Rishi Sunak unveiled a ‘moral mission’ to get Brits off benefits today as he warned that numbers out of the workforce are ‘unsustainable’ and ‘tragic’.
In a major speech drawing dividing lines for the election, the PM pledged to crack down on the country’s ‘sick note culture’, insisting normal ‘life worries’ are not a reason to be signed off.
He highlighted that 850,000 more are long-term sick than before the pandemic, with the largest increase among young people.
According to Mr Sunak, in the future, expert teams should evaluate an individual’s capacity for employment rather than GPs, who could be less inclined to adopt a firm stance.
The Prime Minister unveiled a crucial promise for the Tory platform: in the future, benefits would be withheld from everyone found suitable for employment after a year, provided they didn’t follow the guidelines their work coach established.
Mr Sunak stressed that he did not want to make the system less generous for those who genuinely needed support but would not ‘let down’ Brits by refusing to tackle the issue for fear of ‘causing offence’.
‘The situation as it is is economically unsustainable,’ he said. ‘We can’t afford such a spiralling increase in the welfare bill.’
The intervention comes after figures released this week revealed that the number of people considered ‘economically inactive’ after being placed on long-term sickness benefits has jumped by a third since the start of the pandemic and now stands at a staggering 2.8 million.
Around half are signed off with depression, anxiety, and bad nerves.
Overall, 9.4 million people aged between 16 and 64 are economically inactive, meaning they are neither in work nor looking for work.
The PM highlighted figures showing that GPs issue so-called ‘fit notes’ to 94 percent of those who ask for them, with more than 11 million doled out last year.
He said it could be time to end the role of GPs in the system.
Questions have been raised over whether surgeries need the added workload amid a long backlog of patients in the wake of the pandemic.
In the future, those looking to be signed off could be asked to discuss their health with teams of ‘specialist work and health professionals’ who will assess what work they can do and what help they need to ‘bounce back to the workplace’.
Mr Sunak said, ‘For me, it is a fundamental duty of government to make sure that hard work is always rewarded.
‘I know, and you know, that you don’t get anything in life without hard work.
‘It’s the only way to build a better life for ourselves and our family, and the only way to build a more prosperous country.’
He said that since the pandemic, ‘something has gone wrong’.
‘We now spend £69 billion on benefits for people of working age with a disability or health condition.
‘That’s more than our entire schools budget, more than our transport budget, more than our policing budget.
‘And spending on personal independence payments alone is forecast to increase by more than 50 per cent over the next four years…
‘That’s not right; it’s not sustainable, and it’s not fair on the taxpayers who fund it.’
‘So in the next parliament, a Conservative government will significantly reform and control welfare.’
Mr Sunak said: ‘This is not about making the welfare system less generous to people who face very real extra costs from mental health conditions.
‘For those with the greatest needs, we actually want to make it easier to access with fewer requirements.’
He added that the government’s ‘overall approach is about saying that people with less severe mental health conditions should be expected to engage in the world of work’.
The proposals are called into question over the suitability of those lacking medical training to determine a person’s capacity for employment.
There are, of course, genuine cases of those suffering from mental health, but it’s also now being banded around for anything that relates to life changes. There are indeed many people who need help and perhaps don’t get it, but equally, there are those who need to be told to ‘buck up buttercup’ and get on with it. As for people other than doctors being experts in what is wrong with us, that could become quite controversial.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 