Does Labour think benefit claimants take the mickey’?

Liz Kendall, secretary of state for work and pensions and a candidate soon to become Britain’s most hated woman), has said more about her plans for welfare reform.

- SEAN O'GRADY

While stressing the vital support needed by those with disabilities and long-term illness trying to get jobs, Kendall remarked: "I have no doubt, as there always have been, there are people who shouldn’t be on those benefits who are taking the mickey, and that is not good enough – we have to end that.” It wasn’t the main point of the interview she gave, but such language is an omen of the bruising and divisive struggles to come...

Why reform welfare?

It’s expensive, for one thing, and the economy desperately needs more people in the workforce, labour and skills shortages being major obstacles to growth (and immigration a politically hazardous solution). Ministers also argue that a lot of those on benefits would desperately like to work.

More than half of the £300bn or so the UK spends on social security goes on pensions, and that is set to rise further with an ageing population and the apparent sanctity of the “triple lock” that guarantees annual increases. Instead, attention is focused on sickness benefits, which run at £65bn a year and have gone up markedly since the Covid-19 pandemic.