Diane Abbott has accused Keir Starmer of “peddling benefit scrounger mythology” as Labour said young people who won’t take jobs will lose payments.
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said on Sunday that “if people repeatedly refuse to take up the training or work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits”.
Asked if this meant losing those benefits, she told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “Yes.”
Labour has said it will stick by a Tory commitment to slash the cost of the welfare bill by £3 billion over five years.
Ms Kendall is to set out her plans in detail on Tuesday, but on Sunday talked of “tough” action ahead while Sir Keir warned of the “bulging benefits bill blighting our society”.
In response, the veteran Labour MP Ms Abbott tweeted that it was: “Sad that Starmer is peddling the benefit scrounger mythology.”
In a piece for the Mail On Sunday, the Labour leader pledged the public would see “sweeping changes. Because make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.”
He added: “Don’t get me wrong, we will crack down hard on anyone who tries to game the system, to tackle fraud, so we can take cash straight from the banks of fraudsters.
“There will be a zero-tolerance approach to these criminals….I will grip this problem once and for all.”
Ms Abbott’s criticism was backed by ex-Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who quit the party at the end of September, who asked: “Where’s the Labour government that was elected?”
Ms Kendall said benefits claimants had a “responsibility” to engage with training or employment programmes.
She added: “If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training or work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits.
“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those opportunities, which is what we will do.
“We will transform those opportunities, but young people will be required to take them up.”
She also said she believed “many millions” of disabled people and those with long-term health conditions want to work, but said “barriers” had to be removed.
Asked whether some 400,000 people would ultimately be denied their current benefits, she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m saying we will bring forward our own reforms. You wouldn’t expect me to announce this on your programme.
“But my objective is that disabled people should have the same chances and rights to work as everybody else.”
The number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to rise from around 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2029, official figures show.
Ms Kendall’s proposals are designed to “get Britain working” and are expected to include work coaches in mental health clinics as well as a “youth guarantee”, designed to ensure 18 to 21-year-olds are either working or studying.
The reasons for the increased number of claims are “complex” and that Britain is “an older and also sicker nation”, she said.
“I think there are a combination of factors here,” she said. “I do think we are seeing an increase in the number of people with mental health problems, both self-diagnosed – I think it’s good that stigma has been reduced – but also diagnosed by doctors.
“We’re also seeing more people in their 50s and above, often women, with bad knees, hips, joints. We’ve got a real problem with our health service.”
Asked whether she believes “normal feelings” are being “over-medicalised”, Ms Kendall told the BBC: “I genuinely believe there’s not one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too bluesy to work.
“I mean, I don’t know who they were speaking to. There is a genuine problem with mental health in this country.”
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