Britain's 'bloated' welfare bill branded a 'fiscal emergency' amid Reform's plan to overhaul benefits system

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Reform UK's Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick has declared Britain's welfare system is 'suicidal empathy'

Reform UK's plan to overhaul Britain's "bloated" welfare system has been backed by local councillor Jaymey McIvor.

Speaking to GB News, the party's representative for Essex County Council declared that Reform is the "only party" prepared to "save the country" from a "fiscal emergency".

Reform UK's Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick has unveiled plans to abolish disability benefits for millions of people as part of the party's bid to save £50billion a year.

Mr Jenrick will set out his proposals on Monday in a 50-page paper called Making Welfare Work, arguing that the current system is driven by "suicidal empathy" and is in need of its "biggest overhaul in a generation".

Throwing his support behind Mr Jenrick's proposed plan, Mr McIvor told GB News that Reform UK is the only party "brave enough" to lay down the "facts" of the welfare system.

He said: "I think Reform is the only party brave enough to actually spell out the facts here, which is that we have a real fiscal emergency in this country whereby the state is so bloated, and it's particularly bloated when it comes to welfare.

"And what Robert Jenrick is going to set out is, how are we going to deal with that? All the other parties have basically tried and failed or in the case of Labour, now have no intention of doing it."

Mr McIvor made clear that a Reform Government would "call time on the people that are taking the mick out of the system".

He explained: "Imagine a street with two houses. You have one house where everybody goes to work and they drop their children at school, perhaps they get Nan or Grandad there to do babysitting because they can't afford childcare.

"And then in a house next door, you can have a home where they're not working and they're on lots of benefits, but they're deliberately avoiding getting a job and the Government are paying for them to have a car on the drive.

"Yet despite that, the local authority are picking their children up and taking them to school and back, which is all being funded by the taxation of all the other people in the community that work, so the problem is the system is completely broken."

The Reform councillor made clear: "First of all, we're going to call time on the people that are taking mick out of the system. Secondly, let's make sure that the people that genuinely need support get support.

"And thirdly, let's make sure that we can actually get our country's finances in order start paying for things that we really need, whether that's defence, whether that's making sure that we're able to provide children with world class education, making sure our infrastructure is there to cope with our population, whatever it is that the British people see as a priority."

Mr McIvor expressed outrage that so much taxpayer money is going "down the drain" due to the surging benefits bill.

He told GB News: "It's the British people's money that is being sent down the drain, and much of it is going into the bank accounts of people that should be working.

"I think we can all agree the best thing for people's mental health is to have purpose, and with a job and with an income comes purpose."

Challenged by host Dawn Neesom, Mr McIvor was pressed on how Reform's system would ensure that Britons on "genuine" benefits continue to receive their payments.

He assured: "I'm sure many GB News viewers, if they are in receipt of welfare, will be frustrated by the fact that there are people that do cheat the system, because many of your viewers are obviously not cheating the system.

"But let's be very clear, this is a very significant policy. Let's make no mistake, though, if we fail to deal with this problem, we will have a fiscal emergency, which will frankly be a disaster for anybody, whether you're working or in receipt of welfare.

"You can only provide welfare for people if there's money in the coffers to send to those people, and the way the country is going at the moment, the way our economy is going, the Tories wrecked it and the Labour Party have accelerated that destruction.

"We are in a situation where there'll be a time, if something's not done, where nobody's going to get anything, and that includes other state departments."