Liz Kendall tells MPs benefits system ‘holding our country back’ – UK politics live

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Kendall says reassessments for people on universal credit with health top-ups to be beefed up

Kendall says the government is also increase the reassessments for people getting universal credit with a health-top up.

We will also fix the failing system of reassessments. The Conservatives failed to switch reassessments back on after the pandemic, so they they’re down by more than two thirds, with face to face assessment going from seven in 10 to only one in 10.

We will turn these reassessments back on at scale and shift the focus back to doing more face to face.

And we will ensure that they are recorded as standard to give confidence to claimants and taxpayers that they’re being done properly.

Kendall says UC payments being rebalanced, with standard rate going up, and some health top-ups frozen or cut

Kendall says the current universal credit system creates “perverse financial incentives”, because people out of work who say they are too sick to work get paid a lot more than other people out of work. She says:

The Tories ran down the value of the universal credit standard allowance. As a result, the health top-up is now worth double the standard allowance at more than £400 a month, and in 2017 they took away extra financial help for the group of people who could prepare for work.

So we’re left with a binary assessment of can or can’t work, and a clear financial incentive to define yourself as incapable of work, something the OBR, IFS and others say is a likely factor driving people on to incapacity benefits.

Today, we tackle this problem head on. We will legislate to rebalance the payments in universal credit from April next year, holding the value of the health top-up fixed in cash terms for existing claimants, and reducing it for new claimants, with an additional premium for people with severe lifelong conditions that mean that they will never work to give them the financial security they deserve.

And alongside this, Mr. Speaker, we will bring in a permanent above-inflation rise to the standard allowance in universal credit for the first time ever, a £775 annual increase in cash terms by 2029-30 and a decisive step to tackle the perverse incentives in the system.

Kendall says 'right to try' will let people on sickness benefits try work without immediately having benefits cut

Kendall confirms the government will legislate for a “right to try” – meaning that people claiming sickness benefits can try out a new job, without immediately having their benefits cut.

We will do more by legislating for a right to try, guaranteeing that work, in and of itself, will never lead to a benefit reassessment, giving people the confidence to take the plunge and try work without the fear this will put their benefits at risk.

Kendall says WCA being scrapped, with Pip assessment process being used instead

Kendall says the government is scrapping the Tory proposals to reform the work capability assessment (WCA). She points out that the proposal was found unlawful by the courts.

She goes on:

Instead, we will scrap the WCA in 2028.

In future, extra financial support for health conditions in universal credit will be available solely through the Pip (personal independence payment] assessment.

So extra income is based on the impact of someone’s health condition or disability, not on their capacity to work, reducing the number of assessments that people have to go through and a vital step towards de-risking work.

Kendall says government to consult on merging JSA and ESA benefits

Kendall says the first priority is prevention.

Almost 4 million people are in work with a work limiting health condition, and around 300,000 fall out of work every year.

So we’ve got to do far more to help people stay in work and get back to work quickly, because your chances of returning are five times higher in the first year.

She says the government wants to help more employers offer support for disabled workers, including through reasonable adjustments.

And she says the government is going to consult on a new benefit.

Our green paper will consult on a major reform of contributory benefits, merging contributions-based job seeker’s allowance and employment support allowance into a new time-limited unemployment insurance, paid at a higher rate, without having to prove you cannot work in order to get it. So if you have paid into the system, you’ll get stronger income protection while we help you get back on track.

Kendall says there will always be people who can never work.

The social security system will always be there for people “in genuine need”, she says.

That is a principle the government will not compromise on.

But disabled people and people with health conditions who can work should have the same right choices and chances to work as everybody else.

Liz Kendall tells MPs benefits system 'holding our country back'

Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, is speaking now.

She says the government is ambitious for people.

But social security system we inherited from the Conservatives is failing the very people it is supposed to help and holding our country back.

She give figures to back this up.

The facts speak for themselves. One in 10 people of working age now claiming a sickness or disability benefit, almost 1 million young people, not in education, employment or training. That is one in eight of all our young people.

2.8 million out of work due to long term sickness and the number of people claiming personal independence payments set to double this decade from two to 4.3 million.

With the growth in claims rising faster among young people, and mental health conditions, and with claims up to four times higher in parts of the Midlands, Wales and the north where economic demand is weakest, places that were decimated in the 80s and 90s.

She says other countries do not have the same problem with inactivity in the workplace.

Where support is available for mental health and benefits issues

We may have a lot of readers today particularly interested in mental health and benefits issues.

The Guardian has a guide for people looking for organisations that can help with these issues.

Pip caseload up 12% over past year, DWP says

Today the DWP has issued figures about Pip. (See 12.27pm.) PA Media says:

A total of 3.66 million claimants in England and Wales were entitled to personal independence payments (Pip) as of January 31 2025, according to new figures published by the Department for Work & Pensions.

This is up 12% from 3.27 million a year earlier in January 2024.

At the end of January 2020, before the start of the Covid pandemic, the figure stood at 2.14 million.

It then rose to 2.36 million by the end of January 2021, 2.57 million by January 2022 and and 2.93 million by January 2023.

The current total of 3.66 million is 71% higher than the equivalent figure five years ago.

Liz Kendall will be making her statement to MPs about sickness and disability benefits at 12.30pm. She is expected to focus on two benefits in particular.

Pip (personal independent payments): This is a benefit that helps people cover extra cost they incur because they are disabled. It replaced the disability living allowance, and it is claimed both by people who are working and who are out of work. It is not means tested. There is a daily living component, and a mobility component, and the exact amount people receive depends on how they score in these two categories. It can be worth more than £600 per month.

Universal credit sickness payments: universal credit is a general benenfit, but it now incorporates what used to be incapacity benefit – the extra payment to people who are out of work because they are sick or disabled. This can be worth up to £416.19 per month, paid in addition to the standard rate of UC, £393.45 a month.

