“Unprecedented” welfare cuts could pile demand on NHS, leaders warn

The UK government has announced plans to slash £5bn from the country’s welfare bill by 2030 as part of radical reforms designed to help more people with disabilities or long term sickness back into work.

Ministers said that the proposals (see box), set out in a green paper,1 would fix the country’s “broken” welfare system in which one in 10 people of working age now claim a sickness or disability benefit, with 2.8 million people out of work because of long term sickness.

Announcing the reforms in parliament on 18 March, the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, said that an additional £1bn investment would be made available to provide tailored support to help people with disabilities or long term health conditions back into employment.

But health and care leaders and charities said that the scale of the cuts risked removing vital support from those who needed it and could increase demand on the NHS. Paul Kissack, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which works to …