Liz Kendall announces £2.5bn cost of welfare reforms as she admits changes are 'never easy'

Shutting down claims of a "two-tier" welfare system, Kendall outlined Labour's "four-point requirement" for new claimants of welfare benefits.

Kendall stated: "The only way of unlocking the potential of individuals and of the country as a whole is when we collectively provide real opportunity and support."

Kendall also announced £300million in employment support, and assured no existing benefits claimants will lose their Pip payments.

Highlighting the scale of Britons not currently in work, Kendall told MPs: "The system we inherited from the party opposite is failing on all these fronts.

"It incentivises people to define themselves as incapable of work, just to be able to afford to live. It then writes them off and denies them any help or support.

"The result is 2.8million of our fellow citizens now out of work due to long term sickness. Almost a million young people not in education, employment or training. That's a staggering one in eight of all our young people."

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Kendall said that the future "sustainability of the system has also been put at risk" by the number of people on Pip payments set to "double this decade" to more than four million.

She assured the planned reforms will be "fit for the future", as the Labour Government has "listened carefully" to what the system needs.

Denying claims that the reforms will create a "two-tier system", Kendall stated: "Our benefit system often protects existing claimants from new rates or new rules because lives have been built around that support and it's often very hard for people to adjust.

"For example, some people still receive the Severe Disablement Allowance, which was closed to new claims in 2001 when Labour introduced the local housing allowance in 2008.

"Existing claimants stayed on the old higher rates of housing benefit and many people are still on DLA, which replaced Pip in 2013.

"So we believe protecting existing claimants whilst beginning to focus Pip on those with higher needs for new claimants going forward, Would strikes the right and fair balance."

Outlining plans for Universal Credit claimants, Kendall announced that the combined value of the Universal credit standard allowance and the health top up will "rise at least in line with inflation".

Kendall confirmed to MPs: "The third issue of concern was that our plans to freeze the Universal Credit health up top up for existing claimants and for future claimants with severe lifelong health conditions and those at the end of life, would not protect incomes in real terms, even with the increase in the in the Universal Credit Standard allowance.

"So I can today confirm that we will ensure for these groups the combined value of the Universal credit standard allowance and the health top up will rise at least in line with inflation, protecting their incomes from these benefits in real terms every year for the rest of this Parliament, together with the changes to our proposals for Pip, this will ensure no existing claimants are put into poverty as a result of the changes in this bill."