The Tories offer jam tomorrow when people need help today

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Graeme Cooke, a former advisor to James Purnell at the Department for Work and Pensions, has written on the Progress blog that the Tory announcements announcements on Welfare today are largely a rehash of Labour’s own Welfare policies – but set to vague new and impossible to reach targets where the sums don’t add up.

Cooke also says:

“The £600m upfront costs they say is needed apparently comes from assuming that half a million current IB claimants will fail the medical assessment and go onto the (lower rate) Jobseekers Allowance. Maybe, maybe not. The worry is that this process could be driven by the need to make savings, rather than giving people the support and challenge that is appropriate for them.”

Read Graeme’s full assessment of the Tories’ plans at the Progress blog here.