It was an ominous start to the day of Rachel Reeves’s Spring Statement, when she had to rush out messy, last minute changes to Labour’s package of welfare reforms. To unhappy Labour MPs, this confirmed their belief that the policy is Treasury bean-counting masquerading as reform.
They’re not wrong. The current trajectory was unsustainable. We were on track to spend £1 in every £4 of income tax on health and disability benefits by 2030, according to the Policy Exchange think tank. Tightening the qualifying criteria for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and more frequent reassessments are clearly sensible and necessary. But looking at where the government has failed to reform, such as by raising the age you can first claim PIP to 18 and making it a conditional benefit for the under 30s, reinforces the belief that they are not motivated by the strong moral case for change.
When I was leaving school, the two most common options were university or gap year (often followed by university). As my parents banned me from spending six months traipsing around South East Asia (preposterous, I thought, although I fully agree now), I went straight to university and then an internship at a think tank where I started on £18,000 a year.
Now, however, it appears a third option is emerging. On Instagram last week, I came across a video of a teenager bragging about how they got a brand new car paid for by the government, simply by claiming to have ADHD. Putting aside the very serious question as to why the algorithm thinks I’m interested in committing benefit fraud, it doesn’t take much digging to find a wide range of ‘sickfluencers’ on Instagram and TikTok, providing guides on how to game the system and gain access to not just cash but other benefits like taxpayer funded ‘noise cancelling headphones’ (Angela Rayner, take note).
A quick look at the eligibility criteria for benefits reveals why these videos are so popular. A single renter in London making claims for health-related Universal Credit (UC) and PIP can get nearly £2,500 a month. With two children, that shoots up to over £4,000 a month, which is roughly what someone on £65,000 a year takes home after tax. While important for those genuinely unable to work, for those gaming the system, it’s just easy money.
Some of these DWP payments are well above the average salary in the UK of £37,000. It’s more than what we pay nurses, teachers, or soldiers. Compared to the £18,000 a year I started off on, I can see the appeal for young people. But herein lies the issue: this isn’t just about the public finances, it’s about the life changing opportunities those who go down this route are deprived of.
Living on £18,000 a year in London is painful, but the value of that first job is not just monetary. That first step into the world of work is a defining experience, opening your eyes to the world, building confidence and accelerating the transition to maturity and independence. Unhappy Labour MPs should remember that those exploiting the system stand the most to gain from being diverted away from this path of dependency.
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