A TOP Labour minister has compared cutting benefits to giving his children pocket money.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones was grilled on the BBC’s Politics Live about UK Government data which shows that Labour’s welfare cuts will take, on average, £4500 away from people receiving Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
The same document, produced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), showed that cuts to social security would push 250,000 people into poverty over the next five years, including 50,000 children.
Asked about those figures, Jones said the document did not tell the full story because they do not account for the possibility of people finding work.
He said: “What the impact assessment doesn’t account for is the benefit that you get from additional money into support for training, skills or work.
"If I cut my child's pocket money by £10 a week and tell them to get a Saturday job..." Minister Darren Jones on disabled people losing £4,500 a year because of the governments cuts. pic.twitter.com/vvKnJbGuED
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“Take for example, if I said to my kids, ‘I’m going to cut your pocket money by £10 a week but you have to go and get a Saturday job.’ The impact assessment on that basis would say that my kids were down £10, irrespective of how much money they get from their Saturday job.”
Host Jo Coburn asked: “Do you think that is a significant drop in the average amount someone will be able to get on PIP or not, £4500 a year?”
Jones, Rachel Reeves’s right-hand man at the Treasury, replied: “The key word there is ‘average’. I am very conscious of the fact that there will be people at home who do receive PIP, who I don’t want to be unduly worried by an average figure.
“The key point is that they will be seen by a clinician, the clinician – a qualified clinician – will take the decision as to whether they need the same support they’ve had or whether they need a different package of support and those decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis, with those individual’s needs being taken seriously.”
