Withdrawing benefits: 'war on work shy' or 'matter of fairness'?
Jeremy Hunt to boost minimum wage while cracking down on claimants who refuse to look for work
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Jeremy Hunt has vowed to "make work pay" by boosting the minimum wage and cracking down on benefit claimants who refuse to look for a job.
Setting out a series of changes to the welfare system, the chancellor will use his speech at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester today to announce that the National Living Wage will rise to "at least" £11 an hour from next April, providing a pay rise to two million people. Hunt will also argue that the welfare safety net is "a social contract that depends on fairness to those in work alongside compassion to those who are not".
The government will review the way benefits sanctions work. "It is a fundamental matter of fairness," he is expected to say. "Those who won't even look for work do not deserve the same benefits as people trying hard to do the right thing."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
'More radical approach'
Hunt will use his keynote speech to "declare war on 100,000 work-shy benefit claimants", the Daily Mail reported. The full details of how the benefits regime will be made tougher are still being hammered out and will be unveiled in the chancellor's autumn statement next month.
According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), there are currently around 5.2 million Britons on out-of-work benefits – a figure that soared during the pandemic and has not yet returned to pre-2020 levels.
Few Conservatives will argue against tougher sanctions for benefits claimants but Hunt "could and should go far further", said Ross Clark in The Spectator.
Clark suggested a "more radical approach" would be to abolish unemployment benefits altogether and instead offer anyone who wants it three days a week guaranteed work at the National Living Wage. The government's opponents would deride it as "US-style workfare", Clark argued, but "forcing people to turn up and do some work in return for their keep would ensure that they remain in the practice of employment".
Fair, financially responsible or politically motivated?
The measures are driven by spending pressures on the welfare budget, one Whitehall source suggested to The Guardian, and presented as reforms to get benefit claimants back into work.
Indeed, some leading Tories are "keen to bring down the benefits bill, partly with a major drive to reduce the numbers of economically inactive, and also by encouraging more over 50s back into the workplace", added Politico's London Playbook.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride will also use his speech to conference today to unveil plans for a crackdown on "deadbeat dads" who refuse to make maintenance payments for their children.
The Conservatives are also trying to "create a dividing line with Labour" ahead of the general election, said The Times.
The focus on benefits has "echoes of the policy promoted by David Cameron and George Osborne", said The Telegraph. "Their framing of the Tories as being on the side of 'workers not shirkers' helped win the 2015 general election," said the paper.
Amid the clamour for tax cuts – not least from the former PM Liz Truss – the development minister, Andrew Mitchell, warned that this should not be done "on the backs of the poorest", said The Guardian.
"We need to be very clear that we have very properly protected throughout the last 13 years of Conservative government the most vulnerable by maintaining and in some cases increasing the value of their benefits" he said. "That's the right thing for any government to do in any civilised society."
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Ben Fountain's 6 favorite books about Haiti
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Katherine Dunham and more
By The Week Staff Published
-
6 picturesque homes in apartments abroad
Feature Featuring a wall of windows in Costa Rica and a luxury department store-turned-home in New Zealand
By The Week Staff Published
-
Why 2023 has been the year of strikes and labor movements
The Explainer From Hollywood to auto factories, workers are taking to the picket lines
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Two-child benefit cap: a litmus test for Keir Starmer?
Today's Big Question Labour leader prioritises ‘fiscal responsibility’ but risks party revolt over pledge to keep controversial policy
By The Week Staff Published
-
Inflation crisis: is a recession the only answer?
Talking Point Experts suggest sharp slowdown may be necessary to avoid economic spiral
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gary Lubner: Keir Starmer’s new South African mega-donor
Why Everyone’s Talking About Publicity-shy Jewish auto glass tycoon set to be ‘key player’ in Labour’s bid for power
By The Week Staff Published
-
Food price caps: a return to 1970s living in UK?
Talking Point Government plan labelled ‘hare-brained’ as industry bosses warn it could lead to shortages, push up inflation and cut competition
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sticky inflation and sluggish growth: why does UK economy continue to struggle?
Today's Big Question Food prices, Brexit and the Bank of England have been blamed for poor economic performance
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
The Silicon Valley Bank collapse
feature Sudden failure of tech sector’s go-to bank sparks fears of wider contagion
By The Week Staff Published
-
Jeremy Hunt’s surprising tax windfall: to spend or to hold?
Talking Point The chancellor has received an unexpected pre-Budget boost, with public finances in surplus for January
By The Week Staff Published
-
UK avoids recession - but will anyone notice?
Today's Big Question Think tank says 2023 ‘will feel like a recession for many, regardless of the data’
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published