Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to apply an 'emergency handbrake' to Britain's welfare system, as a new report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) reveals that one in three people know someone who is wrongly claiming benefits. The study highlights widespread public support for halting payments for conditions such as anxiety, depression, and stress.
Public Concern Over Welfare Sustainability
The report warns that voters increasingly believe the current welfare system is both 'unaffordable and unsustainable'. It calls for the government to immediately halt new claims for a range of conditions while ministers consider broader reforms. A major survey accompanying the report found that the public believes it is too easy to get benefits by a margin of 54 to 16. Nearly a third of people (30 per cent) say they personally know someone receiving benefits who does not genuinely need them.
Impact on Young People
More than half (53 per cent) of respondents said the welfare system makes it more likely that young people with mental health problems will permanently leave the workforce or education. The report identifies only five constituencies in the entire country where voters on balance think it is too hard to get benefits, including Hackney South and Shoreditch, Peckham, Brighton Pavilion, and Bristol Central.
International Comparison
The TBI report reveals that the surge in benefit claims in the UK since the pandemic has not been matched abroad. While spending on sickness benefits has jumped by 19.6 per cent in the UK since 2019, the rise in France is just 5.9 per cent, while Australia and the United States have seen falls of 9.9 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.
Proposed 'Handbrake' Measures
The report suggests that ministers could act immediately to apply a 'handbrake' to new sickness claims, currently running at around 1,000 per day. It proposes that people reporting conditions such as anxiety, depression, stress, and ADHD should no longer be granted benefits unless they can demonstrate that their condition makes work impossible. The report argues that working can help people cope with mild mental health conditions and recommends providing more support to find employment.
It also calls for a return to face-to-face assessments instead of online claims. Researchers estimate that simply bringing incapacity benefit claims back to pre-pandemic levels could save £11.5 billion. The cost of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is now £19 billion higher than in 2019.
Political Context
Ryan Wain of the TBI said it was time to halt benefits for conditions that are not 'work limiting'. He added: 'Pulling this handbrake would free up resources for better mental health support and keep people in work who benefit from the purpose it brings. It would mark the beginning of the long road to restoring public trust in this broken system.'
Sir Keir Starmer was forced last year to abandon plans to trim £5 billion from the welfare bill after a large Labour rebellion. However, the new report says an 'emergency handbrake' could be applied using secondary legislation, avoiding a potentially tricky parliamentary vote. Supporters urge ministers to use the findings to show MPs that there is widespread support for tightening the benefits system across most of the country.
The survey found that while 78 per cent believe most people with serious heart conditions should be entitled to benefits, this figure falls to just 35 per cent for conditions like anxiety and depression, and only 31 per cent for stress.
