Wes Streeting declines to be drawn on whether the government will freeze personal independence payment (PIP) as uncertainty continues to surround Labour's upcoming welfare reforms. The health secretary says, “there's been a lot of speculation in recent days about what the government’s welfare proposals will and won't say, some of which are fairly divorced from things that the government is actually planning to do”. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00There's been a lot of speculation in recent days about what the government welfare proposals
00:03will and won't say, some of which are fairly divorced from things that the government is
00:09actually planning to do. People won't have long to wait to see the package and what I'd
00:14say to people is the whole driving focus of our reforms is to make sure that people who
00:19need the help the most get the most help and also to make sure that against the backdrop
00:23of high levels of unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, lots of people who are
00:28off work, off sick, that we're helping people into work and where they're suffering from
00:32illness, cutting NHS waiting lists so they're not just back to health, they're back to work
00:36as well. We've got a system in this country where those who need support don't always
00:42receive the support they need, especially if they're needing help to get back to work
00:47and where the welfare bill continues to rise beyond sustainability and we want to make
00:52sure that we've got a welfare system in this country that is fair, kind, compassionate,
00:57acts as a safety net for those who can't work and a springboard back to work for those
01:01who can. That's why this reform package will be so important and we'll be setting it out
01:05in the coming days.