Weak Labour has plunged us into a state of crisis

NO CHOICE: Rachel Reeves will be forced to impose taxes in the Budget

- By Helen Whately MP

NY SAVING to the taxpayer is welcome. Stopping fraud in child benefit is right, and it is always better that money goes to genuine families than to those abusing the system.

But Labour's Child Benefit “clampdown” is no turning point. Fraud in child benefit is a fraction of the problem. The real costs come from bloat in PIP, Universal Credit and health-related claims.

The welfare budget is fast approaching £100billion and this plan to save £350million, although a small step in the right direction, is not enough to move the needle.

Look at the detail and the hollowness becomes plain. Fraud here is marginal and dispersed. The pilot recovered £17million from 2,600 cases, which sounds a lot until you recall that the same year saw £6.5billion lost to benefit fraud across the system.

And this latest plan projects savings of only £350million over five years, which is less than one per cent of the annual fraud total, stretched out over half a decade.

We have been here before. When Labour attempted to tinker at the edges of welfare, they collapsed at the first sign of resistance from their own back benches.

Every single commitment evaporated under pressure, every promise retreated. A £5billion package was not enough then, yet now they expect the public to believe that £350million will transform a system already out of control.