{"id":622543,"date":"2025-12-09T16:54:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/622543\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T16:54:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T16:54:19","slug":"kemi-badenoch-brands-britains-bloated-benefit-bill-economic-suicide-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/622543\/","title":{"rendered":"Kemi Badenoch brands Britain’s bloated benefit bill ‘economic suicide’ | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kemi Badenoch<\/a> has branded Britain\u2019s soaring benefits bill<\/a> \u201ceconomic suicide\u201d while pledging to \u201cdraw a line\u201d on which health issues the state treats as disabilities. The Conservative Party<\/a> leader suggested that some people were \u201cgaming\u201d benefits rules to receive money.<\/p>\n

Speaking at Glazier Hall in central London on Tuesday, Mrs Badenoch blasted a welfare culture so bloated that more than six million working-age adults are claiming benefits instead of being employed. She added: \u201cThis is completely crazy \u2026 We\u2019re funding it by taxing businesses, taxing jobs, taxing wealth creators, the people in our country who get out of bed and make things happen. We\u2019re making life harder for them. This is economic suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Badenoch claimed the system was not designed to handle \u201cthe age of diagnosis which we now live in\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe will review every circumstance in which benefits are currently paying more than work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will undertake a full review of the level and operation of the household benefit cap, which currently acts more like a sieve than a cap, because most people on benefits avoid it through one exemption or another.<\/p>\n

\u201cExemptions like being diagnosed with anxiety.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing diagnosed with anxiety can be worth more than \u00a320,000 to some families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Badenoch said the Tories<\/a>\u2019 review would be carried out \u201ccarefully over time\u201d with input from \u201cmedical and employment experts\u201d to ensure \u201cwe get it right\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s get some hope out there. We are not the doom and gloom party, we are not the welfare party \u2013 that\u2019s Labour,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Labour said the Conservatives<\/a> \u201cbroke\u201d the welfare system while they were in power and accused the Tory leader of sounding \u201cdelusional\u201d.<\/p>\n

Opposition critics attacked Rachel Reeves<\/a>\u2019s Budget last month after she hiked taxes by \u00a326billion, including by freezing thresholds on income tax, which the Chancellor said would help improve public services.<\/p>\n

The increases came in response to downgraded economic forecasts, but also a rise in welfare spending because of the abolition of the two-child benefit cap and the Labour revolt over attempts to curb the benefits bill.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> was forced to abandon welfare cuts planned earlier this year in the face of a major backbench rebellion. However, the Government is carrying out its own review and has insisted it will press on with reforms to the system.<\/p>\n

In response to Mrs Badenoch\u2019s speech, a Labour Party spokesman said: \u201cThe Tories\u2019 message on welfare is: we broke it, now put us back in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cKemi Badenoch is delusional and is treating the public like fools.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the Conservatives, the benefits bill rocketed by \u00a3114billion and nearly a million kids were plunged into poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they want to pretend it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Taylor, director of strategy at disability equality charity Scope, said: \u201cThe benefits system is complex and hard to understand. Deciding how disabled people are supported based on outdated thinking and flawed assumptions would be a recipe<\/a> for disaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be incredibly hard to know how to access support, and many disabled people give up. Many are reduced to tears, left ‘broken’, and have nowhere else to turn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPIP \u2013 the main disability benefit \u2013 exists because life costs more if you are disabled. Data on PIP finds only about half of applications actually lead to an award, and fraud is effectively zero.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s therefore unlikely advice on social media is leading people to successfully ‘game’ the system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kemi Badenoch has branded Britain\u2019s soaring benefits bill \u201ceconomic suicide\u201d while pledging to \u201cdraw a line\u201d on which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[345,51,20056,348,1267,1700,1198,16,193546,15,193547],"class_list":{"0":"post-622543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-benefits","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-disabilities","11":"tag-disability-benefits","12":"tag-dwp","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-kemi-badenoch","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-uk-benefits-system","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-welfare-reform"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115690659182092672","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}