Badenoch denies blaming unemployed young people as she sets out welfare cut plans

Kemi Badenoch has denied blaming young people for being out of work as she set out Conservative proposals to cut billions from the benefits bill. The Tory plans to slash £36 billion from welfare costs would take the biggest slice from reforms to disability and sickness benefits. The government is grappling with how to keep the ballooning welfare bill under control. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts it will rise to £431 billion by the 2031-32 financial year, largely driven by health-related and pensioner benefits.

Reviews into disability benefits and getting more of the 45% of young people who are not in employment, education or training (Neets,) led by Stephen Timms and Alan Milburn respectively, are expected to report back in the coming weeks. Schools should be a 'truly phone-free' environment, education secretary says Hundreds more prisoners to walk free in latest phase of early release scheme Asked whether there was a risk of blaming young people and failing to acknowledge the impact of changes in the job market, the Tory leader said: “No-one is blaming young people.

“What we’re blaming is the system that has been created where too much money is being spent on welfare and the Government doesn’t really want to do anything about it.” But shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately indicated the Tories would not spend more money on employment support. Asked whether there would be more money for training and help for jobseekers, Whately said “there is already substantial funding for those kind of programmes”.

She said young people coming off benefits would need “intensive support” to get a job, “but if they don’t show up they won’t get welfare”. The “welfare that works” plan also brings back the two-child benefit cap, raising £3.1 billion. Child Poverty Action Group Policy Director Sara Ogilvie said the move would “take the UK back to the dark ages” and prompt the biggest overnight increase in child poverty since records began. Subscribe for free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News.

Direct to your inbox every Friday morning. “We need all our politicians to commit to a plan to reduce child poverty rather than condemn the next generation to a future of struggle,” she said. Badenoch brushed off the criticism, saying the best way to keep children out of poverty was to get parents highly-paid work. She said: “Child poverty groups are there to say that there’s going to be more and more child poverty unless, you know, their demands are met.

“We have to balance what they are saying with what the facts say, and with what we are seeing on the ground. We are MPs as well. We see what’s happening in constituencies. Of course, we don’t want to see child poverty, but the best way to stop child poverty is to make sure that parents have well-paying jobs.” The cuts laid out in the Conservative plan include: £13.7 billion from reforms to disability and sickness benefits, including scrapping payments for mild mental health conditions and routine back and joint pain £9.5 billion will come from ending benefit claims for foreign nationals without EU settled status £3.1 billion by limiting child benefits to two children per family – a policy scrapped by Labour last year £2.8 billion from stopping child disability living allowance cash payments for mild learning and behavioural conditions £1 billion from tackling fraud and error A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Tories let the welfare bill soar on their watch.

Now they have the audacity to pretend it was nothing to do with them. You can’t trust them to solve problems they created in the first place. “The Conservatives designed and implemented this benefit system, which has driven large numbers of people to be signed off and written off." Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper MP called on the Tories to face up to “the damage their botched Brexit deal has done” and warned it would be “disabled people and children growing up in poverty who will pay the price”.

“The only way to avoid Labour’s painful tax hikes and the Conservatives’ punishing welfare cuts is to grow the economy, starting with a new growth and defence partnership with the EU,” she said. Have you heard our podcast Talking Politics? Tom and Robert dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…