UK’s Conservatives promise 12 billion-pound sickness benefit savings

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, facing an election next month, on Saturday announced details of its plan to tighten sickness benefit rules, which it said would eventually save 12 billion pounds ($15.3 billion) a year.
Sunak, who has previously said he wants to change welfare rules to counter a rise in people dropping out of the workforce, said his reforms represented “a moral mission” as well as a way to help fix the public finances.
The plan included an increase in mental health services, more stringent assessments of people’s ability to work and tougher rules for people who refuse to take up suitable jobs.
The changes would save taxpayers 12 billion pounds a year in welfare spending by the end of the next parliament, which is due to run until 2029, the Conservatives said.
However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank, said many of the planned changes were already baked into existing fiscal projections.