajectory. We do need to deal with that. Continue reading...

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