Now Burnham faces Labour Left mutiny over youth benefits crackdown as it’s revealed teens with anxiety get £100 MORE than those working

Andy Burnham risks fighting Labor MPs over tightening welfare rules, warning that Britain ‘needs to get really serious’ about cutting welfare.

The Prime Minister suggested reform plans could make payments more ‘dependent on people taking advantage of the opportunities presented to them’.

But he opposed taking a “crude approach” to cutting spending, warning against “crude cuts to benefits to drag down the welfare bill”.

The number of people claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the main disability benefit in England and Wales, has surpassed four million for the first time.

The number of claimants has roughly doubled since 2019 and PIP spending is predicted to rise to more than £41bn by the end of the decade.

PIP is intended to help with daily tasks and extra living expenses if someone has a long-term physical or mental health problem or disability.

Young people claiming PIP for conditions such as anxiety were found to receive £100 more a week than minimum wage part-time workers.

Keir Starmer’s efforts to tighten the rules on PIP claims were derailed last year by a massive outcry from his own Labor supporters.

But Mr Burnham, who has ousted Sir Keir from Downing Street, suggested he was ready to make a new case for his party for welfare reform.

“I think we have to be really serious as a country about reducing the welfare bill,” the Prime Minister said in an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Asked if there were people claiming benefits who didn’t need it, Mr Burnham said: ‘I wouldn’t go straight to blaming those people.

‘What I will say is that there are people in the benefits system, young people in their 20s, who I would say are quite severely frustrated that the support is not there for them.

‘So I’m talking about a school system that doesn’t have the right support for young people with special educational needs or disabilities.

‘I’m talking about an education system that has long been obsessed with the university route but hasn’t done enough, importantly, hasn’t done enough for young people who want technical qualifications and in many ways has treated them like second-year students, hasn’t done enough for young people who want to get an apprenticeship, a work-related opportunity at the age of 16.’

Asked how he might try to cut the ballooning welfare bill, the Prime Minister added: ‘This is about changing the nature of support and making some of it dependent on people taking the opportunities available to them.

‘I think it’s a good thing that the government is guaranteeing opportunities for young people and I think we need to continue that approach and where mental health support is needed, for example, to support people when they have the opportunity.

‘Let me say one more thing about what you’re trying to get at, though, the welfare bill.

‘I think as a country we need to be really serious about reducing welfare legislation.

‘And one of the things I would point out is the sale of social housing and council houses from the 1980s onwards; This has led us to pursue rent in the private rented sector through the benefits system; This means we have a very high housing benefit bill in this country.

‘Over time, building new councils and social homes will help reduce this welfare bill in a fair and sustainable way.’