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Changes to personal independence payments (PIP) could save up to £9bn a year, Reform UK has said. Reform UK’s Lee Anderson has led the calls to shake-up the disability and incapacity benefit. Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Anderson savaged the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) welfare system. Anderson admitted he used to “game the system” to help people get on benefits and accused Citizens Advice of continuing to do so. The Ashfield MP told a press conference that he worked at the advice organisation before entering politics. “Before I came into politics, I worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau,” the Ashfield MP told a press conference. READ MORE New 10mph speed limit in England 'for next six months' with drivers warned “We used to fill the form out for clients… I can tell you now, we were gaming system.” He said it was “a competition” between the adviser and the Department for Work and Pensions. He said he knew advisers at the organisation who had “a 100% hit rate” on benefits applications and could get “the fittest man in Ashfield” onto personal independence payment (Pip). Head of policy Zia Yusuf said “incredibly, the assessment handbook is online” as he compared applying for sickness benefits to “doing your driving theory test and having the answers online for you”. Mr Yusuf told a central London press conference: “The caseload for new claims for under-25s in this country on Pip have tripled in five years. “So we are betraying our young people. Reassessments are basically not happening anymore. These young people are … being basically tossed onto a scrap heap for the rest of their lives.” Mr Anderson, the party’s welfare spokesman, said: “The alarm clock generation is now being replaced by an anxiety generation.” Claimants “staying at home all day, courtesy of taxpayer-funded employment support, loans and personal independence payments”, he said. Asked whether the cited savings included the cost of reinstating full face-to-face appointments and of helping people back into work, Yusuf said this would be about £100m annually.
