The epidemic of welfare dependency is perhaps the biggest anchor on economic growth in Britain, and it is getting heavier by the day.
Once renowned for a strong work ethic, personal responsibility and self-sufficiency, our country is fast becoming a something-for-nothing culture.
So, the shocking rise in the number of people categorised as long-term sick – some 2.8million, a rise of around 700,000 since before the pandemic – should trouble us all.
The situation is getting so bad the Policy Exchange think-tank suggests £1 in every £4 paid in income tax will go towards sickness benefits by the end of the decade.
The entire bill for these payments is set to rise from £65billion today to a staggering £100billion by 2030 – almost twice the entire defence budget. This is simply unsustainable.
A diminishing number of workers are expected to toil longer and pay ever more tax to fund an army of slackers who demand more and more for less.
The backs of the working population will eventually break, businesses will fail, the tax take will plummet and we’ll all be poorer.
This leaves Rachel Reeves in the jaws of a vice. She knows she can’t afford her spending priorities without growth, and there can’t be growth while so many working age people lounge around on the sofa.
Rachel Reeves (pictured) knows she can’t afford her spending priorities without growth, and there can’t be growth while so many working age people lounge around on the sofa
Yet if she takes an axe to the swollen welfare state, she risks a clash with Labour MPs who are already feeling bruised by the decision to slash winter fuel payments.
To the Chancellor’s credit, she seems to be up for the fight. It is reported she has earmarked billions of pounds of welfare cuts – and expects to reap instant rewards.
There are straightforward reforms she could make. She could tighten the process for signing people off sick and remove the perverse incentives that leave some better off on benefits than in employment.
Of course, there are those who legitimately cannot work due to disability. But with today’s technology, it’s surely not impossible for many to take on at least some paid employment – or face docked benefits.
Such measures are bound to bring howls of indignation from the Left. Isn’t it only evil Tories, they wail, who would happily kick the crutches from the old and sick?
But there is nothing kind about shunting people on to sickness benefits for years on end.
On the contrary, it is as unfair to abandon families on state handouts, deprived of all purpose and with no opportunity to fulfil their potential, as it is to the hard-working taxpayers who pick up the bills.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured) has threatened to legislate to overturn the Sentencing Council’s pernicious guidance
Terrible judgment
On its website, the Sentencing Council says it was set up to promote greater consistency when the courts dispense justice.
By recommending that judges consider more lenient treatment for criminals from ethnic, religious or gender minorities, it has instead fuelled the growing sense that ‘two-tier justice’ has taken root in Britain.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has threatened to legislate to overturn this quango’s pernicious guidance. She should act before it comes into force on April 1.
But the problem is wider than just the Sentencing Council. For years, we have seen judgments in law court and immigration tribunals that defy government policy and public opinion.
It increasingly seems as if activist judges are making up the law on the hoof to fit their prejudices, when their constitutional role is to apply legislation passed by MPs.
Yes, the independence of the judiciary should be sacrosanct. But m’luds shouldn’t act as if they are a shadow Parliament.
