Minister sorry for comparing benefits to pocket money

Treasury minister Darren Jones has apologised for comparing benefits for disabled people to "pocket money".

Jones, who is deputy to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, was defending welfare cuts on the BBC's Politics Live after Wednesday's Spring Statement when he made the gaffe.

Government analysis suggests more than 3 million families will on average be £1,720 a year worse off by 2030 due to benefit cuts.

Jones said this did not take into account extra cash for training, saying it was like his children getting a Saturday job on top of their pocket money, but the minister later said he was sorry about the "tactless" comments after they were branded "offensive" and "patronising" by critics.

On Wednesday evening, Jones told ITV's Peston programme: "I'm sorry about it. It was tactless and it wasn't well considered", adding "I apologise if I've offended people."

Reeves said it was "not the right analogy" when asked about the chief secretary to the Treasury's comments on LBC Radio.

But she added: "My children and the chief secretary's children are too young, but if you have a 16-year-old and you say, 'you know what I'm not going to give you so much pocket money. I want you to go out to work'.

"And then the [Office for Budget Responsibility] does an impact assessment and says you're child is going to be worse off - well, they're going to be worse off if they don't go and get themselves a Saturday job.

"But if they do go and get themselves a Saturday job, they'll probably be better off and they probably might enjoy it as well.

"Now, that's not the right analogy, but there are lots of people who have a disability that are desperate to work."

Pressed further about Jones's comments on the BBC's Today programme she said it was a "clumsy" analogy, adding: "Of course it's not pocket money."

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In Wednesday's Spring Statement, Reeves announced further cuts to benefits after the OBR said changes announced last week would not raise as much money as ministers hoped.

An estimated 800,000 people will lose out on personal independent payments (Pips) by 2030.

A further 2.25 million people currently receiving the health top up to universal credit will lose an average of £500 a year as a result of the freeze, and 730,000 future recipients will lose out.

About 3.9 million households not on the health element of universal credit are expected to gain an average of £265 a year from the increase to the standard allowance.

And an extra 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, will be pushed into relative poverty by the government's changes, according to its own impact assessment.

But ministers have been keen to stress that the figures do not take into account of funding for measures to support those with disabilities into employment.

On Wednesday, Jones told Politics Live: "My understanding is what the impact assessment doesn't account for is the benefit that you get from our additional money into support for training, skills or work.

"Take, for example, if I said to my kids: 'I'm going to cut your pocket money by £10 per week, but you have to go and get a Saturday job'.

"The impact assessment on that basis would say that my kids were down £10, irrespective of how much money they get from their Saturday job."

Apsana Begum - the independent MP for Poplar and Limehouse - described the comments as "staggering".

Lib Dem work and pensions spokesman Steve Darling, who is blind, said it was "incredibly insulting" and showed that the government did not "understand the challenges facing people with disabilities".

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