Kemi Badenoch arrived at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham pledging to shave £13billion from the welfare bill by axing disability benefits for conditions such as ADHD.
Ms Badenoch told The Mail on Sunday that ‘mild anxiety, ADHD or routine back pain do not mean you cannot work’, as she vowed to end ‘cash handouts that leave people trapped in a cycle of worklessness’.
The Tories intend to make their plans to tackle the eye-watering £333billion annual cost of the social security and welfare system a key dividing line with Andy Burnham’s Labour, as Westminster prepares for a possible snap election in the spring.
While Mr Burnham used his party conference speech last week to pledge to ‘adjust’ the triple-lock pensions guarantee, Ms Badenoch will vow to keep the existing system in place – targeting the proliferating benefits available for mental health conditions instead.
An investigation by this newspaper earlier this year revealed that taxpayers were shelling out £800 in disability benefits every minute to people claiming to suffer from anxiety.
The cost of personal independence payments (PIP) for the disorder has rocketed from under £100million in 2019 to nearly £427million last year, under rules that allow anyone, regardless of their income, to collect the payments without ever seeing a doctor.
The benefit – worth up to £194 a week – can be awarded on nothing more than a personal diary or a letter from a friend describing how anxiety affects daily life.
The number of people claiming PIP for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has surged from 24,697 to 91,181 in six years, while the number receiving it for autism has risen from 61,641 to 210,605, at a combined cost of £2.4billion a year.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch arrived at her party’s conference in Birmingham promising to slash handouts for mild anxiety and ‘routine’ back pain
Under Ms Badenoch’s plans, ‘mild health conditions’ such as anxiety or routine back pain, which make up 43 per cent of PIP claims, would no longer make someone eligible for disability benefit, saving £13billion for the taxpayer.
The claimants would instead receive support for their conditions, backed by £1billion in new funding for therapies and occupational health.
Face-to-face assessments and a ‘thorough, evidence-based assessment process’ would be used to identify those who should still qualify for disability benefits.
Those losing their benefits would also qualify for mental health support such as talking therapies.
By 2029, spending on working-age disability and sickness benefits is expected to reach £71.4billion, with the outlay on PIP alone set to rise to £41.2billion – a threefold increase since 2019, when it was £12.9billion.
Ms Badenoch said: ‘My focus is making sure that those who can work, do work. Mild anxiety, ADHD or routine back pain do not mean you cannot work. We should also stop pretending that a diagnosis is a reason to give up on someone.
‘There is nothing compassionate about telling a young person that their future is a lifetime on benefits. Where people have mild conditions, we should help them, not leave them behind.
Ms Badenoch said there was ‘nothing compassionate’ about telling young people that their future was a lifetime on benefits
‘Andy Burnham won’t address these issues because he’s more interested in appealing to Labour members than tackling the ballooning welfare bill. It’s time to get serious on benefits. We are the only party that will.’
Since the Covid pandemic, there has been a boom in payments for psychiatric disorders, which now account for more than 40 per cent of PIP claims.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said mental health conditions accounted for 55 per cent of the rise in disability benefits.
A thriving cottage industry of unregulated no-win, no-fee firms has grown up to coach applicants through the process, taking up to 60 per cent of any backdated payment secured.
Helen Whately, shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, said: ‘One in four people now consider themselves disabled.
‘Claims for disability benefits have doubled since 2019 – but Britain isn’t twice as sick.
‘Our sickness benefit system was built with the best of intentions, but it is broken.
‘It pays better to be off sick and claim benefits than get help and work. The incentives are all wrong. Writing millions of people off onto benefits is morally wrong.
‘And it’s unfair to the taxpayers footing the bill. Conservatives will reform our sickness benefit system to bring down the welfare bill and get people back to work.’