Rishi Sunak wants to tackle the rise in long-term illnesses. Photo: Paul Grover for The Telegraph
Rishi Sunak said: «The everyday challenges» of life should not lead to people being dismissed from work due to illness as he unveiled a five-point plan to tighten up the welfare system.
In an interview with The Telegraph, published in full below, the Prime Minister said people with mild mental illness should be given help to keep them in work, rather than being written off.
It also proposes that unemployed workers who refuse to take a job would lose their benefits after a year, tightening the previous plan that gave them 18 months.
Benefit claimants who work fewer than 18 hours a week, up from It's 3:00 p.m., so I'll have to spend more time with the job coach. Ministers said the change to the threshold, combined with the previous increase from 12 hours, would result in an additional 400,000 people receiving «intensive» help to find work.
To tackle the rise in long-term illness, Mr Sunak announced that the power to sign sick leave would be taken away from GPs and handed over to “objective” experts.
The Covid pandemic has led to a sharp rise in illnesses. people inactive due to long-term illness. Their number is a record 2.8 million, up from 2.1 million before the virus.
Mr Sunak unveiled the plans, which he described as a «moral mission», in a speech on Friday. In an interview with The Telegraph afterward, he said: “This is about ensuring that the social care system does not over-medicalize the everyday problems and anxieties of life.”
The Prime Minister said he “completely” rejected the argument that his approach amounts to insufficient care for people with mental health problems.
He argued that changes to the benefits system should encourage people to stay in work where possible, rather than sign up for them. long-term is the right approach.
On Friday, the International Monetary Fund warned that Britain's unemployment crisis is damaging the economy and risks causing irreparable damage to economic growth.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank found that 4.2 million working-age people currently benefit from at least one health-related benefit. That represents 10% of all working-age adults, up from 3.2 million, or 8%, in 2019, before Covid-19 struck.
«Work gives a sense of belonging and pride»
Already After a few minutes of talking to Rishi Sunak about his “moral mission” to get Britain back up and running, it becomes clear that it is based on deep personal conviction.
Speaking to The Telegraph after a speech in which he laid out his five As part of welfare reform, the Prime Minister appears energized.
“I'm a big believer in the value of work,” he explains. “I think work gives you purpose, gives you meaning, gives you a sense of belonging and pride.
“You can’t achieve anything in life without hard work—whether it’s you as an individual, whether it’s your family or us like a country. I don't want us to ever lose sight of that.»
This belief can be partly explained by Mr Sunak's upbringing, which he refers to during the interview, with his pharmacist mother and GP father in Southampton. .
Rishi Sunak says he has a «long-held belief that work is truly central to a person's life» ;life&# 39; Photo: Paul Grover for The Telegraph
Number 10 insiders often say that if you want to understand Mr Sunak's approach to politics, you need to appreciate his parents' strong work ethic — partly to enable him to pursue a private education.
Focus on Value labor is what he believed was the theme of his career in government. “This is something I've been talking about for years,” he says. «When I set up the furlough scheme, I talked about the importance of work.»
The emphasis in the last 18 months has been on tax cuts designed to boost job creation — business incentives and cuts to national insurance rather than, for example, cuts inheritance tax will be another item on his list.
“This is what I believe — this is how I was raised,” he says. “This reflects my long-held view that work really is central to life.”
In his speech, the Prime Minister expressed alarm at the sharp rise in the number of people being dismissed as too ill to work. stricken after Covid, often citing mental health issues.
His policy recommendations include forcing non-GPs to issue sick leave, ending benefits for people who stop looking for work after a year of unemployment, and offering support other than financial support for people whose mental health problems are considered relatively mild . .
One of the common criticisms that has already emerged is that he does not care enough about mental health issues. Is there any truth to this?
“I reject that completely,” he replies. “It’s actually because I’m particularly concerned about mental health issues that I’ve thought long and hard about it and how to get it right. The point is to ensure that the social security system does not overmedicalize the everyday problems and anxieties of life.
“Of course, people with depression or anxiety should get the treatment and support they need. But we cannot assume that just because you have these conditions, especially if they are less severe, that you are simply not expected to participate in the world of work. It is not right. We have to change that.»
Mr Sunak has often spoken of how being a parent — he has two daughters, Krishna, 12, and Anushka, 11 — shaped his political thinking on issues such as vaping, phone use and crime.
In his speech, he noted the increase in the number of young people citing mental health problems and praised how it is now becoming more acceptable to discuss such topics.
Does his family discuss such things? “People do this in every family,” he says. “I have been very clear that anyone who has suffered from mental health themselves, or who has family and friends who, like me and I'm sure many of us, have, will know that these are very real conditions and have a real impact on people. . Nobody takes anything away from this, including me.
“The biggest proportional increase in inactivity we see is among young people. This is a tragedy. This is a huge waste of human potential. I don't want this to continue. I want to change this.”
As is the case with a political party trailing its main opponent by around 20 percentage points ahead of the general election, Mr Sunak is facing discontent from some Conservative colleagues.
< p>Some complain that he is not is doing quite a bit of Conservative stuff — a recent example being the phased smoking ban, the first vote on which was passed this week.
Of course, some of the voters fueling the poll surge for Reform UK, the right-wing party of Richard Tice and Nigel Farage, are disillusioned Tories. What does Mr Sunak have to say to those flirting with voting for reform?
«A vote for anyone who is not a Conservative will simply send Keir Starmer to Downing Street,» says the Prime Minister, urging people who left the Conservatives after the last general election to return.
«I understand that people are upset. I'm upset and I work very hard to solve problems and make people's lives better.
“But if you are someone who cares about cutting taxes, if you are someone who cares about cutting net zero spending, and if you are someone who cares about stopping boats, then why on earth would you want Keir Starmer as Prime Minister?< /p>
“He doesn't care about any of these problems. I do. Not only do I care about these issues and share your values on these issues, but I actually do something about all of them.”
He places a tougher approach to the ballooning welfare bill — £69 billion is now spent on benefits for working-age people with disabilities or health problems, more than the schools budget or the transport budget — squarely within traditional Tory ideology.
And then there are rumors (as always, from anonymous sources in several recent media reports) that the Prime Minister is self-critical or even self-doubting, and opinion polls are not move from their place.
Has he ever considered resigning and letting someone else lead the party in the elections? “No,” he says. “I'm not obsessed with these things. I have always been clear that the most important poll is the general election.
“There will be hundreds of polls now. I am focused on working every hour God gives for the good of the British people.”
So does Mr Sunak really think he can win the next election? “Absolutely,” he declares. «The choice at the general election is crystal clear.
«Stick to this plan that works, which delivers change on the things Telegraph readers and the country care about — tax cuts, immigration controls, net zero cost cuts, reform social security systems. This is what we deliver. This is the choice at the next election.”
Whether the electorate agrees to this will determine whether Mr Sunak takes the time to make his new “moral mission” a reality.
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