- OBR: working-age sickness and disability benefit spending to
increase by further £17.8 billion by 2030/31
Jobless claimants with no requirement to work up 940,000 since
May 2024, CSJ analysis reveals in crisis of millions "written
off"
Joe Shalam, Policy Director at the Centre for Social Justice,
said:
“Loading yet more taxes onto the British public like a game of
buckaroo is not the same as doing the hard work to repair broken
Britain.
“One million young people are not in a job or training, five
million have been written off as unable to work at all, and
children growing up without seeing a parent go out to work in the
morning is rising at the fastest rate on record.
“A government with a majority of 169 has set out a Budget penned
by its backbenchers. But throwing money at the problem, paid for
by a squeeze on the workers and savers of middle England, will
eventually cause a kick.
“We welcome extra apprenticeships but ministers must urgently
return to proper welfare reform to rescue the nation's creaking
bank balance and, more importantly, the lives of millions who
have been thrown on the scrapheap. There is no time to lose.”
ENDS
A CSJ spokesperson is available for interview.
The CSJ had called for the Chancellor to bring forward a package
of welfare reform to get Britain working, including tightening
mental health benefits to more severe cases, saving £7 billion
and freeing up £1 billion to radically expand NHS talking
therapies and back to work support.
The CSJ had also called for an effective tax cut worth £700
million to help employers hire young people not in work or
training, to offset the increase in national insurance
contributions, minimum wage and employment rights regulation.
Modelling based on previous schemes shows this would get 120,000
young people into work and save £800 million in tax and welfare.
