Mel Stride told the House of Commons that one in five people deemed too sick to work wants a job. Photo: Mark Thomas/Alamy Live News
The Minister for Labor and Pensions acknowledged that measures to crack down on people claiming sickness benefits would not come into effect until 2025 at the earliest.
According to plans unveiled by the government on Tuesday , hundreds of thousands of people are expected to receive sickness benefits. it is more difficult for them to say that they are too sick to work. After the pandemic, their number has grown to almost three million.
However, Mel Stride, the Cabinet Minister responsible for the report, acknowledged that any changes would only come into effect after the next general election.
He told the House of Commons: when we can implement any changes will be from 2025, given the need to make changes to the rules and ensure that medical experts are trained accordingly.”
The delay surprised many Conservatives: inflated Social Security spending was blamed for undermining economic growth and limiting the ability to cut taxes.
Supporting those deemed too ill to work will cost taxpayers pounds sterling. That figure was £26bn this year alone, according to the Institute for Financial Research, £6bn more in real terms than before the pandemic.
The Office of Accountability estimates that one in eight people of working age will claim some form of disability benefit by 2027, costing taxpayers £77bn a year, according to Department of Works and Pensions projections.
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Despite the cost and repeated promises to remedy the situation, however, there are rumors that the government is wary of addressing sensitive issues ahead of the election.
The delay also means that if the Labor Party wins the election, as polls now predict, it will have to decide whether to continue making changes that are likely to be controversial among some of their supporters but popular with the public.
< p>Sir John Redwood, a former Conservative Party minister, criticized the decision to wait over a year before accepting the changes, urging Stride to «speed it all up».
He said, “Why does it take so long? This is what we need to do now to reduce the lack of jobs and give these people early support and hope.”
The proposed reforms outlined in the consultations will raise the bar for what people need. the state considers him unable to work for health reasons.
If someone has difficulty leaving the house, social anxiety about socializing with colleagues, urinary incontinence, or trouble walking long distances, they may no longer be able to claim benefits without making any effort to find a job.< /p>
About 2.4 million people receive sickness benefits but are not given any support to return to work because they are considered too sick to keep a job.
This figure has risen by 40 percent over the past decade, with a notable increase in the number of those reporting long-term illness during and after the Covid crisis.
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A Another group of some 450,000 people considered less debilitating are receiving a lower benefit rate as well as training to help them get back to work.
Mr Stride appeared to acknowledge that the figure could continue to rise until the changes are implemented in 2025, telling MPs: “We have about two and a half million people on long-term sickness and disability benefits, and that number is growing. '.
However, in an article for The Telegraph, he argued that the ability to work from home and increased mental health awareness means that people who were previously considered unable to work now have the prospect of employment.
p>He said: “Now there are many more opportunities for flexible work and work from home, and many employers have improved their approach to availability and reasonable adjustments for staff.”
“Increased understanding of mental illness and neurodiversity has helped employers identify opportunities to adapt work roles and the way people with disabilities and people with illnesses work.
“Many people receiving disability benefits say they want to work and using modern methods of work, can effectively manage their condition during work. Instead, they get stuck on benefits with no help getting ready for work.”
The emphasis on helping people with disabilities and other illnesses work from home comes despite a broader government push to get people back to work. office.
The plans focus on work capacity assessments, the tests people undergo to determine if they are fit for work when they hope to receive social benefits.
They are based on the idea that certain conditions under which people could receive payments from the state without any attempt to return to work may no longer apply.
According to one option, people with such conditions will not be able to return to work. receive additional support in general, but will still be eligible for the benefits provided to healthy job seekers. Otherwise, the conditions will carry less weight in the assessment.
The proposals aim to reduce the number of people on sickness benefits who are reluctant to return to work, with officials hoping to reduce this group by hundreds of thousands.
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Mr Stride told the House of Commons that one in five people who receive benefits because they are considered too ill to work want to have a job in the future.
He said the proportion of people who get a disability assessment , receiving the highest level of benefits and not required to seek work, rose from 21 percent in 2011 to 65 percent last year.
But Liz Kendall, the newly appointed Labor Party secretary of shadow work and pensions, said: “ This is not a serious plan. It bogs on the brink of an inefficient system.»
Scope, a disability equality charity, has raised concerns that the proposals «end up causing huge numbers of people with disabilities to seek work when they're not good enough, which makes them sicker.”
Sarah White, policy director for national disability charity Sense, warned that the plans could “cause great anxiety for people with disabilities across the country.”< /n>
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