Welfare spending to rise by £73.2bn to £406.2bn

[topicalaffair]

Over the next five years, the OBR is forecasting that UK welfare spending will rise by £73.2bn to £406.2bn.

How does everyone feel about this? I’m livid because I pay lots of tax. I don’t mind paying tax to maintain a civilised society - but this? This is surely taking the piss and will result in weaker and weaker services as the amount of £ available reduces day by day.

YANBU - it’s totally deranged. The every growing uk population can’t function effectively on such a benefits for all basis.

YABU - this welfare spending bill is truly representative of need.

Vote labour out?

Why would people receiving benefits vote out a party who looks after them, and if they are in the majority its not going to happen, rightly so

State pension may well be classed as a benefit but it is not the same as other benefits. People have to pay decades worth of contributions into it in order to claim it at a retirement age set by the government

Pepple haven’t paid enough, just think logically about average salaries, the NI paid on that & what the state pension is!!!!

fancy people getting old

Fancy not thinking demographics matter…

In the 60s there were 5 workers to 1 pensioner, now it’s 3:1 & not far off 2:1. We already have more over 65s than under 15s, just think about that for a minute.

You make no sense.

If I have a disability and was offered PIap even though my disability costs me nothing. Should I take the money? What do you think? If I take it, what should I use it for?

We should apply the same rules to other benefits then. You only receive it you have paid in?

Two of my friends just moved into lovely 3 bed new builds down south. These are housing association properties, placement arranged by the council. The rent of £1100 a month! Which the council are paying £1090 of by the way.

Both work by the way - but are single parents.

The lack of suitable council housing has led to the government having to partner with HA and pay the rents they demand.

Long gone are the day of £380 council rent! The taxpayers are forking out fortunes but its the government's piss poor housing planning!

So you would abolish pension credit & disability benefits?

What about older people in social housing? would you potentially kick them out if they hadn’t paid much in?

Definitely cancel pension credit. Raise the threshold for claiming disability benefit. The severely disabled 100% deserve it. Medical tests to decide.

Non contributory benefits need to be gradually phased out. No housing benefit - rents would reduce.

I do think if we want to take a shortcut to slashing the cost of private rent then halving housing benefit would go along way towards this. If people cannot pay the rent being charged, landlords would have to drop the rents accordingly. Many landlords would be forced to sell up, dropping house prices too. It would be carnage in the short term, but in the long term would free up lots of government money.

Maybe cutting housing benefit by 10% a year to phase it out entirely over 10 years and direct that the saving is only used to build social housing.

The "short term carnage" you're talking about is families being made homeless and ending up with ridiculous amounts of debt in legal fees from eviction processes.

What happens to the people who are too disabled to be hired by anyone but not disabled enough under new criteria?

You make no sense.
I understand that PIP not means tested. But that doesn’t mean it’s not based on extra costs! See the text I have copied from gov.uk below.
And again you have not answered the question. Why claim it if you don’t have any extra costs from your disability?

So the pp who has autism but this does not prevent her from doing everyday tasks does not feel the need to claim it.

This is what gov.uk says:

What PIP is for
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) can help with extra living costs if you have both:

a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability

difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around because of your condition

You can get PIP even if you’re working, have savings or are getting most other benefits.

How PIP works
There are 2 parts to PIP:

• a daily living part - if you need help with everyday tasks
• a mobility part - if you need help with getting around

Whether you get one or both parts and how much you get depends on how difficult you find everyday tasks and getting around.

How difficulty with tasks is assessed
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will assess how difficult you find daily living and mobility tasks. For each task they’ll look at:

• whether you can do it safely
• how long it takes you
• whether you need help to do it, from a person or using extra equipment

Everyone (unless severely disabled) who wants money would not be able yo pick and choose what job they want they would take it out of necessity.

I agree with PP than we need to make the workplace more accessible to those with disabilities.

Over 1 million people aged 24-49 are not working due to illness.
Aged 50-64 it’s obviously higher (1421).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52660591.amp

There also needs to be more done to help get young people into work who haven’t gone to college or university. There is a lot of talk about apprenticeships but when you actually look at the opportunities available it is quite limited. I assume because employers don’t want to take on the responsibility.

A lot of disabled people want to work but struggle to get the reasonable adjustments or flexibility they need.

Also the job market is really tough right now. I don’t think there are many jobs that need filling.

The jobs won't hire them because they need adjustments that go beyond what the job can offer.

Or they won't hire them because they've been out of the workplace because of their disability.

Or they'll hire them and then sack them because their disability means they need more sick leave and time off for appointments.

Or they'll be like me; every job around me needs manual labour or a driving licence. What am I supposed to do?

Theres 729,500 jobs out there right now, and 1.8 million unemployed and then you hit millions who are not unemployed but also not working. We could be looking at 8 or 9 million people going for those jobs in that case. (Having excluded the very severely disabled)

Who will those job go to. The most or the least able?

The government are taking steps to reduce the welfare bill but I think it's just been allowed to spiral out of control for so long now that the planned changes so far ( halving the UC LCWRA element for new claims after April 2026) will just seem like a drop in the ocean. Changes to PIP are still being considered but as we know last time were thrown out. No -one seems to be able to take the urgent action needed. Instead they are just throwing money into more work coaches to help the disabled get back into work but as pp have said there are few suitable jobs. If they make PIP harder to get, those people still aren't going to be getting into work.

We need to change the criteria of being disabled. There's no way one in four people in this country are actually disabled in any meaningful sense of the word.

My next door neighbour stopped teaching as it was too stressful. She found a job here, remote working. If this is any good? Disclaimer: I can’t vouch for the jobs, I just know it’s what she used.

https://www.flexjobs.com/about

Agreed.

I've been applying for remote jobs for months, using the guaranteed interview scheme, meeting every criteria etc - there are still so many applicants for each WFH job, and most of them want hybrid rather than fully remote, that I'm not even getting a look in. Had my CV checked and everything. I have two years of unemployment / self employment since my last role, so I'm not high on anyone's hiring list.

Absolutely agree.

You did. So it’s a fair question.

This is what my ex colleague is finding. Had time off for surgery and was off for some months. Just as she was about to come back to work they oddly awarded her the LCWRA element of UC which gave her more money on UC ( enough to live frugally, all rent paid etc ) and she resigned from her job. Now 18 months down the line is trying to get back into work but employers are overlooking her or retracting job offers when they find out how long she has been off for. She is highly qualified but no-one is hiring her.