As a Government, we want a welfare system which supports everyone to fulfil their potential and to live dignified, prosperous, and independent lives. Over the last 14 years, we’ve made significant steps to reform the broken system we inherited from Labour, by putting work at the heart of welfare through Universal Credit and boosting pay by cutting taxes for 27 million working people.
Despite this progress, new challenges are emerging which threaten the sustainability of our welfare system and prevent it from working in the way we intended. Total spending on benefits for people of working age with a disability or health condition increased from £42.3 billion to £69 billion between 2019/20 and 2024/25 - a 63% increase. And since the pandemic, inactivity due to long-term sickness increased by 850,000, from around 2 to 2.8 million people.
That’s why, last month, the Prime Minister set out our plan for a new welfare settlement for Britain. Key to this will be reforming how we assess someone’s capability to work. Over the last decade, the world of work has changed, yet the way the welfare system determines people’s fitness to work has not. We will reform the system so that benefit recipients with less severe health conditions are expected to engage with employment. The OBR has confirmed that this will reduce the number of people assessed as not needing to prepare for work by 424,000 by 2028-29.
The Government will additionally change the rules so that someone working less than half of a full-time week will have to look for more work. Before 2022 someone could work only 9 hours a week and remain on benefits without being expected to look for more work. From now, individuals will be required to work twice as much (18 hours).
Going further, the Government will accelerate the final rollout of Universal Credit, moving all those left on outdated systems onto the simpler dynamic benefit and continue our zero-tolerance approach to fraud by introducing a Fraud Bill in the next Parliament to bring DWP’s powers in line with that of HMRC, so we can treat benefit fraud like we do tax fraud.
All of this will be backed up with £6 billion in employment support. This includes the Universal Support programme, which will match people with a personal advisor who works with local employers to identify jobs, and WorkWell, a new scheme connecting disabled people to work and health support.
Taken together this plan will deliver a welfare system that’s fit for the future by providing vital support only to those who need it most and ensuring they are supported to live with dignity and independence, whilst making sure that everyone who can work is expected and supported to do so.
Our disability benefit system isn’t working how it should be.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) April 29, 2024
That's why we're reforming it, targeting support to those who need it most and ending the one-size fits all approach.
We'll always protect the vulnerable, but must make sure the system is sustainable for the future. pic.twitter.com/wFTjIFAZBF
This column was first published in The Forester newspaper.