Chancellor Rachel Reeves has unveiled a significant overhaul of the UK's welfare and pension system in her Labour Party Autumn Budget, announcing six key changes affecting millions of citizens.
Ending Child Poverty Measures
In one of the most dramatic moments of her Budget speech, Ms Reeves confirmed the abolition of the controversial two-child benefit cap from April next year. The move was met with cheers from Labour MPs and disapproval from opposition benches.
The Chancellor declared she would not "preside over a status quo that punishes children for the circumstances of their birth." She described the policy as the single biggest driver of child poverty, stating it had "pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty since it was introduced" while failing to achieve its stated aims of reducing family sizes or cutting welfare costs.
Ms Reeves outlined what she called the "triple cost" of child poverty: children suffering immediate disadvantage, councils bearing the burden of supporting families in temporary accommodation, and long-term economic damage from "wasted talent."
Disability Support and Pension Reforms
The Motability scheme will undergo significant changes, with Ms Reeves announcing reforms to "reduce generous taxpayer subsidies." She stated the scheme was created "to protect the most vulnerable, not to subsidise the lease on a Mercedes Benz."
Motability has confirmed it will remove luxury vehicles from the scheme, returning it to its original purpose of providing cost-effective leases to disabled people.
On state pensions, the Chancellor confirmed a 4.8% increase in line with the triple lock commitment. This translates to an annual rise of £575 for the new state pension and £440 for the basic state pension.
Employment and Additional Measures
Universal Credit will see substantial changes aimed at reducing economic inactivity. The Chancellor announced the return of face-to-face assessments for disability benefits and stated that Universal Credit reforms would "get 15,000 people back into work."
To address youth unemployment, former Health Secretary Alan Milburn has been appointed to review the causes of rising economic inactivity among young people.
Apprenticeship training for under-25s will now be fully funded for SMEs, a move responding to representations from the Federation of Small Businesses.
In a powerful conclusion, Ms Reeves committed to scrapping the "vile policy" known as the "rape clause," which she described as requiring "women to prove if their children have been conceived non-consensually to receive support." She called the policy "dehumanising" and "cruel" and pledged to "remove it from the statute book."
