Huge Benefits Overhaul

It is reported that the long-term sick will be required to look for employment, and many will see their benefits slashed under a huge welfare overhaul.

Labour says it now must repair “Tory failures on welfare,” which the party says have ballooned the welfare bill. However, this means hundreds of thousands of people could see reductions in sickness benefits payments.

People with mental health conditions will also find it more difficult to claim separate disability benefits under a far-reaching package of reforms, which would represent the most significant changes to the welfare system for more than a decade.

A government source said last night: “The Tories failed on welfare because they failed on work. This Labour government recognises that many sick and disabled people want to work, given the right support, but are unfairly shut out.

“We will bring forward big reforms that help more people into work, protect the most vulnerable, and boost growth – while putting the benefits bill on a more sustainable footing.”

Despite the source’s reassurance the most vulnerable will be protected, it is understand Keir Starmer will be pitched into a bitter row with his party over the changes. However, his work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, insists the current system is “broken” and change is needed to help people get back to work and boost the economy.

Ms Kendall is under extreme pressure from the Treasury to find billions of pounds in savings in the coming weeks. She is poised to deliver the Government’s blueprint for reform ahead of the spring statement, slated for March 26.

And Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is desperate to avoid having to hold an emergency tax-raising budget in March to meet fiscal rules that are under threat from more increased borrowing costs, reports The Times. 

It also says a package is expected to be completed in the next two weeks to persuade the Office for Budget Responsibility that the benefits bill can be brought under control.

Britain spends £65 billion on sickness benefits, more than the £60 billion defence budget and dwarfing the £20 billion spent on the police or less than £6 billion spent on the asylum system.

Under one possibility being considered, the universal credit “limited capability for work or work-related activity” category would be abolished, which would require claimants to make preparations for work and see them lose around £5,000 a year.

It is understood ministers want to ditch the work capability assessment used to approve incapacity benefits and align the system more closely with assessments for personal independence payments (PIP), separate disability benefits that are paid whether or not someone can work.

It is a disgrace. Taking money away from the weakest and poorest people while allowing their wealthy friends to escape paying taxes that they can easily afford. Their excessive salary makes them little more than Tories in sheep’s clothing, and they have no right to lecture the poor and disabled.

Labour will fail and people will never trust them again.

I just don’t understand why the government are hell-bent on spouting such hostility against the disabled and vulnerable – it has to be one of the worst injustices of our time.

If the government ceased handing themselves wage increases whenever they wanted to, using taxpayer funds for their own expenses, and sending money overseas rather than to its own citizens, it would save millions of pounds.

But this is what our government want – a mass cull of the disabled and elderly. Suicide rates are going to soar to astronomical levels, but they will get what they want, to save money and get rid of those who are too sick to pay for the lavish lifestyles of the government elite – it’s nothing more than social cleansing.

What we need to do is socially cleanse our own government – sack them all!