A Tory plan to slash the welfare bill by £36 billion is “a charter for homelessness and human misery”, according to Labour.
Disability and sickness benefits would make up nearly half the savings under the policy, which was unveiled by Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday.
Nearly £10bn would be saved by ending benefit claims by foreign nationals without EU settled status, the Conservative leader said.
Child disability living allowance cash payments for mild learning and behavioural conditions would also be cut, while the two-child benefit cap scrapped by Labour last year would be reinstated.
A Labour spokesperson said: “The Tories’ so-called ‘plan’ is a charter for homelessness and human misery that would push people into hardship and end up costing the state more.
“The crude cuts they want to make would compound the mistakes they made in government, which led to the welfare bill rocketing by nearly £114 billion and a NEETs [not in employment, education or training] crisis.”
Badenoch unveiled her welfare cuts plan just days before former Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn published his report into tackling youth unemployment.
Equalities minister Stephen Timms is also due to publish his own review into disability benefits soon.
The Tory leader said: “The question of whether we should cut welfare goes to the heart of what sort of country we want to be. It exposes a fundamental difference between Labour and the Conservatives. Labour MPs think cutting welfare is always cruel.
“They believe the kindest thing you can do for someone who is struggling is to tell them it’s okay not to look after themselves, that there’s nothing wrong with a life of dependency.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
