General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Extract from the Spectator.

The reforms will be met with predictable howls of outrage, but this crackdown is overdue. State support ought to exist for those who cannot work, not those who cannot be bothered to work. The status quo is unsustainable: the DWP estimates that welfare spending on people with disabilities and health conditions will hit £100 billion by 2027, up 77 per cent from pre-pandemic levels. The bill for those of working age is on course to rise 84 per cent to £77.5 billion over the same period.
The numbers are staggering. In July to September, 1.45 million people were unemployed – meaning they are not in work but are looking for work, having done so at some point during the past four weeks. 8.73 million people aged 16-64 were economically inactive. 2.5 million people are out of work because of long-term health conditions, nearly half a million more than pre-pandemic. Studies show that most of them are complaining about anxiety, depression or other mental health issues.
Meanwhile, 3.5 million people aged 50 to 64 are out of work and not looking for work. That’s 280,000 more than in the first quarter of 2020 – a number around the size of the population of Milton Keynes. And though the government has set these early retirees in its sights, it’s unlikely they will be lured back into work having left it.
But here’s the problem that we’ll hear raised a lot over the next 12 months: the Tories have had years to fix this. The last time the party displayed boldness on the welfare issue was a decade ago, when Iain Duncan Smith introduced Universal Credit. He has since had eight successors.