Kemi Badenoch is poised to unveil a controversial plan to restrict health benefits to only the most severely ill, as she warns of a “ticking time bomb” in the UK’s welfare system.
In a speech scheduled for Thursday, the Tory leader will highlight government forecasts suggesting annual spending on health and disability benefits could soar to £70 billion by 2030.
Other projections indicate this figure could even reach £100 billion, while the Office for Budget Responsibility has cautioned that a failure to curb the rate of benefit uptake could incur an additional £12 billion in costs.
Calling for tougher action on welfare, Ms Badenoch is expected to state: “We should be backing the makers – rewarding the people getting up every morning, working hard to build our country. Our welfare system should look after the most vulnerable in society – not those cheating the system.”
As well as restricting benefits to “more serious conditions”, Ms Badenoch is expected to reiterate her policy of preventing foreign nationals claiming welfare.
She will say: “It is not fair to spend £1 billion a month on benefits for foreign nationals and on handing out taxpayer-funded cars for conditions like constipation.”
The £1 billion figure refers to benefits paid to households that include at least one foreign national, but may also cover payments to British citizens.
The taxpayer-backed Motability scheme provides vehicles to people who receive the “enhanced” mobility element of personal independence payment, covering those with serious mobility problems, and usually involves exchanging all the allowance and providing an additional upfront payment in exchange for a lease on a vehicle.
She will also call for an end to remote assessments of benefit claimants, arguing that this had allowed people to “game the system”, and pledge to “get people back to work” through retraining and “early intervention”.
Ms Badenoch’s speech comes a week after Sir Keir Starmer U-turned on proposals to cut the benefits bill by £5 billion in the face of discontent among his backbenchers.
After the U-turn, economists have warned that the Government’s proposals will now deliver zero savings by 2030.
In her speech, Mrs Badenoch will attack the Labour Government as being “beholden to left-wing MPs” and “completely unprepared for government”.
And she will also take aim at Reform UK, accusing both Nigel Farage’s party and Labour of “turning a blind eye” to the impact of the rising welfare bill.
Mr Farage has vowed to scrap the two-child benefit cap if Reform UK comes to power, something the Conservatives have criticised as unaffordable.
Ms Badenoch will say: “Nigel Farage pretends to be a Thatcherite Conservative but really, he’s just Jeremy Corbyn with a pint and a cigarette.
“On welfare he shows his true colours – promising unaffordable giveaways with no plan to fix the system.”
