In the Spectator, Fraser Nelson explores the U.K.’s pressing welfare crisis, citing a surge in mental health complaints, scepticism about proposed reforms and the crucial need for public debate before 2024. Here’s an excerpt:
Worklessness scars our great cities: In Manchester, 18% are on out-of-work benefits. In Glasgow and Liverpool it’s 20%, in Middlesborough 22% and Blackpool 25% – figures that would be scandalous in a depression but this is in the middle of a worker shortage crisis. The costs surge every year. Britain has somehow succeeded in making the most expensive poverty in the world.
In short, the rise of mental health complaints has discombobulated the welfare system with high numbers being sent to the economic scrap heap deemed unable to do any work. It’s now at almost 40,000 a month:
The last pre-Budget report proposed a crackdown on conditionality which I regarded too little, too late. But was I being too mean? This is now assessed by the Office for Budget Responsibility but it takes a few weeks for this to feed through into the DWP caseload forecast, one of the most important documents to not be reported. The update was released before Christmas and it shows that the disability benefit caseload is expected to rise by an average of 920 a day for the next five years.
The previous forecast envisaged just over 1,000 a day, so Mel Stride’s reforms do make a difference. But a small one. This remains a full-blown crisis that will have to be dealt with by whoever wins the next General Election because of the financial cost: So big that it’s measured as a share of GDP rather than in mere billions.
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I don’t believe this si something the bureaucratic class has any intention in solving. This situation has been created deliberately.
It seems to me that what the psychos and incompetents in authority would like ideally is a small class of contributors that are farmed by a majority who ultimately treat them like work animals and abuse them accordingly.
Those of us who work and contribute are soon to become an oppressed minority.
“The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian one is———-a matter of time” Ayn Rand. ————Western governments are becoming more tyrannical as each day goes by. They want to control every aspect of our lives. If we surrender everything to the government then the result will be miserable poverty. A great example is NET ZERO.
All part of the Great Reset. I wonder have they thought it through? if no one works because the State pays for everything, where will the money come from to pay for it? more importantly who will make, grow, harvest, deliver, sell anything?Cannot wait to see Gates, Schwab and the other WEF billionaires grubbing in the soil to try and grow their own food, Gates boy might be the biggest privaye land owner in the USA but if he can’t find people willing to work its not much use to him, someone has to fix the robots
10navigator
1 year ago
In a system where you rob Peter (the worker) to pay Paul (the shiftless), you can always count on Paul’s vote.
Actually that is not true. The shiftless by and large are indifferent to politics so long as they get “paid.” And to the benefit classes they do get “paid,” they do not receive benefits. So long as their lifestyle is not affected they could not care less who is nominally in charge.
Been there, seen it all, raged and raged about the abuses but I might as well have been screaming in a padded cell.
Middle managers would not dream of supporting people such as me who tried to limit the abuses. Senior managers simply viewed increasing numbers as promotion opportunities – rock up in a different department, piss the staff off with useless tinkering at the edges and within two years pho#k off to do the same somewhere else for a bit more money. The number of times the instruction went out – “just pay it.”
Those of us who tried to stick a finger in the dyke were the bad buggers because basically the vast majority of staff wanted an easy life. Some of the tales beggar belief. Let me put it this way – PAYE gross benefits equivalents of £50k pa were far from uncommon nor the highest and that’s ten years ago. Given the damage done to the population since March 2020 increasing benefits claimants at 1,000 per day definitely doesn’t surprise me. Staff at the coal face will be under enormous pressure and so claims will be paid largely unchecked.
And Disability claims are really the golden key to a life of leisure.
Nigel J Sherratt
1 year ago
Institute for Fiscal Studies Report R233 (December 2022) found that ‘The number of new disability benefit claimants has doubled in a year’. I asked my MP (Helen Whately) why that might be, complete silence (not much of a surprise).
Key findings
1. The increase in claims has been seen across ages and conditions. Essentially all ages have seen their claim rate roughly double, although for teenagers it has tripled. Claims for most major conditions also increased by a similar amount.