No 10 says David Lammy was wrong to tell MPs government thinks Israel has broken international law in Gaza

Yesterday, in the House of Commons, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said that Israel was in breach of international law because of the way it has been withholding aid from Gaza. In response to a direct question from Labour’s Rupa Huq, he replied:

My honourable friend is right. This is a breach of international law. Israel, quite rightly, must defend its own security, but we find the lack of aid - and it has now been 15 days since aid got into Gaza – unacceptable, hugely alarming and very worrying. We urge Israel to get back to the number of trucks we were seeing going in – way beyond 600 – so that Palestinians can get the necessary humanitarian support they need at this time.

But this morning Downing Street failed to back Lammy, and said instead that the government’s position is Israel is “at clear risk” of breaching international law. At the lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said:

Our position remains that Israel’s actions in Gaza are at clear risk of breaching international humanitarian law, and we continue to call on the government of Israel to abide by its international obligations when it comes to humanitarian assistance.

The spokesperson at first said that Lammy yesterday used this formula. When it was put to him that Lammy told MPs Israel had breached international law, not that it was at risk of doing so, the spokesperson said “there hasn’t been a change in policy here”. He claimed Lammy’s position was that Israel was at risk of breaching humanitarian law.

Asked if Lammy went further than he should have done, the spokesperson said that was a matter for the Foreign Office.

Asked if Lammy would be making a correction, the spokesperson again said that was a matter of the Foreign Office.

Farage accuses Badenoch of 'hypocrisy' over net zero, saying she could have opposed plans in 2019

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has accused Kemi Badenoch of performing an U-turn on net zero. In a statement issued this morning, under the headline ‘Farage responds to Kemi’s net zero hypocrisy’, he said:

Kemi is fooling no-one. Let’s not forget that she happily waved through Conservative government legislation on this, including enshrining net zero by 2050 into law.

If she truly believed this would bankrupt the country, why didn’t she voice her opposition sooner?

This is a desperate policy from a leader and party floundering in the polls in an attempt to hitch themselves onto Reform’s momentum. We have been consistent from the start: scrap net zero and save our country from economic catastrophe. Only Reform will cut your energy bills.

During the Q&A, Badenoch denied changing her mind on net zero. (See 11.01am.) Here is her answer on this in full.

I haven’t changed my mind. What you’re describing is called collective responsibility.

I was a member of the government. I sat in the committees where people were trying to make the plans work, and I could see that they were not going to deliver. I said so in 2019 when I asked the question, when it was first announced.

I said it again in 2022 when I first ran for leadership. I said it in 2023 when I lobbied to reduce the ZEV mandates that was being imposed on the car manufacturers who were coming to my office telling me it couldn’t work. And I said it again last year.

When talking about the 2019 “question”, Badenoch was referring to the fact that she was one of the MPs present when the Commons debated the Climate Change Act 2008 (2050 Target Amendment) Order 2019 that set 2050 as the net zero target. She also mentioned this in her speech (see 10.47am), saying she was one of only two MPs who expressed caution.

Here is the Hansard transcript of that debate in June 2019. And here is Badenoch’s (very short) intervention.

Many of my constituents, especially schoolchildren, will be delighted by this announcement, but others are rightly sceptical about the costs. What steps will the minister take to ensure that the plan will be achievable and affordable?

The order was approved without a vote.

At the time of this debate, Badenoch was not a minister, and so she was not really bound by “collective responsibility”, a term that normally just applies to members of the government. Technically, she could have tried to force a division in that debate in June 2019. But given the strong cross-party support for the measure, and the fact that few, if any, other MPs were actively opposed to the law at the time, it would have been an eccentric move, especially for a backbencher with ambitions.

Badenoch says she won't commit to leaving ECHR without plan to make it work, because that was flaw with Brexit

Q: What is your thinking on leaving the European convention on human rights (ECHR)?

Badenoch says what she said during the leadership campaign still holds. She is not ruling it out, but if the party is going to commit to this, it needs a plan.

I remember voting before I became an MP on the 2016 Brexit referendum, only to become an MP the next year and see that we’ve made a decision, but a lot of the thinking had not been done, and we were making it up on the fly. We cannot do that again.

Even leaving the ECHR is not enough to solve the myriad problems that we have. That’s why I talked about lawfare in its entirety.

Q: Will you set a new target for net zero?

Badenoch says she is not going to make a target now. That would be making the same mistake.

If all the experts say there should be a date, she will set one.

But she wants to include people like businesses and sceptics in the decision making process.

Q: What do you to cut emissions yourself?

Badenoch says she does everything possible. She does not buy many clothes for her children, she says. She says recycling is cheaper.

Badenoch does not commit to Tories maintaining support for triple lock at next election

Q: Will you maintain the pension triple lock?

Badenoch says at the moment the party is committed to the triple lock.

When we are changing policy, I will stand on a stage like this, and I will announce that we’re changing policy. Until then, the policy stays.

That sounded like Badenoch keeping the door very open to the possibility of changing this policy before the election.

Q: Should MPs get a vote before the UK deploys troops on the ground?

Badenoch says there should be consensus. That would be a very significant decision, she says.

Q: Aren’t you just trying to trump Reform UK with this policy?

Badenoch says there was no Reform UK in 2019 when she started talking about this.

Q: Labour says it can reduce energy bills by £300. Can you do that?

Badenoch says she wants to start from objectives that are not abstract. Net zero by 2050 is an abstract objective, she says.

She says:

We need to start with, how we making people’s lives better? Is this going to keep businesses going? How do we make those cheaper?

The Tories need to make policies based on how they will impact on ordinary people, she says.