The party vows to reform disability benefits so they are “better targeted” and improve PIP assessments to make it more specific to someone’s need – following a consultation. The party wants to stop the number of claims from rising and argues people with mental health issues, for example, may not need as much financial support as someone with a physical disability.

Labour
Labour would work with councils to help match up disabled people, or those with health conditions, with jobs as well as dealing with the backlog of access to work claims. The party wants to reform or replace the work capability assessment process for out of work sickness benefits and will look at the consultation already in place about overhauling PIP.

Lib Dems
The Lib Dems want to give disabled people more of a role in shaping the disability benefit system and want to reform PIP to improve the assessment process but have not set out details. The party would bring the work capability assessments in-house.

Reform
The party said all assessments of PIP and out-of-work sickness benefits must be face to face. Independent medical assessments will be required to prove eligibility for payments but anyone registered with severe disabilities or serious long-term illnesses would be exempt from regular checks.

Greens
The Greens want to immediately increase disability benefits by 5 per cent and end what they say is the targeting of carers and disabled people on benefits. The party opposes proposals to replace PIP with “vouchers” and wants to reform the eligibility test.

SNP
The SNP has pledged to scrap the proposed welfare reforms for sick and disabled people but does not set out details, although it wants to bring certain benefits under the control of the Scottish government.

Plaid Cymru
Plaid opposes proposed changes to the work capability assessment and moves to get more sick and disabled people into work. Under its plans for a devolved benefits system, health welfare would come under the control of the Welsh government.

Summary
There is some consensus among the bigger parties that benefits need reforming and some claimants need help in returning to work. But smaller parties are opposed.

Universal credit
Conservative
The party would continue with the roll-out of universal credit and introduce tougher sanctions for those who are on out of work benefits and do not engage with the work coach system – including the threat to withdraw all support after 12 months if they do not take up suitable jobs.

Labour
Labour wants to reform employment support – including Job Centres – so they are better able to get people into sustained employment, with a focus on local leadership working with employers and skills. The party will keep universal credit and does not plan to change the sanctions. It would review the benefit to ensure it “tackles poverty” but has not given details.

Lib Dems
The Lib Dems want to set up an independent commission to recommend further annual increases in universal credit to ensure it covers essentials, such as food and bills. The party would cut the wait for the first payment of universal credit from five weeks to five days and replace the sanctions regime with incentives, and remove the benefit cap.

Reform
Reform said anyone “fit to work” must find employment within four months, or accept a job offer after two, or will have benefits withdrawn. The party would impose a requirement of five years’ residency and employment to claim any benefits.

Greens
The party wants to increase universal credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week and end the five-week wait. It promises to introduce a minimum wage of £15 an hour for all, regardless of age, with costs to small businesses offset by increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,000.

SNP
The SNP wants to ensure under-25’s receive the same amount of the benefit as those over that age and wants to scrap the bedroom tax. It is calling for full devolution of social security.

Plaid
It opposes benefit sanctions and said first payments of universal credit should be shortened so that individuals and families do not get into debt. Plaid is in favour of a universal basic income and supports pilots. Plaid said core benefits should be linked with inflation. The party also wants to introduce a Welsh Benefits System to devolve health and housing benefits.

Summary
The ongoing battle between ensuring those in need are properly catered for while the system is not abused is reflected in the parties’ stances. The Lib Dems tick both boxes.

Childcare and benefit
Conservative
The party wants to reform Child Benefit by calculating it based on household rather than individual incomes to make it fairer. They have promised parents 30 hours of free childcare a week from when their child is nine months old to when they start school – as well as rolling out an expansion of the childcare industry.

Labour
Labour will open an additional 3,000 nurseries through upgrading space in primary schools and continue with the extension of government-funded hours. It will also review the parental leave system. The party has not set out any plans to change child benefits but said it would fund free breakfast clubs in every primary school for all children.

Lib Dem
The Lib Dems have said they would restore the full rate of universal credit for all parents regardless of age, scrap the two-child limit and the benefit cap, and extend free school meals to all children in poverty. The party wants to double statutory maternity and shared parental pay and bring in an extra month for fathers and partners.

