Sun, 21 Sep 2025

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 Welfare reform 'must happen', minister says

The Work and Pensions Secretary tells the BBC he will press ahead with welfare system changes.

* Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has vowed to press ahead with welfare reforms, saying "reform must happen" despite recent U-turns on certain policies.
* The government plans to offer skills and employment support to tens of thousands of people on sickness benefits who have no requirement to look for a job.
* McFadden has pushed back against the idea that reform has come to a halt due to the scrapping of planned changes to personal independence payments (Pip) and universal credit.
* The government is not ruling out tightening up eligibility for universal credit or removing entitlement for health-related universal credit payments to those under 22.
* The current welfare system is "unhealthy" and pushing up the benefits bill, with about 3.7 million people of working age receiving health-related benefits and the forecasted £100bn cost by 2030.
* McFadden met with four women who spoke about how they had been helped by specialist work coaches to regain confidence and look for work after being on sickness benefits for several years.
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