Thomas Byrne

How taxing their benefits could help people with disabilities

Close your eyes for a moment and place an image in your mind of the sort of person who needs to claim state benefit for their disability. The most common picture is someone almost destitute, reliant on the benefit just to function in their day to day life, likely to be claiming a multitude of other entitlements; the sort of person who won’t ever be able to derive a normal income. Whisper it: the majority of people claiming Disability Living Allowance are the sharp elbowed middle classes, with incomes placing them in the top half of those in the UK.

Amongst pensioners, arguably those who need the most help with their disabilities – to be brutally honest, their health isn’t exactly going to get any better – those in the bottom tenth by income represent a tiny fraction of claimants. For those of working age, it’s a similar situation, albeit with huge numbers of people in the bottom decile claiming incapacity benefit, but not living allowance. Why? Do people who are incapacitated not count as disabled? Do they not have extra day to day living costs?

These are questions worth asking, because ignoring them prevents us from having a sensible discussion about the future of the welfare state. When a leak to the BBC revealed that the Conservative party was considering taxing disability benefits to fund the welfare bill the response was hysterical, from charities for disabled people (who should be well aware of the income demographics) to the average voter who can be forgiven because of the images promoted to us of the disabled. ‘Tories hitting the sick, poor, and infirm!’ goes the cry, but taxing these entitlements, as well as many others (child benefit or winter fuel allowance? Anyone concerned by individuals losing out from this change can recoup the funds and even provide more via other changes) is not only the most efficient policy, but the most just.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in