Reform
Reform would front-load the child benefit system for young children to make it easier for parents to be at home with them. Leader Nigel Farage said the party would scrap the two-child benefit cap but this is not stated in the manifesto.

Greens
Greens said they would abolish the two-child benefit cap and want to negotiate with the childcare sector with the aim of extending the number of free hours to 35 per week from nine months.

SNP
The SNP will call for the two-child benefit cap and “associated rape clause” – in which a woman who became pregnant after being raped must prove it in order to avoid the cap – to be scrapped. The party wants housing benefit and local housing allowance devolved.

Plaid
Increase child benefit by £20 per week. Plaid wants education and childcare service for children aged 12 months in Welsh until they are eligible for full-time education.

Summary
All the parties recognise childcare needs reform with nursery places and the smaller parties mostly want an end to the two-child benefit cap.

Industrial relations
Conservative
Pledges to continue implementing its Minimum Services Levels legislation, which it claims will ensure a base level of staff is forced to work to ensure essential services can continue to run. Despite implementing such laws in areas, such as the rail sector, minimum service levels have yet to be enacted. Makes no mention of how it will solve the junior doctors strikes.

Labour
Will introduce a “new deal for working people” and launch a full consultation on how to shape new employment laws. Under the plans, it will ban “exploitative” zero hours contracts, end fire and rehire practices, introduce basic rights on parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal. It says it will strengthen the collective rights of workers.

Lib Dem
The party promises to “modernise” employment rights to ensure they are fit for the age of the gig economy, creating a new “dependent contractor” employment status with entitlements to basic rights such as minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holidays. It would also offer any worker the right to request fixed contract status after 12 months of “zero hours”.

Reform
Promises to scrap employment laws in an effort to slash red tape and boost productivity. In particular, it would abolish the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) rules, which it says have “lowered standards and reduced economic productivity”.

Greens
Insists trade unions are a “vital partner in building a fairer, greener economy”. Party will campaign to repeal current “anti-union legislation” and replace it with a “Charter of Workers’ Rights”. It calls for maximum 10:1 pay ratios for all private and public-sector organisations, as well as demanding equal rights for all workers in the gig economy and those on zero-hours contracts.

SNP
Would repeal legislation that forces workers in key industries to keep services running at a minimum level while they are on strike. All workers would have access to statutory sick pay. The party wants to expand paid maternity leave to a full year, including at least 12 weeks on full pay, with fathers given an extra 12 weeks of shared parental leave.

Plaid
Will reverse recent “regressive” anti-strike legislation, while pushing for legislation to tackle insecure work, deliver paid bereavement and miscarriage leave. It would ban fire and rehire practices, abolish zero-hours contracts, establish the right to “disconnect” to protect workers from being contacted outside of work hours and reform shared parental leave.

Summary
With the exception of the Tories and Reform, the parties feel the rights of workers need rebalancing with particular regards to union rights.

Minimum wage
Conservative
In Government, the Tories have raised the National Living wage to £11.44 an hour and extended it to workers over 21, although not those younger. They have committed to keeping the rate at two-thirds of median earnings, which would take it to an estimated £13 by the time of the next election.

Labour
The National Minimum Wage would be set with regard to the cost of living and all adults would be entitled to the same minimum pay level. Labour said it would ensure the minimum wage is high enough by changing the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission to account for the cost of living. It would expand this to all adult workers.

Lib Dem
Liberal Democrats would set up a review into a “genuine living wage”, which would be 20 per cent higher for zero-hours workers. There would be a new status of “dependent contractor” for self-employed people who in practice get all or nearly all their income from one source and who would get the right to sick pay and paid holiday.

Reform
Nigel Farage has previously warned that increasing the National Minimum Wage could attract more immigration. Reform says it would abolish some employment laws in order to boost the economy, adding: “We must make it easier to hire and fire so that businesses can grow.”

Greens
The National Minimum Wage would be raised to £15 an hour, with a maximum wage introduced of no more than 10 times the salary of a firm’s lowest-paid employee. Firms would have to carry out “equal pay audits” on a regular basis and it would become cheaper to take an employer to a tribunal. The Greens also back “moving towards a four-day working week”.

