‘Welfare cuts will be my death knell,’ LBC caller tells James O’Brien

James O'Brien hears from caller Verity for reaction on the government's benefits crackdown.

Verity lives with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a group of rare inherited conditions that affect connective tissue such as skin, tendons, and ligaments.

Presently, Verity has received the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), but after the government's tightening of its eligibility criteria, she told James she would no longer be "disabled enough".

"I won't survive without it," she said.

The rising benefits bill is "devastating" for the public finances and has "wreaked a terrible human cost", Sir Keir Starmer said in the wake of cutting welfare by £5 billion.

The Government on Tuesday announced a raft of welfare measures it says will help bring more working-age people back into jobs, and which will save the taxpayer billions of pounds.

Among the most significant moves is the tightening of eligibility for personal independence payments (Pip), a benefit aimed at helping those with disability or long-term illness with increased living costs.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to be affected by the changes to Pip eligibility, which are expected to account for the largest proportion of savings the Government hopes to make.

Elsewhere, ministers will scrap the work capability assessment for universal credit, the test of whether someone can get incapacity benefit payments based on their fitness for work.

This will be replaced by 2028 with a single assessment considering the impact a person's disability has on daily living, rather than their fitness to work.

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