DWP boss warns millions of Brits 'radical' changes on the way in major crackdown

Millions of benefit claimants across the nation have been told to brace for "radical" changes by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Tackling fraud and error head-on, DWP chief Liz Kendall has referred to overspending as "unavoidable", laying blame on the legacy from the previous government.

In a letter addressed to MPs, Ms Kendall elaborated: "The likely scale of the eventual breach has been known since March 2023. No action was taken by the previous administration to avoid it. Whilst this Government has already shown that it will not shy away from difficult decisions, this breach could only have been addressed through implementing immediate and severe cuts to welfare spending. This would not have been the right course of action."

In parliament, responding to Ms Kendall, shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately remarked: "Through the 2010s, in government, we broadly kept to that cap; it was part of the discipline we applied to the welfare system to make it fair for the taxpayer and to put into practice the strongly held Conservative principle that if you can work, you should work."

Ms Whately wasn't hesitant to acknowledge recent challenges, stating: "But in the years during and since the pandemic—I will not shy away from telling the truth—things changed. While the number of jobs kept going up, the number of people economically inactive also started to go up, and with that, the welfare bill, and that is a big problem."

"We as a country have a moral and financial imperative to turn this around and in government we were working flat out to tackle it.", reports Birmingham Live.

The DWP crackdown is set to include people who 'don't claim benefits' as accounts could be checked. They are also urging pensioners over 66 to claim extra £13,170 with quick online application

Anela Anwar, chief executive of anti-poverty charity Z2K, who co-ordinated the letter, expressed her disappointment: "It is deeply disappointing to learn that this government wants to revive the previous government's discredited and dangerous plans to remove vital financial support for seriously ill and disabled people."

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She urged the government to reconsider, stating: "The government should abandon these cruel and poorly thought-out plans. And when it comes to consulting on hugely important changes to the benefits system, this government must not repeat the mistakes of the previous one. We need to a see a genuine consultation that gives disabled people a proper chance to respond to plans which could see them plunged into deep poverty."