SNP
Calls for the National Minimum Wage and employment rights to be devolved in order to scrap “exploitative” zero-hours contracts, ban fire and rehire and close the gender pay gap. Pledges to increase the National Minimum Wage to the level of the National Living Wage.

Plaid
Give the Welsh Government control of employment law in Wales, which is now determined on a UK-wide basis from Westminster. Plaid makes no direct mention of the National Minimum Wage, but would seek to pay an apprenticeship living wage.

Summary
With the exception of Reform, the parties acknowledge wages, whether at minimum or living level, have to keep up with the cost of living. They would also tackle unfairnesses in zero-hours contracts.

Equality
Conservative
The Tories would introduce legislation to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act means biological sex. New laws to ensure schools follow government guidance for teachers on how best to support gender questioning students would be introduced. The party would deliver a Disability Action Plan to transform the everyday lives of people with a disability.

Labour
Labour would require public bodies to consider how their priorities and policies may reduce socio-economic inequality. The full right to equal pay for ethnic minority workers and disabled people would be introduced. Female workers would have stronger protections in law for equal pay and against maternity and menopause discrimination and sexual harassment.

Lib Dem
The Lib Dems would champion the Human Rights Act, implement a Race Equality Strategy to address inequalities, including in education, health and maternity, criminal justice and the economy, and make misogyny a hate crime. Everyone would have a new right to flexible working. All forms of conversion therapies and practices would be banned.

Reform
“Woke policing” would be replaced by “common sense policing” and all Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DE&I) roles and regulations would be scrapped in the public sector, including in police forces. The 2010 Equality Act would be scrapped.

Greens
The party would campaign to end violence against women and girls, scrap legislation that it says erodes the right to protest and free expression, and campaign for the right of self-identification for trans and non-binary people. Hate crime, misogyny, Islamophobia and antisemitism would be tackled. Large and medium-size companies would redress any inequality uncovered.

SNP
The SNP would protect and enhance the rights of the LGBTI community. With Scottish independence, the party says it would have the full powers to improve equality in law and society, and the ability to champion LGBTI equality internationally. The party would also protect the right to abortion, including giving all women access to abortion.

Plaid
LGBTQ+ inclusion would be promoted throughout society, including all workplaces and participation in sport. Conversion therapy practices related to sexuality and gender identity would be banned. The party would fund research into the barriers that communities face in accessing healthcare, addressing structural and institutional racial discrimination.

Summary
With the exception of Reform, which would repeal the 2010 Equalities Act ,all the parties are pledging to beef up protections for women and minorities.

Pensioners’ benefits
Conservative
The party would keep the state pension triple lock and introduce a new Triple Lock Plus, which would mean from April 2025 the personal allowance for pensioners would be increased. All current pensioner benefits, including free bus passes, winter fuel payments, free prescriptions and TV licences, would be maintained.

Labour
Labour would retain the triple lock for the state pension and adopt reforms to workplace pensions to deliver better outcomes for UK savers and pensioners. A pensions review would consider what further steps are needed to improve security in retirement, as well as to increase productive investment in the UK economy.

Lib Dems
The party would keep the state pension triple lock. Waspi women would be properly compensated. Measures to end the gender pension gap in private pensions would be introduced. The state pension system would be improved by investing in help lines to ensure quicker responses to queries and resolution of underpayments.

Reform
The party would copy Australia, which encourages savings and pension contributions from a younger age. It would also accept the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee’s 2021 recommendations in full to amend the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme arrangements so that all the scheme surpluses accrue to the mineworkers.

Greens
The party would replace the state pension triple lock with a double lock, uprating pensions with inflation and wage rises. The rate of pension tax relief would be equated with the basic rate of income tax to help fund social care.

SNP
The SNP would demand the UK government delivers “full, fast and fair compensation” for Waspi women. The state pension triple lock would be maintained. The party would oppose any further increases in the state pension age. The cut to pension credit that means older couples in Scotland could be £7,000 worse off per year would be reversed.

Plaid
Plaid Cymru would demand the UK government implements the Beis committee recommendations to improve the pensions of former mineworkers. The party would keep the state pension triple lock, increase the income tax personal allowance for pensioners in line with the triple lock, and back compensation payments for Waspi women.

Summary
Apart from the Greens, the parties are intent on protecting the state-pension triple lock.

 

 

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