Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on today’s IFS report on social security said: 

“Today’s IFS report has confirmed that low pay and the government’s chaotic handling of disability benefit reforms are pushing up the benefits bill. New figures commissioned by Ed Balls and me from the House of Commons Library show that the government has now spent £25 billion more than planned on social security over the course of the parliament.

“A Labour government will control the root causes of rising benefits spending by tackling low pay with an £8 minimum wage, building 200,000 homes a year by the end of the parliament and extending free childcare. We’ll also get a grip of the government’s failing welfare reforms from Universal Credit to Personal Independence Payments which are costing taxpayers billions of pounds.”