2. Around a third of the new claims are for mental or behavioural conditions, although among claimants under 25 that figure rises to 70%. The share of claims for mental illnesses, has – like other conditions – changed remarkably little during the rapid rise.
3. Rising applications to disability benefits has led to a backlog of around 250,000 people waiting for their claim to be assessed. So far this does not appear to have affected waiting times, though they remain long at 18 weeks on average.
4. The success rate (the proportion of applications that are awarded PIP) has stayed roughly the same since 2016 at around 40%. This is consistent with the assessment system remaining roughly the same in terms of its “strictness”, and the ill health of applicants remaining at similar severity, with the spike in new PIP awards simply driven by more people in ill health and making claims.
5. Consistent with that interpretation, survey data on the working-age population as a whole show that health has been getting worse, with 9.6% (4.0 million) now reporting that their health limits their daily activities “a lot”, up from 8.5% (3.5 million) at the start of 2021. Here too we see an increase across all major types of condition. There has also been a significant rise in the number of (non-COVID) working-age deaths from late 2021 through 2022, compared to pre-pandemic years.
The South African government says a totally justified war against a barbaric baby killing terrorist group is genocide, obviously this must make it so, just like Dave in my local called it genocide last month so it obviously is.
Matt Dalby
1 year ago
I’d like to see the Israeli’s attempts to purge the region of despicable scum last as long as it takes to clean up the region. If this results in more civilian casualties, and the numbers being massively inflated by Hamas because the cowardly b*****ds dig tunnels under hospitals and place military targets in heavily populated areas so be it.
Nigel J Sherratt
1 year ago
The irony of South Africa’s filing this case is, I’m sure, not lost on you. Sucking up to China/CCP and Russia/Putin plus Plaasmoorde and Julius Malema, perhaps they think it will deflect attention or win them points with their Satraps.
A national strike? Bring the shytehole elites to their knees (no pun intended, but Starmer is already on his!)
Last edited 1 year ago by Dinger64
Jackthegripper
1 year ago
This is why, the country is falling apart and nothing gets done. Too many people can’t be bothered to get out of bed in the mornings. There are almost quarter of a million 16-24 yr olds on long term sick. WTF! I wonder if this is because they can’t walk into a high paid job after finishing a rubbish degree.
There are very few people of working age that are so incapacitated they are incapable of doing something. Everyone on benefits should be regularly assessed and benefits removed if they don’t work.
Those that claim they can’t find a job should be forced to pick litter, clean streets or other menial tasks.
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I don’t believe this si something the bureaucratic class has any intention in solving. This situation has been created deliberately.
It seems to me that what the psychos and incompetents in authority would like ideally is a small class of contributors that are farmed by a majority who ultimately treat them like work animals and abuse them accordingly.
Those of us who work and contribute are soon to become an oppressed minority.
“The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian one is———-a matter of time” Ayn Rand. ————Western governments are becoming more tyrannical as each day goes by. They want to control every aspect of our lives. If we surrender everything to the government then the result will be miserable poverty. A great example is NET ZERO.
All part of the Great Reset. I wonder have they thought it through? if no one works because the State pays for everything, where will the money come from to pay for it? more importantly who will make, grow, harvest, deliver, sell anything?Cannot wait to see Gates, Schwab and the other WEF billionaires grubbing in the soil to try and grow their own food, Gates boy might be the biggest privaye land owner in the USA but if he can’t find people willing to work its not much use to him, someone has to fix the robots
In a system where you rob Peter (the worker) to pay Paul (the shiftless), you can always count on Paul’s vote.
“you can always count on the shiftless vote.”
Actually that is not true. The shiftless by and large are indifferent to politics so long as they get “paid.” And to the benefit classes they do get “paid,” they do not receive benefits. So long as their lifestyle is not affected they could not care less who is nominally in charge.
Very true.
