personal finance

Reeves says poverty figures from spring statement cuts don’t take into account impact of getting people into work – live


Reeves says poverty figures don’t take account of impact of measures to get more people into work

Rachel Reeves is speaking at her press conference now.

Q: Is pushing 250,000 more people into poverty a price worth paying?

Reeves says the OBR has not taken into account the impact of more people going into work. She says they will be doing some work on this ahead of the budget in the autumn.

And she says the government is investing £1bn on getting more people into work.

And so we’re confident that the changes that we are making and the support that we’re providing to get people into work, will result in more people having fulfilling careers paying decent wages and of course, that’s the best way to lift families out of poverty.

Key events

Treasury minister Darren Jones urged to apologise for ‘pocket money’ comment in discussion over benefit cuts

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, was on Politics Live earlier (the other one, the BBC version) and, asked about the impact assessment saying the disability cuts will push 250,000 more people into poverty, he argued that these figures did not take into account the postive impact of people finding work. (Rachel Reeves used the same argument a few minutes ago – see 5.19pm).

But then, to explain his point, Jones said that if he cut his children’s pocket money by £10 a week, but told them to set a Saturday job, an impact assessment would say they were losing £10 a week – without taking into account the extra cash they would get from the Saturday job.

“If I cut my child’s pocket money by £10 a week and tell them to get a Saturday job…”

Minister Darren Jones on disabled people losing £4,500 a year because of the governments cuts. pic.twitter.com/vvKnJbGuED

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) March 26, 2025

Jones was not saying that Pip was like pocket money, or that disability benefit claimants are like children. But that hasn’t stopped his comment being interpreted as if he were (which on its own is enough to show that he probably should not have said it).

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an apology. Steve Darling, the Lib Dem work and pensions spokesperson, said:

This is incredibly insulting and shows the government just doesn’t understand the challenges facing people with disabilities. Darren Jones owes an apology to the hundreds of thousands of people his government’s decision has pushed into poverty and the millions more whose lives they have made more challenging.





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