New prime minister Andy Burnham has confirmed he intends to make Britain's welfare support “conditional” on people taking work – including those receiving mental health support – and the move is already dividing our readers.
Speaking in his first major broadcast interview since taking office, Burnham said the government had “got to get really serious” about cutting the bill, while warning separately that the NHS would “collapse” without an overhaul of social care.
The news drove hundreds of responses, with Independent readers deeply split on the new PM’s announcement. While some praised the move as long overdue, arguing benefits have been “abused for far too long”, others accused Burnham of recycling the same targets as his predecessors, insisting the government should look to the wealthy and big corporations before touching support for the vulnerable.
This divide was reflected in our own poll, where just over half backed cutting the welfare bill, roughly a quarter said the plan targets the vulnerable, and one in five wanted support improved first.
Here’s what you had to say:
This is long overdue
This is long overdue. Millions are milking the welfare system while the country goes down the pan. There are many areas where wasteful welfare spending can easily be slashed. Work is essential to people’s wellbeing, self-respect, and participation in society, and welfare has been abused for far too long.
Where are the jobs for young people?
All very well talking about making benefits conditional, but where are the jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities for young people? A million young people out of work, education or training is not simply a problem of individual choices – it is also a reflection of whether our economy is creating enough secure pathways into adult life. You cannot solve unemployment by making it harder to claim support if there is nowhere meaningful for people to move towards.
Landlords are pocketing the money
£38bn in benefits goes to housing, which is mostly pocketed by buy-to-let landlords. Address that without endangering the tenant and there’s your money.
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Vote fake Labour, get Tory
He came in vowing to replace the faction, yet we get more attacks on “the welfare state” real Labour politicians were so proud of, and the “cradle to grave care” Nye Bevan adopted as Labour’s creed. How exactly are these attacks on the welfare poor Labour’s “land fit for heroes”? Burnham demonstrates it is still vote fake Labour, get Tory. Restore Attlee, Wilson and Callaghan’s tax rates on the rich – they say the welfare state is unaffordable.
Work is the best therapy
From personal experience, work is the best possible therapy for mental illness, unless you are suffering from a serious episode. Doctors should not hand out self-certified sick notes for mental illness like sweets to keep children quiet. Unless a psychiatrist confirms a serious episode, people should go back to work at the earliest opportunity.
We cannot afford welfare in its current form
We cannot afford welfare in its current form. Labour are the party I trust most to implement the radical reforms required. The problem is that the Labour leadership can see what is needed but many Labour MPs are not there yet. They still think we should tax our way out of the mess. If they don’t get real then the job of welfare reform will be done by Reform. The Labour MPs who blocked Keir introducing welfare reforms need to understand there are no good ways out of this problem – there are just less bad ways.
Some have been gaming the system
At last, making welfare conditional upon work is something that should have been the case decades ago. As for “mental health”, some have been gaming the system, as the benefits are more generous and don’t require the same jobseeking proof as out-of-work benefits.
Go to the local workhouse?
What they don’t say about benefits is that most of the money received by claimants is circular – it goes straight back into the economy, locally or nationally. And let’s be honest, people who’ve been out of work for years aren’t going to be suddenly employed. No references, no up-to-date experience, ageism – it just isn’t going to happen. So without benefits, what are people supposed to do? Go to the local workhouse?
Social care should be part of the NHS
I’d happily pay more tax if it was ring-fenced for the NHS, and in that I include social care. I believe social care should be part of the NHS, not on its fringes. Getting old, for example, is not a life choice, and older people shouldn’t be made to feel guilty about it.
It isn’t that benefits are too high – wages are too low
Most people, yes, even in this country, want to work. But not for bad employers, poverty wages and poor health and safety. We should use a carrot, not a stick, and those who simply don’t want to work would stand out like a sore thumb. It isn’t that our benefits, in most cases, are too high – it is that wages are far too low. That’s why half of those in full-time jobs still need extra help from the government.
Receipts
He is right that the benefit system is out of control. PIP has two purposes: financial support for extra living and mobility costs caused by a long-term health condition or disability. A good step would be requiring people receiving PIP to prove they’re using it for these two purposes, with receipts.
Those with the broadest shoulders must pay the most
If we want to live in a decent, civilised society with public services that support us, we will have to pay for it. I will pay more tax to see that happen. But those with the broadest shoulders must pay the most. The group Patriotic Millionaires are calling for just that. But the right-wing media and right-wing politicians are deaf to their pleas.
Labour want to hit the poorest
England has the highest homeless rate in Europe. That’s a disgrace, and an abject failure of social policy – entirely the fault of government. Yet Labour want to hit the poorest and most vulnerable.
The numbers don’t add up the way you think
The biggest part of benefits are pensions. The second biggest are in-work benefits, because we seem to like subsidising multinational corporations’ wage bills. Actual unemployment benefit – for the so-called scroungers, not strivers – amounts to £1.4bn, with jobseeker’s allowance bringing that up to less than £2bn. Out of £334bn. Maybe we should raise the minimum wage and scrap in-work benefits instead?
Burnham ignores the facts
Burnham ignores the facts. Disability benefit fraud rates are exceptionally low, with official figures showing that only 0.2 to 0.4 per cent of Personal Independence Payment expenditure is attributed to fraud. While public perception often overestimates the scale of social security abuse, the vast majority of overpayments are actually due to claimant errors or administrative mistakes.
Too easy to get a lot of money on benefits
Too easy to get a lot of money on benefits. Slash it now. It was designed as a safety net for people out of work, not an alternative career for the feckless. Bring in workfare – picking up litter and the like – no work, no benefits.
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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