Reform proposes to cut Pip payments to people with anxiety

Reform would stop people with anxiety disorders from claiming Personal Independence Payments (Pip), the party’s welfare spokesman Lee Anderson has announced.

The party claimed its plans would save £9bn each year from the welfare budget by 2029, as it echoed other parties’ plans to cut welfare spending.

Government figures show one in 10 people of working age are now on disability or sickness benefits of some type, including Pip, which can be claimed at the same time as being employed.

A spokesperson from the mental health charity Mind said anxiety could have a “debilitating” impact and people with the condition could also be suffering multiple health issues.

Working-age health-related benefits are estimated to cost an extra £30bn by 2029 and claims for psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and depression, make up 40% of the claims.

Monthly new Pip claims for under 25s have risen at the fastest rate of any demographic.

“The alarm clock generation is now being replaced by an anxiety generation,” Anderson told a press conference, adding that people should be going to work instead of “staying at home all day”.

Anderson suggested some claimants do not genuinely need the payments, saying he had taken part in “gaming the system” when he worked as an adviser in the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to help people get access to benefits.

He said: “For many people in this country, Pip is a necessary lifeline for them to live a dignified life, but for some, sadly, it’s an excuse not to go to work.”

Anderson said the government should not be “labelling young people disabled because they have the odd bout of anxiety” and, listing some of the symptoms of anxiety and depression, asked “who in this room has not suffered these?”

Questioned by the BBC on what would count as a serious mental illness under Reform plans, Anderson listed schizophrenia, bipolar, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and personality disorders as types of mental illness that would be exempt.

Reform’s head of policy Zia Yusuf said the number of under-25s on Pip payments for poor mental health had tripled in the last five years.

He added there were almost half a million people claiming Pip for anxiety disorders in July and that under Reform’s plans, he expected 80-90% of those to stop getting payments and the remaining 10-20% to be re-categorised within the benefits system.

Those whose benefits were stopped would be put into a Fast Track to Work scheme, with a budget of half a billion pounds that includes talking therapy, which Yusuf said “an abundance of evidence” supported as giving those people “a far better life”.

Mental health charity Mind’s head of policy Tom Pollard said Reform’s plan seemed muddled and did not appear to “bear any relation to how this benefit actually works”, not least because PIP is not an out of work benefit.

“People have to prove they face significant health and disability-related barriers in their day-to-day lives to qualify for Pip, and it is not based on diagnosis,” he said.

“Anxiety can have a debilitating impact, and many people will also have multiple and complex health issues when anxiety is recorded as their ‘primary condition’.”

The Labour government has also targeted £5.5bn savings in the UK’s welfare bill, after proposing cutting Pip and Universal Credit payments, but was forced to U-turn by a major backbench rebellion in June.

At the time, the Liberal Democrats said the changes could be devastating for disabled people, while the Green Party described them as “cruel”.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has vowed to press ahead with welfare reform, which could still include tightening up eligibility and refusing payments to those aged under 22-years-old.

The Conservatives have said the party would save £23bn through cuts to the welfare bill, including by reducing payments to those with “lower level mental health issues”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has argued those with less severe conditions like anxiety and mild depression should not be signed off work and also told the BBC there needs to be a “crackdown on people exploiting the system”.

A Labour spokesman said the government was focused on getting people off welfare and supporting them back into work, even if they did struggle with mental ill health.

“This Labour government is determined to offer young people hope and real opportunities,” he said.

“Our Youth Guarantee will ensure that 18 to 21-year-olds have a real chance of either learning or earning.”