Labour's next benefit cut victims laid bare as Rachel Reeves is urged to reconsider

Labour is already plotting more benefit reforms which could leave 400,000 disabled people out of pocket, a prominent anti-poverty campaigner has claimed.

Anela Anwar, chief executive of the Z2K charity, was speaking at the time when the Government is facing a significant backlash against its plan to strip roughly 10 million pensioners not in receipt of benefits of the £300 annual winter fuel payment.

And writing for the Big Issue magazine, she warned there was more to come.

Ms Anwar explained: "Since the election of the Labour government in July there has been something of a change in tone when it comes to social security and disability.”

Department of Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall had pledged to “end the blame culture targeted at people out of work”, she pointed out.

"But look closer, and there are more concerning signs. Speaking to parliament at the end of July, the chancellor warned that the autumn budget will involve ‘taking difficult decisions’ on social security, and said she ‘will look closely at our welfare system, because if someone can work, they should work’. "

Ms Anwar, who said her child had been awarded disability benefits after a five-year battle, emphasised: "Many of our clients who can’t work as a result of serious illness or disability face a system that is already threadbare, where financial support is regularly cut or removed altogether as a result of bad decision-making. For our clients, the prospect of further cuts to financial support is terrifying.”

Much had been made of what Ms Anwar called the previous government’s "ill-conceived" proposals to make radical changes to personal independence payment (PIP).

She said: "Among a raft of troubling proposals was a suggestion that PIP cash payments could be replaced with vouchers. Labour has yet to set out its intentions with regards to PIP, but notably have said that they are ‘reviewing the responses people have made to the previous government’s consultation’.

"The new government has also been worryingly silent about its plans for the work capability assessment (WCA). Its manifesto said that the WCA ‘needs to be reformed or replaced’, but Labour has so far failed to provide much detail about what this would mean in practice.”

Of particular concern was the government’s failure to rule out WCA proposals introduced by the Tories prior to the July general election.

Ms Anwar explained: "The planned changes to the work capability assessment criteria, which were on the cusp of being implemented before the election was called, would mean over 400,000 seriously ill and disabled people missing out on more than £400 per month of additional financial support, and having to survive indefinitely on the grossly inadequate basic rate of universal credit.

"The basic rate of universal credit is just £91 per week for a single person. It’s hard enough living on this if you’re in good health and able to look for work: Trussell Trust polling released last week found that almost half of those on universal credit ran out of food in the past month. But imagine being seriously ill for months on end, and potentially for life, and having to live off this meagre amount.”

The Office for Budget Responsibility had analysed the plans and predicted that just three percent of those affected by the cuts would move into work as a result of these reforms, leaving the remaining 97 percent having to survive on the lowest rate of benefits for an indefinite period.

Ms Anwar added: "What’s more, the proposals would not even result in significant savings for the government. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the plans will ‘at most deliver a short-run saving before becoming irrelevant’.

Writing on Wednesday, she said: "That’s why we are today handing in our petition to call on the government to officially drop these proposals. Over 11,000 people have now backed our campaign to say no to these cruel reforms. MPs from the Lib Dems and the Green Party will also be there to support us.

"The new government has a real opportunity to reset the relationship between disabled people and the DWP. Bringing forward these poorly thought-out and dangerous proposals would taint these efforts before they’ve even begun.”

In a keynote speech last month, Ms Kendall said: "People have been denied the chance and the right to participate in the world of work.

"They’ve been excluded. Then labelled, and blamed for the position they’re in. If this is what has happened to you, my message today is: We hear you.

"We are on your side. And we will work day and night to put this right."