Darren Jones has apologised for comparing the government’s welfare cuts to cutting his children’s pocket money.
The chief secretary to the Treasury made the comments after the government’s analysis of its disability cuts estimated that it will drive 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – into relative poverty after housing costs in 2029/30.
When asked about the estimated 800,000 people who will not receive the “daily living” component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) by 2029/30 due to Labour’s planned tightening of rules, with an average loss of £4,500 per year, he said: “What the impact assessment doesn’t account for is the benefit that you get from our additional money into support for training, skills, or work.
“Take, for example, if I told my kids ‘I’m going to cut your pocket money by £10 a week but you have to go and get a Saturday job’, the impact assessment on that basis would say my kids were down £10 irrespective of how much money they get from their Saturday job.”
But, late last night he apologised on ITV just hours after making the original analogy, saying: “I should have used a different set of words to explain it, I recognise that was not good enough and I apologise.”
Rachel Reeves repeated his messaging before the apology, telling LBC: “If you have a 16 year old and say, ‘I won’t give you so much pocket money, I want you to go out to work’, and the OBR comes and does an impact assessment and says you’re going to be worse off… you will be worse off if you don’t get a Saturday job, but if they do they will be better off. There are a lot of people who have a disability who are desperate to work.”
The official impact assessment also predicted 3.2 million families will financially lose out.
The DWP document read: “Overall, it is estimated that in 2029/30 there will be 3.2 million families – some current recipients and some future recipients – who will financially lose as a result of this package, with an average loss of £1,720 per year compared to inflation.
“There are also estimated to be 3.8 million families – some current recipients and some future recipients – who will financially gain from this package, with an average gain of £420 per year compared to inflation.”
Some Labour backbenchers are uncomfortable with the controversial cuts. Speaking in the Commons after Rachel Reeves’ spring statement, Debbie Abrahams questioned how “making people sicker and poorer” will get more people into work. Rachael Maskell urged the government to “look again” at the changes.
Richard Burgon accused his party of taking an “easy option” by hitting disabled people rather than taxing the richest.
Dr Sarah Hughes, chief executive of Mind, said the extra cuts were “devastating” and would “push more people into a mental health crisis.”
She continued: “People are telling us that they are so worried about the situation they’d be left with no choice but to end their own life.
“It’s a political choice to try fixing the public finances by cutting the incomes of disabled people, including people with mental health problems. Benefits are a lifeline for so many people. Cuts will push people into poverty. This is policy making by numbers with little recognition of the impact on real people’s lives.”
Thomas Lawson, CEO of anti-poverty charity Turn2us, said: “The government has chosen to cut critical support from sick and disabled people to meet arbitrary fiscal rules. We agree that we need to get the system working; every day we hear from people who can’t afford essentials or who are scared to try work and risk losing all their support. But cuts for the most vulnerable are absolutely not the answer.
“Cuts to social security will increase hardship, not employment. The cuts won’t magically move anyone into work; they will deepen poverty, further damage trust in the system and make health conditions worse. We are deeply concerned about the mental health impact that these announcements are already having on the people reaching out to us.
“The government should be focusing on providing genuine support into employment for people who can work. We urge them to listen to claimants and build a compassionate system that we can all trust to support us when we need it.”
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