The Conservatives have launched a renewed campaign against disabled claimants, echoing Labour policies. Kemi Badenoch claimed yesterday that it was time to “draw a line on what health issues the state can support people with”, particularly targeting “low level mental health issues”, such as “being diagnosed with anxiety which can be worth more than £20,000 to some families.”
Badenoch set the tone in the opening remarks of her speech, arguing that “Rachel Reeves hiked taxes by £26 billion to pay for a welfare splurge, penalising people who work hard and making them pay for those who don't work at all.”
She went on to claim: “Labour’s Budget was for Benefits Street.
“They send a very clear message.
“If you work hard, and do the right thing, you will get less.
“And if you are on benefits, you will get more.
“Right now, in Britain there are more than 6 million working-age people claiming benefits instead of working.
“That’s more than the entire population of Norway.
“Who we are paying to sit at home.”
The figure of over 6 million can only be reached by including all those universal credit claimants who have been found to be unable to work or prepare for work.
The Conservative leader went on to say that she, Mel Stride, Andrew Griffith and Helen Whately would spend the next year figuring out how to get more people into work and cut the benefits bill.
“We will undertake a full review of the level and operation of the Household Benefit cap, which currently acts more like a sieve than a cap because most people on benefits avoid it through one exemption or another.
“Exemptions like being diagnosed with anxiety which can be worth more than £20,000 to some families.”
They will also “review which conditions the state treats as disabilities when it comes to benefits.
“All of us will have physical and mental challenges at some point in our lives.
“But in an age in which one in four people now self-report as disabled, it’s clear that we are now going to have to draw a line on what health issues the state can support people with.”
Badenoch claimed that her team had already identified £23 billion in savings by measuring such as restricting benefits to British citizens and “Reducing eligibility for low level mental health issues.”
At present, the possibility of the Conservatives winning power at the next election seems remote. But a minority Reform UK government propped up by a much reduced Tory party may be real possibility.
However, the most immediate danger is the fact that Labour, the Conservatives and Reform UK are increasingly coming together in arguing that mental health issues, in particular, are being overdiagnosed and that benefits should not be given to those with “low level” conditions.
It is an argument which, if won, could easily be extended to many physical health conditions, ushering in a new four-point PIP system by the back door.
With Streeting’s rushed review into overdiagnosis of mental health and neurodivergent conditions due to report in the summer, we hope this is a battle that disability charities are already preparing to fight.