Been there, seen it all, raged and raged about the abuses but I might as well have been screaming in a padded cell.
Middle managers would not dream of supporting people such as me who tried to limit the abuses. Senior managers simply viewed increasing numbers as promotion opportunities – rock up in a different department, piss the staff off with useless tinkering at the edges and within two years pho#k off to do the same somewhere else for a bit more money. The number of times the instruction went out – “just pay it.”
Those of us who tried to stick a finger in the dyke were the bad buggers because basically the vast majority of staff wanted an easy life. Some of the tales beggar belief. Let me put it this way – PAYE gross benefits equivalents of £50k pa were far from uncommon nor the highest and that’s ten years ago. Given the damage done to the population since March 2020 increasing benefits claimants at 1,000 per day definitely doesn’t surprise me. Staff at the coal face will be under enormous pressure and so claims will be paid largely unchecked.
And Disability claims are really the golden key to a life of leisure.
Institute for Fiscal Studies Report R233 (December 2022) found that ‘The number of new disability benefit claimants has doubled in a year’. I asked my MP (Helen Whately) why that might be, complete silence (not much of a surprise).
Key findings
1. The increase in claims has been seen across ages and conditions. Essentially all ages have seen their claim rate roughly double, although for teenagers it has tripled. Claims for most major conditions also increased by a similar amount.
2. Around a third of the new claims are for mental or behavioural conditions, although among claimants under 25 that figure rises to 70%. The share of claims for mental illnesses, has – like other conditions – changed remarkably little during the rapid rise.
3. Rising applications to disability benefits has led to a backlog of around 250,000 people waiting for their claim to be assessed. So far this does not appear to have affected waiting times, though they remain long at 18 weeks on average.
4. The success rate (the proportion of applications that are awarded PIP) has stayed roughly the same since 2016 at around 40%. This is consistent with the assessment system remaining roughly the same in terms of its “strictness”, and the ill health of applicants remaining at similar severity, with the spike in new PIP awards simply driven by more people in ill health and making claims.
5. Consistent with that interpretation, survey data on the working-age population as a whole show that health has been getting worse, with 9.6% (4.0 million) now reporting that their health limits their daily activities “a lot”, up from 8.5% (3.5 million) at the start of 2021. Here too we see an increase across all major types of condition. There has also been a significant rise in the number of (non-COVID) working-age deaths from late 2021 through 2022, compared to pre-pandemic years.
https://youtu.be/BMLQSrhWHUw?si=4b8D0rDU_JD0wIZb
Muslims plan to rig UK elections.
Actually they have been doing this for years via postal votes but at least this is on film.
Read “While Europe Slept” by Bruce Bawer.
The South African government says a totally justified war against a barbaric baby killing terrorist group is genocide, obviously this must make it so, just like Dave in my local called it genocide last month so it obviously is.
I’d like to see the Israeli’s attempts to purge the region of despicable scum last as long as it takes to clean up the region. If this results in more civilian casualties, and the numbers being massively inflated by Hamas because the cowardly b*****ds dig tunnels under hospitals and place military targets in heavily populated areas so be it.
The irony of South Africa’s filing this case is, I’m sure, not lost on you. Sucking up to China/CCP and Russia/Putin plus Plaasmoorde and Julius Malema, perhaps they think it will deflect attention or win them points with their Satraps.
BRICS.
A national strike? Bring the shytehole elites to their knees (no pun intended, but Starmer is already on his!)
This is why, the country is falling apart and nothing gets done. Too many people can’t be bothered to get out of bed in the mornings. There are almost quarter of a million 16-24 yr olds on long term sick. WTF! I wonder if this is because they can’t walk into a high paid job after finishing a rubbish degree.
There are very few people of working age that are so incapacitated they are incapable of doing something. Everyone on benefits should be regularly assessed and benefits removed if they don’t work.
Those that claim they can’t find a job should be forced to pick litter, clean streets or other menial tasks.
Benefits are not a right. No work, no benefits.