Welfare Claimants To Be Given ‘Right To Try’ Work Without Risk Of Losing Their Benefits

Labour’s reform of the system will allow welfare recipients to attempt employment without fear of losing their benefits.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is expected to announce legislation to introduce a ‘right to try guarantee’ for those on health-related benefits.

This will prevent people from having their entitlements automatically re-assessed if they enter employment.

A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) survey found 200,000 people on health-related or disability benefits were willing to work if the right job or help was available.

However, many people with disabilities or chronic illnesses reportedly worry that if they try to find work and it doesn’t work out, they won’t be able to receive their benefits back.

Almost four million working-age adults in England and Wales presently claim incapacity or disability benefits, up from 2.8 million before the COVID pandemic.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer has slammed Britain’s ‘broken’ and ‘indefensible’ welfare system and claimed it ‘locks millions out of work’.

His Government is expected to unveil around £5 billion to £6 billion of welfare cuts in the coming days, although it has emerged that ministers could U-turn on some projects.

It has been said that Downing Street and Ms Kendall’s department are poised to backtrack on imposing a real-term cut to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for disabled people – including those who cannot work – by cancelling an inflation-linked rise due to come into force next spring.

A backbench mutiny against Sir Keir’s welfare crackdown has stung him, and some Cabinet ministers are reportedly upset.

This morning, Health Secretary Wes Streeting declined to comment on whether the government’s welfare reforms will include a PIP freeze.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: ‘I haven’t seen the full plans, they haven’t come to Cabinet yet.

‘But what I do know is the Work and Pensions Secretary wants to support people who need help the most and we’ve got to make sure that there is a wider range of support.

‘And that everyone’s playing their part, including me, because with those levels of illness, for example, if I can help people back to health, in many cases I’ll be helping them back to work and that’s what we’ll do.’

He added: ‘I haven’t seen the proposals but you’ve seen the briefing, you’ve seen the speculation, I think the moral of the story is wait for the plans.’

A Government source said: ‘The broken welfare system we inherited is trapping thousands of people in a life on benefits with no means of support, or any hope for a future of life in work.

‘It doesn’t account for the reality of people’s health conditions, many of whom fear that they will be punished for taking a chance on work.

‘As part of our plan for change, our reforms will deliver fairness and opportunity for disabled people, and those with long-term health conditions, protecting the welfare system so it is sustainable for the future and will always be there for those who need it.’

James Taylor, executive director at disability charity Scope, said giving disabled people ‘greater confidence to try work’ was ‘a good move’, but warned against making significant cuts to benefits.

He said: ‘We hope that releasing news of this scheme at this time isn’t a smokescreen designed to blur the lines between in and out of work benefits.

‘PIP exists because life costs more if you are disabled. It isn’t an out-of-work benefit.

‘Making it harder to get benefits will just push even more disabled people into poverty, not into jobs.’

Asked about Labour’s welfare plans during a press conference on Saturday, Sir Keir said: ‘I have made the principles clear enough. We need to support those who need support and to protect them.

‘But at the same time, we need to make sure that we support and protect those who need to and are able to get into work, which the current arrangements I don’t think adequately do.

‘That’s why it’s important we make the case for reforming welfare, which is what we are doing.’

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: ‘Labour is failing to take the action needed to tackle the unsustainable welfare bill.

‘Their inaction has already cost the taxpayer £2.5 billion and counting.

‘The Conservatives are united in the belief that those who can work should, which is why we had a bold plan at the election to save £12billion from the welfare bill.

‘Labour have done no original thinking of their own. The dithering, delay and division over the need to bring spending on benefits down is not fair for British taxpayers.’

What employer is going to hire people who are disabled? Discrimination, right? However, it happens all the time.

Therefore, our government continues to increase the welfare cost because it lacks the courage to address the underlying issue while allowing illegal immigrants to continue entering the land of milk and honey.

He keeps the civil service growing because he’s terrified of unions and he taxes the diminishing ageing workforce until they squeak.

He is hurting pensioners who are unable to defend themselves and increasing the strain on companies. What a hero you are, Keir Starmer. He ought to put the nation’s needs ahead of his own goals.

Who is going to employ all these people? Where are all these jobs coming from? And don’t forget there would have to be a workplace risk assessment for anyone disabled working at a company, and most businesses don’t have insurance for this, so, therefore, would not take a disabled person on for work.

And remember our Prime Minister and MPs have no reality of the real world, and the biggest scroungers in Britain are our MPs, followed by all those arriving by boat!