Reform UK unveils £50bn welfare overhaul plan scrapping disability payments
Robert Jenrick outlines sweeping reforms to benefits system affecting 2.89 million disabled people, drawing swift criticism as 'fantasy economics.'
What to know
- Reform UK plans to cut £50 billion from welfare by scrapping PIP for working-age people and replacing it with a Health Security Allowance covering only severe cases—affecting an estimated 2.89 million people.
- Labour and Conservatives both rejected the plan; Labour called it 'fantasy economics' while Conservatives dismissed it as 'half-baked' and a distraction from Farage's financial controversies.
- Disability advocates and online critics argue the plan would force disabled people out of work and into costly institutional care, questioning the credibility of Reform's savings projections.
“Reform's £50bn claim is fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people and shifting costs onto employers.”
Labour Party spokesperson, Labour Party · BBC News ↗ · Aug 14
Robert Jenrick Reform UK treasury spokespersonReform UK Political party proposing welfare reformsLabour Party Opposition partyConservative Party Ruling party
Sir Stephen Timms Disability Minister
How it unfolded 4 events · last 26 hours pressvideopostscomments
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Multiple commenters questioned Reform's credibility, noting previous failed claims about Brexit's economic impact, and argued the policy disproportionately harms people least able to defend themselves.
“These are the people who claimed Brexit would drive fantastic growth and scaring off immigrants would lower prices. Nothing they say should be taken in good faith.”
— TCatInReality@mastodon.social -
Mastodon users and Reddit commenters focused on the impact on disabled people, with one post noting that removing PIP would force many disabled people out of work and into care homes or hospitals, increasing costs elsewhere, while another highlighted ableism in hiring practices.
“removing PIP would force many disabled people out of work, and many into care homes or hospitals, increasing costs elsewhere. Selfish cruelty.”
— tiggy@mastodonapp.uk -
A prominent Bluesky commenter flagged the BBC headline as 'inappropriate, credulous & politically biased,' arguing that claims about savings will be contested and questioning why the headline reads as editorial endorsement rather than neutrality.
“This is an inappropriate, credulous & politically biased BBC headline. The claims about savings will be sharply contested.”
— sundersays.bsky.social -
Labour called the plan 'fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people and shifting costs onto employers.' Conservatives dismissed it as a 'half-baked policy' and another attempt to distract from questions about Nigel Farage's £5 million gift.
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Event Reform UK announces £50bn welfare savings plan
Reform UK unveiled plans to cut about £50 billion from the benefits bill, principally by scrapping PIP for working-age people and replacing it with a Health Security Allowance that would only cover the most severe cases. The party estimates 2.89 million people would have disability payments removed or modified.
“the plans, to be set out in full on Monday, would be the most comprehensive overhaul to the welfare system in a generation and affect nearly three million people”
— Robert Jenrick, Reform UK treasury spokesperson
The conversation 47 comments and posts from 3 sites · verbatim · 423 claimed on the threads
The online conversation is dominated by sharp criticism of the welfare reform plan, with disability advocates warning of severe harm, skeptics questioning Reform's economic credibility, and some commenters debating the scale of the welfare bill itself. The tone is predominantly hostile to the proposal.
The dispute Whether Reform's welfare cuts address a genuine crisis in the benefits system or represent cruel targeting of vulnerable people unable to defend themselves.
Reform plan would harm disabled people and its savings claims are not credible.
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“removing PIP would force many disabled people out of work, and many into care homes or hospitals, increasing costs elsewhere. Selfish cruelty.”
tiggy@mastodonapp.uk · Mastodon ↗ -
“These are the people who claimed Brexit would drive fantastic growth and scaring off immigrants would lower prices. Nothing they say should be taken in good faith.”
TCatInReality@mastodon.social · Mastodon ↗
The welfare bill is genuinely out of control and requires significant reform.
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“It's still £170bn, which is £40bn shy of the entire healthcare budget, or £40bn more than the entire NHS England budget. Or to put it another way, nearly 3 times larger than the defence budget on welfare excluding the state pension. It's…”
Snappy0 · Reddit ↗ -
“The UK welfare bill is a central political flashpoint, with spending on incapacity and disability benefits rising sharply from £34 billion in 2019 to £51 billion, and total welfare costs projected to exceed £400 billion by the end of the…”
Remarkable_Misty · Reddit ↗
The assessment system is genuinely broken and makes it difficult for legitimately disabled people to access support.
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“The reason why there's tiktoks telling people how to answer the questions is because if you're unable to answer it in a certain way your claim wouldn't be accepted no matter if how severe your disability is.”
