Young people will lose their benefits if they refuse to take up work and training opportunities, a Cabinet minister has said ahead of announcing measures to cut the welfare bill. Liz Kendall said claimants have a “responsibility” to engage with skills or employment programmes and will face sanctions if they decline to do so as part of reforms to be set out next week.
The Labour Government has said it will stick to a commitment under the former Tory administration to reduce the welfare bill by £3 billion over five years. Under the previous government, welfare eligibility would have been tightened so around 400,000 more people signed off long-term would be assessed as needing to prepare for work by 2028/29 to deliver the savings.
Facing broadcasters on Sunday, Ms Kendall declined to reveal how specifically Labour will cut costs ahead of announcing a package of legislation next week, saying only the Government will introduce its own reforms. The Work and Pensions Secretary told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “If people repeatedly refuse to take up the training or work responsibilities, there will be sanctions on their benefits.
“The reason why we believe this so strongly is that we believe in our responsibility to provide those opportunities, which is what we will do.” Referring to young people specifically, she said the Government would “transform” opportunities with a “youth guarantee” as part of the reforms, but they would in turn be “required to take them up”.
Ms Kendall also said she believed “many millions” of disabled people and those with long-term health problems want to work, and “we need to break down the barriers to that happening”.
Asked whether some 400,000 people would ultimately be denied their current benefits, she told the BBC ’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’m saying we will bring forward our own reforms. You wouldn’t expect me to announce this on your programme. The latest official forecasts published by the Government show the number of people claiming incapacity benefits is expected to climb from around 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2029.
Last year there were just over three million claimants. Ms Kendall will set out a package of measures on Tuesday designed to “get Britain working” amid Government concerns about the projected rise.
Her white paper is expected to include the placement of work coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at ensuring those aged 18-21 are working or studying. The Cabinet minister said the reasons for the increased number of claims are “complex” and that Britain is “an older and also sicker nation”.
She suggested some people have “self-diagnosed” mental health problems, but added there is a “genuine problem” with mental illness in the UK. “I think there are a combination of factors here,” she said. “I do think we are seeing an increase in the number of people with mental health problems, both self-diagnosed – I think it’s good that stigma has been reduced – but also diagnosed by doctors.
“We’re also seeing more people in their 50s and above, often women, with bad knees, hips, joints. We’ve got a real problem with our health service.”
Asked whether she believes “normal feelings” are being “over-medicalised”, Ms Kendall told the BBC: “I genuinely believe there’s not one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too bluesy to work. I mean, I don’t know who they were speaking to. There is a genuine problem with mental health in this country.”
She said the Government would overhaul the system so that for young people “everyone has a chance to be earning or learning”.
“But in return for those new opportunities, young people will have a responsibility to take them up,” Ms Kendall added. “Let me tell you why, because if you lack basic skills in today’s world, that is brutal. If you are out of work when you’re young, that can have lifelong consequences in terms of your future job prospects and earnings potential.
“So, we, the Government, will face up to our responsibility, unlike the last government, of having that guarantee in place.”
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer used a Mail On Sunday op-ed to promise a crackdown on “criminals” who “game the system”. The Prime Minister wrote: “In the coming months, Mail On Sunday readers will see even more sweeping changes. Because make no mistake, we will get to grips with the bulging benefits bill blighting our society.
“Don’t get me wrong, we will crack down hard on anyone who tries to game the system, to tackle fraud, so we can take cash straight from the banks of fraudsters. There will be a zero-tolerance approach to these criminals. My pledge to Mail On Sunday readers is this: I will grip this problem once and for all.”
But he added he would not “call people shirkers or go down the road of division”, and said instead treat them “with dignity and respect”.
Shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake welcomed “the fact Labour are looking at this” but said he wants “to make sure they do the right things”.
“It was a phenomenon caused largely by the pandemic, we were dealing with it already, there’s more we need to do. It’s really important Labour do deal with it,” he said.