Latest editorial
“CRUEL” Chancellor George Osborne was warned yesterday that he faces a tax credits-style insurrection over cuts to disability benefits after the devastating human cost was laid bare.
Plans to slash personal independence payments (PIP) were the most significant part of £3.5 billion annual cuts package included in Mr Osborne’s Budget on Wednesday.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) pointed to Office for Budget Responsibility analysis yesterday showing that 370,000 claimants will lose an average of £3,500 every year.
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
The government’s retreat on PIP still leaves 150,000 new universal credit claimants facing halved benefits from April 2026, creating a discriminatory two-tier welfare system that campaigners must continue fighting, writes DR DYLAN MURPHY