EddyZacianLand · Reddit ↗ -
“my brother got fired from an unpaid volunteer role because he didn't disclose to the manager that he was autistic when he got the job. manager hit the ceiling when she found out and spent 40 minutes berating him over the phone”
-_WildestDreams_- · Reddit ↗
- Today
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You are comparing apples and oranges. The funding of a health system has little to do with outcomes when comparing social insurance vs general taxation systems. the Bismarck system used in Germany, France and Netherlands performs better on some metrics than the UK such as waiting lists but Beveridge models like the NHS, Italy, Spain and NZ should…
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As a response. I am not in the UK and I am in Australia here are some of my thoughts on this issue Persons with a record of "low level of anxiety" may be persons with mid range to high level needs in disguise. I think some work needs on improving the accurate diagnosis in the UK. The only person I know who got access to our NDIS for ADHD was later…
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Oh my god. I can see that understanding is difficult for you. Explosion in benefits big, need reduce, much problem. Crying "fraud" misses wood for trees. That simple language for you. Claimants on mental health take because system gives despite not needing more. This big problem. Costs in other place big problem. Focus on fraud is missing point of…
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People seem to cling to this "we have a spending problem" but never really explain what that actually means. Because we barely borrow currently. Our deficit between tax receipts and what we spend is about £128bn . It's been going down quite gradually for some time, and that's because we've been reigning in our spending in various ways. So much so…
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This is the most devastating threat to Britain’s disability community in history, threatening to roll back 50 years of state support, attendance allowance having been introduced in 1971 and mobility allowance in 1976. https://www. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz977n xww1jo
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What makes a French style system better? There is no evidence to suggest a social insurance funded system will lead to better outcomes than a general taxation system like the NHS. All Western countries face the same issues, aging population, workforce shortages etc. Could the NHS be run more efficiently, absolutely. Is the NHS crumbling estate an…
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I’ll preface my reply by saying that writing things like ‘yawn’ just make you sound like an arrogant teenager, and that’s no basis for any form of debate, I’m interested to know whether your primary objection is to my use of a single (simple) metric to describe Brexit’s impact, or whether you’re still convinced there is no proven negative effect…
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The welfare bill is not a massive part of Gov spending once you remove state pension It's still £170bn, which is £40bn shy of the entire healthcare budget, or £40bn more than the entire NHS England budget. Or to put it another way, nearly 3 times larger than the defence budget on welfare excluding the state pension. It's out of control no matter…
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Are you ok? The UK welfare bill is a central political flashpoint, with spending on incapacity and disability benefits rising sharply from £34 billion in 2019 to £51 billion, and total welfare costs projected to exceed £400 billion by the end of the decade This growth is driven largely by an increase in younger claimants reporting mental health…
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Ending the triple lock you could almost sell eventually. But means-testing it will never work and would likely cause a lot of unrest. A lot of private pension schemes I've found use the state pension in the figure displayed to current savers as to what they can expect when they retire. Suddenly cutting £12K from someone's annual income (or…
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Don't look at our dodgy finances... Look over here! # ReformUK # PIP # cruelty # corruption # UK_politics https://www. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz977n xww1jo
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Most people know someone who is disabled, but some of them don't realise it. And too many think we fake or exaggerate our conditions. The media and governments had a role to play in making this acceptable to many people, by demonising us and inflating claims of fraud. Yet removing PIP would force many disabled people out of work, and many into…
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definitely not my only example but it's my most recent; my brother got fired from an unpaid volunteer role because he didn't disclose to the manager that he was autistic when he got the job. manager hit the ceiling when she found out and spent 40 minutes berating him over the phone (which I have a recording of) and said some of the most ableist…
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The reason why there's tiktoks telling people how to answer the questions is because if you're unable to answer it in a certain way your claim wouldn't be accepted no matter if how severe your disability is. These welfare cuts are designed to remove PIP in it's entirety and only give money to the most severe cases, which will mean many disabled…
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https://www. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz977n xww1jo They always attack the sick and disabled, because those are the least able to defend themselves. # politics # disability
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https://www. europesays.com/3196739/ Reform UK plan would overhaul welfare system with £50bn in savings # GreatBritain # UnitedKingdom
- Yesterday
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No need for passive aggressiveness. Nor putting words in my mouth. It appears that idea lives rent free in your head though to snap it out of the air. I wholly agree 10% is a big figure, I just think it is pretty dumb to not consider the multiple factors as to why that figure might exist beyond disabled people are lazy. That argument is lazy. For…
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That's in spite of brexit. Not because of Brexit. It's academic and economic consensus that brexit was a net negative financially and economically. Disputing that is tantamount to being a climate denier or flat earther. Now yes, please run along and educate yourself. That would be better use of your time.
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Fastest growing economy compared to our European counterparts, suggesting it would be growing even faster is simply not credible. In any case, you said we're financially worse off after Brexit, attempting to claim that growth forgone somehow makes us worse off isn't true either. However, I can see you're the type who will be impossible to…
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This is an inappropriate, credulous & politically biased BBC headline. The claims about savings will be sharply contested. News reports should not imclude what reads as an ediorial endorsememt in the headline
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https://www. europesays.com/britain/104317/ Reform UK plan would overhaul welfare system with £50bn in savings # UK # UnitedKingdom
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Jenrick unveils Deform's plans to save some fifty billion from the welfare budget. It's easy, he commented, we let the poor, the long-term sick and the disabled all rely on their rich, posh friend (and his mother) to bail them out. When it was pointed out most claimants didn't have a Posh George style or bitcoin billionaire sugar daddy, Jenrick…
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In today's # NitSanewashedNews "ReformUK claims their half-arsed plan will save nonsensical amount of money" These are the people who claimed # Brexit would drive fantastic growth and scaring off immigrants would lower prices. Nothing they say should be taken in good faith. Especially a claim so obviously absurd. # VoteReformGetATrump BBC News -…
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# BBC # News Reform UK plan would overhaul welfare system with £50bn in savings