‘Labour jeopardising benefit millions’
£600m support package for disabled claimants in danger of being quashed, warns Amber Rudd
AMBER RUDD has accused Labour of jeopardising hundreds of millions of pounds worth of benefit payments to severely disabled people.
The Work and Pensions Secretary claimed that Jeremy Corbyn was playing politics with the incomes of voters he “claims to represent” after Labour indicated that it will oppose key welfare reforms. In a letter to Margaret Greenwood, her Labour opposite number, and copied to Mr Corbyn, Ms Rudd accused Labour of “threatening to take money out of the pockets of benefits claimants with severe disabilities”.
Her intervention came after Labour said it was planning to oppose a regulation introducing payments of up to £405 per month for Universal Credit claimants who were previously entitled to the severe disability premium, a benefit for individuals including the registered blind.
The statutory instrument also introduced a pilot scheme in North Yorkshire, to test a new approach to switching benefits claimants on to the Tories’ flagship Universal Credit system, which Ms Greenwood said Labour opposed.
In a letter to Ms Rudd on July
24, Ms Greenwood said that while Labour “does not oppose in principle” the introduction of payments previously eligible for the premium, there was “widespread concern” about the new system, including from disability groups. Ms Greenwood revealed that Labour intended to “pray” against the regulation – meaning that the party is planning to table a motion to annul it when the Commons returns. Responding to Ms Greenwood last week, in a letter seen by The Sunday Telegraph, Ms Rudd, accuses Labour of using the move to try to halt the roll-out of Universal Credit. “Universal Credit, is not only helping people gain financial independence but it also includes provisions… to support 45,000 severely disabled people with a package of support worth £600million over six years,” Ms Rudd states.
“This also includes 20,000 people who will receive backdated payments, some of which will be over £10,000, as well as ongoing payments of up to £405 a month. By threatening to quash these regulations, you are playing politics with the incomes of people who the Opposition claim to represent.”
Ms Greenwood said Labour opposed the regulation because it gave the Government the power to stop the existing benefits of anyone who fails to switch to Universal Credit in time. She said: “It has brought forward these regulations without allowing a debate and a vote in Parliament. This is unacceptable.”
But Ms Rudd said: “The department does not intend to stop claimants’ legacy benefits during the pilot.”