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Does anyone really believe that Andy Burnham will succeed in cutting welfare benefits for 16–24-year-olds, as is being reported? Good luck to him if he really does have a go, because it is absolutely needed. The percentage of 16–24-year-olds claiming out of work benefits on the basis of long-term sickness climbed from a low of 5.2 per cent in 2018 to reach 9.3 per cent in 2024. Have we really bred a generation of sickly youths, or are some, just possibly, taking the mickey and claiming to be too unwell to work when they very much could? Burnham will apparently announce this week that in the future, young claimants won’t be allowed to simply sign themselves off on benefits and be left alone: they will have to turn up somewhere and do some work, or engage in some form of work-related training.
They will define themselves against welfare cuts, pretending that a runaway bill is not really a problem
Don’t expect it to go any further than a mere proposal. Just look what happened when Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves attempted to save the taxpayer a modest £4.5 billion a year by making it harder to claim Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) – a non-means-tested benefit that can be claimed by people who are either in or out of work. He was swiftly forced to backtrack after the threat of a backbench rebellion. The next day Reeves appeared on the green benches, sobbing. Two months later Starmer had moved his work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall out of the brief.
