McFadden supports welfare cuts as over 1,000 a day sign up to Pip

Senior cabinet minister Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster has revealed that more than 1,000 people every day are signing up to personal independence payments (Pip).

McFadden said every year the number of people signing up to Pip is the equivalent of a city the size of Leicester and he is vowing to cut the benefit.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme McFadden said they will “keep talking to people” which comes after over 100 MPs signed up to stop reforms to Pip.

The government want to tighten the eligibility for people being able to receive Pip to save £5 billion a year.

McFadden told the Today programme, “We will keep talking to people between now and the vote, but there is no escaping the need for reform of the welfare system.”

He added, “We’re in the middle of a decade which is set to see the number of people on long-term sickness and disability benefits double over the course of the decade.

“A thousand people a day go on to Pip (personal independence payment) – that’s a city the size of, for example, Leicester – year after year after year.

“Welfare reform is not an easy issue, and to govern is sometimes to have to grasp issues that aren’t easy.”