Kemi Badenoch Proposes £36 Billion Cut to UK Welfare
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch unveiled a plan to reduce the UK welfare bill by £36 billion through cuts to disability, sickness, and housing benefits.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has unveiled a 52-page policy report titled "Welfare that Works," proposing a £36 billion reduction in the United Kingdom's welfare budget. The plan targets sickness and disability benefits for the largest portion of savings, totaling £13.7 billion, by removing payments for low-level mental health conditions, routine back pain, and mild learning or behavioral conditions. Badenoch estimates these changes would remove 2.5 million people from the system.
Additional measures include ending benefit claims for non-EU foreign nationals to save £9.5 billion and reinstating the two-child benefit cap to save £3.1 billion annually. The proposal also seeks to trim £4.5 billion from housing benefits by pegging payments to the cheapest 10 percent of market rents. To offset these cuts, Badenoch proposes lifting the apprenticeship cap and halving national insurance payments for employers of workers under 25.
Badenoch argued that the current system is unsustainable and is "crushing our economy," stating that the proposals were published early to ensure voters face no "nasty surprises" if the Conservatives return to power. The Labour government criticized the plan, claiming the Conservatives are responsible for the rising welfare bill. Meanwhile, the Child Poverty Action Group warned that reinstating the two-child cap would cause a record increase in child poverty, and the Liberal Democrats argued that economic growth via a new EU partnership is the only way to avoid such cuts.
