Reform UK Unveils Mandatory Community Work for Benefit Claimants
Party proposes benefit cuts for non-compliance and aims to restrict welfare access for foreign nationals, including EU citizens with settled status.
Carla Rooney
Reform UK has introduced a plan mandating 20 hours of community work weekly for benefits claimants.
The proposed scheme would deny benefits to those refusing participation; councils declining to run these schemes would face funding cuts.
This plan includes abolishing Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and the health element of Universal Credit for working-age adults.
Reform UK claims this policy would save £21 billion annually by its fifth year; the overall plan is expected to cut Britain's ballooning benefits bill by £50 billion.
London recorded a significant rise in benefit claimants since the pandemic; 349,500 working-age Londoners now rely on unemployment benefits.
The party also plans to prevent foreign nationals, including EU citizens with settled status, from claiming most benefits in the UK.
Robert Jenrick, who defected from the Conservative Party in January, claims the ban on foreign nationals claiming benefits would include European Union (EU) nationals with settled status in the UK.
Jenrick has set aside £500 million of contingency funding to cover the potential cost of British citizens returning to the UK to claim benefits if their entitlement to welfare in the EU is withdrawn.
He further claims that one in five Universal Credit claimants are not British.
Labour states the vast majority of migrants have no access to the welfare system under existing rules.
Best for Britain claims denying benefits to those with indefinite leave to remain would tear up the UK’s EU withdrawal agreement.
The Conservatives have a plan to save £23 billion from welfare and are conducting a review of sickness benefits.
Under the Conservative plan, employers would reportedly be liable for sick employees for the first two years of absence, with a proposed cut to national insurance contributions to offset costs.
Robert Jenrick confirmed Reform UK would renegotiate Boris Johnson's Brexit deal with the European Union if Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister after the next general election.
Separately, Reform proposes using the Royal Navy to forcibly return migrants to French ports; France has stated this would violate its sovereignty and international law.
Reform also plans a 'bonfire of equalities legislation', reportedly including the Equality Act and Human Rights Act, alongside UK withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Sir Mel Stride claims Reform continues to flip flop like they did on the two child benefit cap, and their fantasy numbers are simply not plausible.