https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjev7vn4qp0oThe rising cost of sickness and disability benefits is "devastating" for the public finances, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said, after his government announced a major overhaul of the welfare system.
Sweeping changes were unveiled on Tuesday, which ministers say are aimed at saving £5bn a year by 2030 and encouraging people to work, while protecting those who cannot.
Sir Keir said the current system had "wreaked a terrible human cost", with people who wanted to return to work unable to access the support they needed.
But the government's reforms have faced criticism from Labour backbenchers, unions and charities, who fear the changes could push more disabled people into poverty.
Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to be affected by the benefit changes, which will make it harder for people with less severe conditions to claim disability payments.
Writing in the Times newspaper, Sir Keir said the current system was "actively incentivising" people away from work and represented an "affront to the values of our country".
"This is not just unfair to taxpayers," he said. "It is also a bad long-term outcome for many of those people."
He pointed to the 2.8 million working age people out of work because of long-term sickness, saying this was a "damning indictment of the Conservative record" on welfare.
Responding to the government's announcement on Tuesday, the Conservatives said the changes were "too little, too late" and needed to be "tougher".
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately asked why the government was only planning to save £5bn a year, when the annual bill for health and disability benefits was forecast to rise to more than £100bn by the 2029/30 financial year.
