Labour calls Reform’s £50bn savings claim ‘fantasy economics’
Reform UK has set out a £50bn welfare overhaul that would withdraw or modify disability payments for 2.89 million current claimants, with treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick writing in The Telegraph that the current system has created a “moral and economic catastrophe.” The 50-page plan is due to be published Monday.
In the article, Jenrick described the proposals as “the most comprehensive redesign of the welfare system’s machinery in a generation.” The reform package would save £22bn through changes to the disability programme alone. After assessment of existing claimants, Jenrick estimates 2.16 million would keep their full cash entitlement.
The plan would invest in talking therapies, physiotherapy, and employment support to move people off health-related Universal Credit payments and Personal Independence Payments (Pip), the disability benefit currently paid to 3.7 million people with long-term physical or mental health conditions in England and Wales. People with ‘lover-level conditions’ would no longer receive payments; instead, accounts run by local councils and mayors would provide for needs such as transport and equipment.
Employers would be offered a new “return to work cover” providing a “strong economic incentive” to return an employee to work after sickness-related absence. Those claiming benefits who had not returned to work within two years would face a “single, rigorous disability needs assessment,” conducted in person to screen out fraudulent claims. A new regularly reviewed payment would be in place for those considered “gravely ill and severely challenged.”
“We will not pretend this is painless,” Jenrick wrote, adding: “Dumping our young people onto welfare isn’t compassion; it’s neglect.” Reform UK has previously said it would cut the benefits bill by billions to offset the cost of keeping the ‘trip lock’ state pension.
A Labour spokeswoman said Reform’s £50 billion claim was “fantasy economics, built on stripping support from disabled people and shifting costs onto employers.” She said the Labour government’s reforms to welfare “deliver credible, independently-costed savings, not arbitrary numbers with no credible plan behind them.”
An interim report last month by Disability Minister Sir Stephen Timms, who has been leading a review into Pip, stated the benefit “not fit for purpose” and that it requires fundamental change. In March 2025, the government attempted to tighten daily living assessments for both current and future claimants but was forced to dial back after pressure from Labour MPs; Jenrick described that attempt at “modest savings” as “gutted by backbenchers.” Changes recently went ahead to Universal Credit that halved the health element for new claimants with less severe conditions.
Jenrick described the Conservative Party’s proposals as “paper thin” and claimed Reform would save more than double the £23bn proposed by Kemi Badenoch’s party. The Conservatives have proposed £23bn in welfare savings through measures including restricting benefits to UK citizens and ending access to sickness benefits for less serious mental health conditions. In May, the Conservatives said they would reform the household benefit cap, removing the automatic exemption for people receiving Pip — a change the party said would deliver at least £1bn in annual savings. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the plans would “stop those who abuse the system getting almost unlimited welfare payments.”
Pip is not linked to claimants’ savings or income and does not affect other benefits or the benefit cap; it includes a daily living component and a mobility component, and recipients may be eligible for one or both.