Kendall promises sweeping reforms to sickness benefits

The welfare budget has to be put on a “more sustainable course”, Liz Kendall said as she warned the country could not keep meeting the “costs of failure”.

The Work and Pensions Secretary, who will set out sweeping reforms to sickness and disability benefits in the spring, said more people needed to be moved off welfare and into jobs.

Ms Kendall blamed the Conservative administrations for failing to control welfare spending.

She told the PA news agency: “We’re going to get the benefits bill on a more sustainable course – and it has to be, we cannot accept these costs of failure, failure for individuals, failure for businesses and failure for the economy.

“But the way to do this is to get more people into work through the reforms that we’re putting in place in our Jobcentres and through reform of the benefit system. And we’ll be bringing forward our green paper on reforming sickness and disability benefits in the spring.”

The £137.4 billion welfare cap set by the previous government for 2024/25 is on course to be exceeded by £8.6 billion.

The Work and Pensions Secretary told PA: “This is our inheritance from the Conservative government. And the Tories failed on welfare because they failed on work.

“We have got almost record numbers of people out of work due to long-term health problems. That’s terrible for them. It’s terrible for their living standards. It’s terrible for employers who want to recruit and it’s terrible for the public finances.

“So we need big reforms in the way that we work to get more people into those jobs, which will help bring the benefits bill onto a more sustainable footing.”

In her major economic growth speech on Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised “fundamental reform of our welfare system” including “looking at areas that have been ducked for too long like the rising cost of health and disability benefits”.