Fixing welfare is not about cuts, it's about a working economy

At long last, reality has caught up with Westminster. After years of pretending the nation's purse strings were elastic, the Treasury has finally been forced to admit that Britain simply cannot afford to keep living beyond its means.

- Esther Krakue

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is now preparing billions of pounds worth of welfare and departmental spending cuts ahead of the Spring Statement.

The once-vaunted financial buffer of £10billion has evaporated, and Labour now faces the stark reality that urgent action is needed to shake-up Britain's broken welfare system.

Frankly, it's about time. Whether there was fiscal headroom or not, it should never have taken recent economic shocks for our politicians to wake up to the mess they were presiding over.

Welfare spending, particularly on health-related benefits, has ballooned beyond recognition. Last year, the Government spent a staggering £65billion on sickness benefits alone — up 25% on pre-pandemic levels.

That figure is projected to soar to £100billion before the next general election. And it is simply not sustainable.

A significant portion of this is the legacy from Covid but there are perverse incentives in the system that have made it too easy for people to opt out of work. The numbers speak for themselves: far too many young people are neither in work, education or training. This is morally indefensible and economically unsustainable.