Top News

Experts have told Rachel Reeves that the future looks "bleak" after figures suggested the number of people claiming "no need to work benefits" from the DWP has risen by 1.5million since Labour came to power. Data revealed that 4.2million people are on Universal Credit with "no work requirements" after an increase in claims from individuals citing their mental health. Elliot Keck, campaigns director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, told The Express: "The future of Britain is bleak if politicians don't urgently get a grip on the tragedy that is Britain's escalating welfare bill.

"Millions are left out of work languishing on benefits, many of them with only minor, treatable conditions. Some of course are simply abusing the system, and squeezing taxpayers to fund their life of leisure. It should be the urgent priority for the government to use every means at its disposal to bring this bill down drastically."

Professor Len Shackleton, an editorial and research fellow at the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) and professor of economics at the University of Buckingham, said: "Unless something changes, we can expect some further increase in no need to work benefits."

He highlighted a "worrying trend", which is seeing young people presenting with mental health problems, and "as the numbers of 18 to 24 year-olds who are unemployed is rising (currently 13.7% rate as against 5.1% for all over-16s) it is reasonable to assume some of these will migrate to no-need-to-work."

Professor Shackleton added: "Permanently reducing the numbers on benefits would probably require legislation. We can see Labour backbenchers have no stomach for this.

"Would a Reform or Conservative do better? Probably, but it's not an easy task. The Conservatives want to return to in-person screening, which wouldn't be a bad idea but would involve significant extra resources - and also you probably can't rely on unionised left-wing civil servants to be sufficiently ruthless."

He said both Conservatives and Reform seem to want to "cut out whole categories of people," including foreign nationals.

"Good idea - but stand by for a barrage of human rights claims," the economist said.

"Another way of cutting the bill is to freeze benefits. This has been done in the past, but difficult to keep up for very long. If it was tied to scrapping the pension triple lock the savings could be considerable and might encourage some older workers to stay in work for longer. But good luck with that.

"We are in a mess, I'm afraid. Piecemeal 'solutions' don't promise very much. We need a new Beveridge, but there is no prospect of a consensus on this."

The Express has approached the DWP for comment.