Badenoch pledges to ‘draw a line’ on which health issues get welfare support

The Conservatives will “draw a line” on which health issues the state treats as disabilities in a bid to cut the UK’s benefits bill, Kemi Badenoch has said.

The Tory leader said her party would carry out a “full review” of which conditions qualify a person for welfare support as part of plans to “get Britain working again”.

In a speech at Glaziers Hall in central London, she claimed the system was not designed to handle “the age of diagnosis which we now live in” before suggesting that some people were “gaming” benefits rules to receive money.

“We will review every circumstance in which benefits are currently paying more than work,” she said.

“We will undertake a full review of the level and operation of the household benefit cap, which currently acts more like a sieve than a cap, because most people on benefits avoid it through one exemption or another.

“Exemptions like being diagnosed with anxiety.

“Being diagnosed with anxiety can be worth more than £20,000 to some families.”

Asked whether she believed there was a mental health crisis in the UK or whether people were seeking a diagnosis purely to claim benefits, Mrs Badenoch said there were instances of people “gaming the system”.

“I think that people not being in work actually develop more severe mental health issues than those people who are in work.

“There is a virtual circle that is being created,” she told reporters.

“But we know that there are some people who are gaming the system. We know this. They are on Instagram and they call themselves sickfluencers.

“They actually say, this is what you do, you pick up the phone, you tell them you’re too anxious to come in… so we’ve seen it.

“We know that there are people exploiting the system.”

Mrs Badenoch said the Tories’ review would be carried out “carefully over time” with input from “medical and employment experts” to ensure “we get it right”.

“Let’s get some hope out there. We are not the doom and gloom party, we are not the welfare party – that’s Labour,” she said.

“We want to talk about how we would do this for our high streets, what we’re going to do for public services.

“We are going to turn Britain from a welfare state into an opportunity state, and together, get Britain working again.”

Labour said the Conservatives “broke” the welfare system while they were in power and accused the Tory leader of sounding “delusional”.

Opposition critics attacked Rachel Reeves’ Budget last month after she hiked taxes by £26 billion, including by freezing thresholds on income tax, which the Chancellor said would help improve public services.

The increases came in response to downgraded economic forecasts but also a rise welfare spending because of the abolition of the two-child benefit cap and the Labour revolt over attempts to curb the benefits bill.

Sir Keir Starmer was forced to abandon welfare cuts planned earlier this year in the face of a major backbench rebellion, though the Government is carrying out its own review and has insisted it will press on with reforms to the system.

In response to Mrs Badenoch’s speech, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Tories’ message on welfare is: we broke it, now put us back in charge.

“Kemi Badenoch is delusional and is treating the public like fools.

“Under the Conservatives, the benefits bill rocketed by £114 billion and nearly a million kids were plunged into poverty.

“Now they want to pretend it didn’t happen.

“There is a simple choice at hand: lifting half a million children out of poverty with Labour, or plunging kids back into that misery under Tory plans.

“This Labour Government is reforming the welfare and the skills system to get people back into the work and out of the doom loop of joblessness which spiralled out of control under the Tories.

“That’s the only way we’ll create a fairer future where everyone has the chance to get on in life and succeed.”