Labour's disability benefit cuts won't help people into work

Labour's disabled benefits cut won't help people back into work, says Lib Dem MP Wendy Chamberlain.

She commented on Question Time:

.."the welfare budget costs an extra 7 billion pound a year since 2019 / 2020 so it has gone up by a huge amount under the last Conservative government but what really distresses me is when we start talking about it and the first thing that comes out is Personal Independence payments. 

"Personal Independence payments are for people with disabilities who may be able to work or may not. Actually whether they can work or not is not part of the equation in terms of personal Independence payments because all that happens when we talk about this is we cause the anxiety and distress for disabled people that the gentleman here described. 

"It is absolutely clear that we need to do be doing more to help people back into work particularly our young people. 

"And that actually links us back to the last question doesn't it in terms of getting our NHS working particularly in relation to issues such as mental health. If we don't get the NHS working we're not going to be able to give people the support they need to get back into work. 

"But the final point is […] that in terms of the economy we need the economy to be growing and the Labour government says that that is their priority but well I'm really sorry [things Labour are doing] are not going to help with that if we look at the National Insurance contribution H increases that employers are facing. 

“Just last week in Parliament Liberal Democrat peers brought forward an amendment to that bill that ensures that social care and Health Providers will not have to pay those increases that's going to come back to the commons next week and I'm pretty sure that the Labour government are going to vote it down again.”