The Spring Statement by chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday introduced further measures to reduce health-related and disability benefit spending and included a rate freeze on the Universal Credit (UC) health element for new claimants.

David Finch, assistant director at The Health Foundation, said ‘the cuts to disability and health-related benefits (£7.5bn) are more than four times larger than those the previous Government had planned (£1.6bn)'.

Finch said the additional freeze on UC for new claimants suggested a policy driven by fiscal rules rather than one to meet people's health and disability needs and designed to reduce the number of people who end up out of work for the long term due to their health.

‘The Government does not appear to make the connection between reductions in income in low-income households and the risk this poses to people's health,' Finch said.

The assistant director said any employment gains were unlikely to offset income losses due to the ‘scale and depth' of cuts for some and ‘low likelihood' of moving many back into employment.

‘A more sustainable approach would be to focus on keeping people in-work in the first place and protecting their health, reducing flows onto benefits,' Finch argued.

The DWP impact assessment shows 3.2m families will lose an average of £1,700 a year from the cuts with 800,000 people losing an average of £4,500 a year of Personal Independence Payments.

Finch said the changes were likely to mean a further 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, will be in relative poverty by 2029/30.

‘Reduced incomes are likely to lead to a further deterioration in people's health and reduce their ability to find or prepare for work,' he added.

Finch commented: ‘By chasing short-term savings, the Government is failing to make the longer-term policy choices that can tackle the underlying factors driving increasing health and disability benefit spending, such as the worsening health of the working-age population.

‘In a context where the Government needs to build trust with disabled people, cutting benefit entitlements through reforming PIP eligibility and reducing entitlements for new UC health claims risk undermining the Government's efforts to support more people with health conditions into work.'

A Government spokesperson said: ‘We have set out a sweeping package of reforms to health and disability benefits that genuinely support people back into work, while putting the welfare system on a more sustainable footing so that the safety net is always there to protect those who need it most.'