Helen Whately is the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Keir Starmer has handed Andy Burnham a daunting in-tray for his first day as Prime Minister; stagnant economy, massive borrowing, record-high taxes, rising unemployment, an unfunded defence plan, small boats…and an unaffordable welfare bill. He failed on all fronts. But welfare was the issue that exposed the weakness at the heart of Starmer’s premiership.
Will Burnham avoid the same mistake?
Keir Starmer made it to Downing Street by touting ‘change’ while ducking questions on his plan for the country. It won him a 170-seat majority. But he had no mandate for welfare reform. His left-wing backbenchers felt no obligation to support it when the time came. Andy Burnham’s avoidance of scrutiny in his journey to number 10 puts him at huge risk of the same fate.
As it happens, ‘not being a Tory’ is not enough to fix Britain’s problems. And Labour will soon learn that ‘not being Starmer’ won’t be enough for Andy Burnham either.
A booming economy and investment in defence are unthinkable without cutting the welfare bill and getting people off benefits and into work.
Today, 6.5 million people are on out of work benefits.
Four million people are claiming sickness benefits, including nearly half a million under the age of 25. This has doubled since the pandemic, but Britain has not suddenly become twice as sick.
Doing nothing to stop this – which has been Labour’s approach so far – means every taxpayer will cough up £5,000 a year for working-age welfare benefits by the end of this Parliament.
So what will Burnham do differently? Since becoming Labour leader – and now Prime Minister – he has offered remarkably little detail.
In one speech made three weeks ago, he suggested that people struggling with their mental health should receive support while staying in work. That is a sensible principle. But it is only the beginning of a policy, not a complete programme for reform.
A lone Labour MP put his head above the parapet and agreed, last week. Ashford’s MP Sojan Joseph said that anxiety and ADHD aren’t reasons not to work.
Conservatives reached that conclusion a year ago. Work is always better than a life on benefits – for both the claimants as well as the taxpayer.
But tinkering around the edges is not enough.
The sharp rise in mental health claims since the pandemic tells us something important. The world has changed and our welfare system must change with it. 40 per cent of PIP claims are now for mental health.
That’s why I’ve launched a root-and-branch review of the sickness benefits system. Conservatives have reformed welfare before. Universal Credit shows large-scale change is possible. We will now build a new sickness benefits system that supports those who genuinely cannot work while helping everyone else move towards employment wherever possible.
Assessments will be face-to-face and we’ll stop giving sickness benefits for anxiety, low moods and ADHD.
That is not all. We’ll stop giving benefits to foreign citizens – including social housing, tighten the Household Benenfit Cap to make sure work always pays better than benefits, and reinstate the two-child cap.
We all want there to be help for those in genuine need. But the current system dismisses people’s capabilities, is unfair to taxpayers and will soon bankrupt our country.
Welfare reform is only half the answer.
People can only move from benefits into work if employers are creating jobs.
Rachel Reeves made that much harder. Her tax rises and extra red tape on employers cost around 1,200 jobs a week last year, hitting retail and hospitality particularly hard.
Young people are bearing the brunt. Now one million young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET) – more than in any other country in Europe except Romania. Each NEET represents not only wasted potential, but a lifetime fiscal cost of around £244,000.
With an aging population and an urgent need to spend more on defence, Britain needs everyone who can work to be working. We cannot afford to have millions of people – especially not those in their 20s who should be starting out on careers – sitting at home on benefits. It’s no surprise our new Prime Minister will want a new Chancellor.
Britain cannot tax its way out of this problem. Nor can we borrow yet more to dodge difficult decisions. A country with fewer workers and more people on benefits will inevitably be weak in a dangerous world.
Andy Burnham now faces the same choice that confronted Keir Starmer. He can take the familiar Labour path of higher taxes, higher spending and ever higher levels of dependency on the state. Or he can confront the problem: reform welfare, back businesses and create the conditions for more people to earn a living through work.
That choice won’t just define his premiership. It will determine whether Britain is better or worse off by the time he leaves 10 Downing Street.
