The Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced a range of cuts to benefits payments in the Commons on Tuesday in a bid to save money and get people back to work. On the evening broadcast round that followed, Labour MP and pensions minister Torsten Bell was quizzed on Newsnight about what exactly the reforms would mean. But rather than reassuring viewers, Bell’s tone-deaf interview has left benefits-receiving Brits even more concerned about their futures.
Challenging the Labour minister on how the welfare reforms will affect young people, the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire put it to him that ‘some young people are going to be living on around £70 a week’. Bell, ex-chief of the Resolution Foundation think tank, pushed back, telling his interviewer that ‘people with significant disabilities will be protected’ via the Universal Credit system and personal independence payments (PIP). It didn’t quite answer the question, however, as Derbyshire went on to point out.
VD: And for those who can’t, they’ll be living on about £70 a month.
TB: We are not going to write off 21-year-olds as unable to work.
VD: For the ones who can’t they’ll be living on about £70 a week. Could you live on £70 a week?
TB: Absolutely not.
VD: So why do you expect young people to?
TB: We won’t, we’ll provide housing benefit as well and personal independence payments for those that need it.
VD: This is cash in their pocket.
TB: So are the things I just mentioned to you. That’s how the benefits system works.
VD: So to buy food, to pay bills… £70 a week.
TB: Yep.
VD: You’ve just told me you couldn’t live on that.
TB: Well, no, I have a mortgage to pay.
Mr S would remind readers this is the same man who wrote an article in the Observer just last year titled: ‘It’s immoral to push children into poverty but that’s what the benefit cap does.’ How times change, eh?
Watch the clip here:
“Could you live on £70 a week?”
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) March 18, 2025
“Absolutely not”
“So why do you expect young people to?”
“We won't”@vicderbyshire challenges DWP minister Torsten Bell on benefit reform.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/mEbBnT92Aq
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