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Welfare reform cannot wait
While Sir Keir Starmer struggles to show that his party can work within budgets, Rishi Sunak is trying to find ways of making people work at all.
The numbers of the economically inactive have swelled since the Covid lockdowns, and as their ranks have grown so too has the size of the benefits bill. We are now spending £26 billion annually on incapacity welfare, in a period where Britain is on course to be more taxed than at any point since the Second World War.
It has been clear for a long time that something would have to give, and it is therefore welcome that the Government has announced a consultation on changes to Work Capability Assessments aimed at supporting those who can work to do so. As Mr Sunak says: “Work transforms lives.” These proposed reforms would help people to find the dignity of a good job, and ease the strain on the British economy of the large numbers out of work.
However, the much vaunted changes are not expected to come into effect until 2025. The Government seems to want to take its time, mindful perhaps that any change to the welfare system is liable to bring the condemnation of the Left and its activist allies down on its head. But the situation is too urgent for it to run scared of any such opposition. Unless ministers can get more people back to work, the economy will continue to languish and there is likely to be no hope of any pre-election tax cuts.
It is an absurd situation that the taxpayer is effectively shelling out for a population larger than the Birmingham metropolitan area to remain out of work. It simply cannot continue; action must come sooner.
