An Emergency Handbrake for UK Welfare

ashmere
ashmere Community Member Posts: 86 Empowering
in Benefits and income

From the Rightsnet site

Tony Blair Institute calls for ‘non-work-limiting’ conditions to no longer lead to entitlement to benefits

Further to calls last year for action to stop people with less severe mental health problems from accessing disability benefits - from, among others, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, the Shadow Chancellor, and Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch - and further to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage having said this week that mild anxiety is not a reason to be on disability benefits, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) has called for welfare reform in relation to 'non-work-limiting' conditions:

On a daily basis, nearly 1,000 people in Britain sign on to benefits.

As part of the government’s effort to restore trust in the welfare system, we believe it could and should pull an emergency handbrake now that will slow the rise of claimants.

The handbrake is based on a simple idea: there are certain conditions that in the vast majority of cases do not limit an individual’s ability to work, and the default presumption should be that these “non-work-limiting” conditions no longer attract cash benefits. Many of these conditions are those that have proliferated since the pandemic, particularly mental-health conditions.

It is a handbrake that can be pulled now, using secondary legislation ahead of more significant reform later in this parliament ...

The TBI adds that, in addition to there being a moral and a fiscal imperative to reform the system:

This is an emergency handbrake informed by public sentiment. Exclusive polling commissioned by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and conducted by YouGov shows people are starting to tire of a system so clearly unfit for purpose. Around half of respondents believe that some of the conditions currently recognised by the system do not, in practice, limit people’s ability to work.

More: An emergency handbrake for UK welfare: Stabilising spending, supporting people

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/now/post/70995

Comments

  • luvpink
    luvpink Community Member Posts: 5,366 Championing

    It doesn't surprise me one little bit.

    Liebour, the Tories and Reform have been saying similar things about their intention to reduce the disability benefits bill.

    I wonder what is meant by 'exclusive polling"? and who actually got to vote on these issues.

  • ChrisR777
    ChrisR777 Community Member Posts: 1,890 Championing

    As long as the government are offering actual help for those with non-work-limiting conditions, this might nnot be such a bad thing.

    If, as i would expect, there is little to no practical, jobseeking help; then this proposal would amount to no more than a cost cutting exercise.

    Spending many years economically inactive is a real problem. It destroys self esteem, and may well lead to a worsening of one's health conditions. I really wish I had been provided with real support in 2010, but my pleas fell on deaf ears; I was left to waste my time applying for another job, competing with the able bodied.

  • ChrisR777
    ChrisR777 Community Member Posts: 1,890 Championing
    edited April 28

    Modertors, please delete my second attempt. If indeed the initial post can be reclaimed from the filter!

  • ChrisR777
    ChrisR777 Community Member Posts: 1,890 Championing
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1121781#Comment_1121781

    Who mentioned 'ending benefit claiming'? I read above about those with 'non-work-limiting' conditions.

  • Autumnleaf
    Autumnleaf Community Member Posts: 1,081 Empowering

    There should be a reasonable prospect of ability to work in order to say the condition is "non work limiting"

    Many disabled people would like to work if they could. Some may feel they can but are unable to get jobs. While this is also very much the case for healthy individuals, disabled people face additional barriers.

    I would say a significant barrier for some can be that employers will not take them on. This is very often the case.

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