Helen Whately is the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Keir Starmer has handed Andy Burnham a daunting in-tray for his first day as Prime Minister; stagnant economy, massive borrowing, record-high taxes, rising unemployment, an unfunded defence plan, small boats…and an unaffordable welfare bill. He failed on all fronts. But welfare was the issue that exposed the weakness at the heart of Starmer’s premiership.
Will Burnham avoid the same mistake?
Keir Starmer made it to Downing Street by touting ‘change’ while ducking questions on his plan for the country. It won him a 170-seat majority. But he had no mandate for welfare reform. His left-wing backbenchers felt no obligation to support it when the time came. Andy Burnham’s avoidance of scrutiny in his journey to number 10 puts him at huge risk of the same fate.
As it happens, ‘not being a Tory’ is not enough to fix Britain’s problems. And Labour will soon learn that ‘not being Starmer’ won’t be enough for Andy Burnham either.
A booming economy and investment in defence are unthinkable without cutting the welfare bill and getting people off benefits and into work.
Today, 6.5 million people are on out of work benefits.
Four million people are claiming sickness benefits, including nearly half a million under the age of 25. This has doubled since the pandemic, but Britain has not suddenly become twice as sick.
Doing nothing to stop this – which has been Labour’s approach so far – means every taxpayer will cough up £5,000 a year for working-age welfare benefits by the end of this Parliament.
So what will Burnham do differently? Since becoming Labour leader – and now Prime Minister – he has offered remarkably little detail.
In one speech made three weeks ago, he suggested that people struggling with their mental health should receive support while staying in work. That is a sensible principle. But it is only the beginning of a policy, not a complete programme for reform.
A lone Labour MP put his head above the parapet and agreed, last week. Ashford’s MP Sojan Joseph said that anxiety and ADHD aren’t reasons not to work.
Conservatives reached that conclusion a year ago. Work is always better than a life on benefits – for both the claimants as well as the taxpayer.
But tinkering around the edges is not enough.
The sharp rise in mental health claims since the pandemic tells us something important. The world has changed and our welfare system must change with it. 40 per cent of PIP claims are now for mental health.
That’s why I’ve launched a root-and-branch review of the sickness benefits system. Conservatives have reformed welfare before. Universal Credit shows large-scale change is possible. We will now build a new sickness benefits system that supports those who genuinely cannot work while helping everyone else move towards employment wherever possible.
Assessments will be face-to-face and we’ll stop giving sickness benefits for anxiety, low moods and ADHD.
That is not all. We’ll stop giving benefits to foreign citizens – including social housing, tighten the Household Benenfit Cap to make sure work always pays better than benefits, and reinstate the two-child cap.
We all want there to be help for those in genuine need. But the current system dismisses people’s capabilities, is unfair to taxpayers and will soon bankrupt our country.
Welfare reform is only half the answer.
People can only move from benefits into work if employers are creating jobs.
Rachel Reeves made that much harder. Her tax rises and extra red tape on employers cost around 1,200 jobs a week last year, hitting retail and hospitality particularly hard.
Young people are bearing the brunt. Now one million young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET) – more than in any other country in Europe except Romania. Each NEET represents not only wasted potential, but a lifetime fiscal cost of around £244,000.
With an aging population and an urgent need to spend more on defence, Britain needs everyone who can work to be working. We cannot afford to have millions of people – especially not those in their 20s who should be starting out on careers – sitting at home on benefits. It’s no surprise our new Prime Minister will want a new Chancellor.
Britain cannot tax its way out of this problem. Nor can we borrow yet more to dodge difficult decisions. A country with fewer workers and more people on benefits will inevitably be weak in a dangerous world.
Andy Burnham now faces the same choice that confronted Keir Starmer. He can take the familiar Labour path of higher taxes, higher spending and ever higher levels of dependency on the state. Or he can confront the problem: reform welfare, back businesses and create the conditions for more people to earn a living through work.
That choice won’t just define his premiership. It will determine whether Britain is better or worse off by the time he leaves 10 Downing Street.