“Blunt” benefit cuts are not the solution to tackling Britain’s rising welfare bill, a new report has warned, as Labour is urged to put a greater focus on reducing unemployment.
Voters support an approach that looks at root causes of social security spending instead of cuts, the new research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has found. This also includes factors like worsening public health and rising rents, the report adds.
The anti-poverty unit’s economists found that getting 80 per cent of working age people into jobs – the government’s own target – would reduce the cost of Universal Credit by £10bn.
It comes ahead of the publication of Alan Milburn’s interim report into tackling young people not in education, employment, or training (Neet), which is expected later this week.
Nearly 1 million young people (aged 16 to 24) fall into this category, the highest in more than a decade. The former Labour health minister warned on Tuesday that a “catastrophic system failure” is leaving young people “abandoned” to a life on welfare.
The JRF says its research pushes back against the “dominant political narrative” that welfare spending is “spiralling”. It points to official projections to support this, which show that spending on non-pensioner benefits “will remain flat, at around 5 per cent of GDP for the remainder of the parliament”.
Sam Tims, JRF’s lead analyst, said: “We know what happens when the holes in the safety net are made ever bigger. The reasons people need support don’t disappear, instead low-income families go hungry.
“So government should focus on the root causes of economic insecurity. These are the underlying economic failures that drive social security need – like the decent jobs that need to be created, the affordable homes we need, and better health.”
A survey of more than 4,000 voters by pollster More In Common carried out with the research showed that 59 per cent of people supported reducing the welfare bill in the longer term by tackling underlying causes.
Around 20 per cent agreed with cutting costs quickly by restricting eligibility for benefits, and eight per cent for reducing how much claimants receive.
Mr Milburn is expected to recommend benefit reforms for young people when his final report is published later this year, which may prove controversial amongst the public and backbench Labour MPs.
Last July, the government was forced to U-turn on its controversial plans to cut spending on the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) by effectively making it harder to claim. Ministers were forced to partially row back the plans after over 100 Labour MPs threatened to revolt over the measures, instead announcing that disability minister Sir Stephen Timms was launching a review into the benefit.
A DWP spokesperson said: “Reforming welfare is about getting people who can into work. Our investment in subsidised work, jobs grants, apprenticeships and training will support half a million young people.
“Putting the Right to Try into law is allowing people on sickness and disability benefits to try work without the immediate fear of losing their benefits, while our £3.5bn investment in employment support for sick and disabled people is giving them the genuine help they need to move into work and out of poverty.”
