Reported cuts to benefits are extremely concerning. We absolutely should not be removing benefits that allow disabled people to be independent, get work, and stay in work. I spoke to BBC Wales yesterday to call for wealth taxes, not benefits cuts.

The below was published by BBC News, 13 March 2025, and can be found here.

A Welsh Labour MP told BBC Wales he is “very concerned” about planned cuts to welfare expected in the coming weeks.

Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr MP Steve Witherden has called on the UK government to introduce a wealth tax as it looks to make savings.

Witherden said he had specific concerns about any changes to Personal Independence Payments, or PIP, and he did not want disabled people’s ability to work jeopardised.

Witherden said: “If you think of things like a mobility car, it’s the PIP that is enabling some disabled people to continue to work, so I don’t think we would want to see anything that would jeopardise or undermine anything that facilitates or enables disabled people to get work and stay in work.

“There is a lot of concern out there from disabled constituents in Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, who are writing to me about the future of PIP.

“People want to stay independent.”

He suggested that ministers should consider introducing a wealth tax as it looks to make savings.

He said: “I was one of the 30 MPs who was a signatory to an open letter calling for a wealth tax in this country, a tax on extreme wealth.

“Four Britons have more wealth than 20 million Britons combined, so I think there are solutions available out there to us and a wealth tax would be one of them.”