Yesterday’s welfare speech from the Prime Minister confirmed that there is still a long way to go in reforming the benefits system. Universal Credit and the Work programme will start the process, but will not be enough to tackle the extent of worklessness and benefit dependency that we have seen develop in the UK over the last 50 years. It was encouraging, though, to hear the Prime Minister acknowledge the need to modernise the welfare system further.
In part, this is a numbers game. As the Chancellor and Steve Hilton have both recently made clear, future Spending Reviews are going to have to take more money out of welfare. Based on yesterday’s speech, expect further cash-saving reforms to the method underlying yearly increases of benefits and more reforms that take away benefit eligibility from those deemed not to need them (in this case the under 25s on housing benefit).
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