We're in a bit of a pickle.
Wages are too low for millions of people, who need to be subsidised via UC.
Benefits spending is too high and is bankrupting the country.
Those people on UC either need to accept a lower standard of living or wages need to rise, so that UC is unnecessary.
If wages rise, it will result in job losses and inflation.
Inflation is needed to reduce the government debt relative to GDP, but Rachel from Customer Complaints raised taxes without balancing the books, so we still need to borrow more money. The markets are demanding higher interest rates, so it's creating a doom loop.
The only realistic way out of this problem is a slash and burn approach to public spending:
* UC massively reduced, long term unemployed having their benefits stopped to force them to look for work.
* PIP and DLA removed from all but the most seriously disabled and not available for invisible conditions.
* Civil Service reduced by 10% a year, every year, across all departments - there must be huge numbers of dead wood that can be trimmed with zero impact to output.
* Public Sector pay reduced in real terms via pay freezes and below inflation pay rises.
Personally, I think the government should place the full accounts in the public domain and crowd source suggestions for cuts. People outside the Civil Service will be able to identify huge savings that the Civil Service pretend don't exist.