Benefits claimants take home more than minimum wage workers
Brits claiming sickness benefits can be paid up to £25,000, which is more than the take home pay of a minimum wage worker.
That’s according to new research from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), which found that if a claimant is receiving universal credit incapacity benefits alongside personal independence payments and housing benefits, the total would add up to more than the national living wage.
The think tank found that sickness benefits claims are tipping above 3,000 people a day, and that inactive claimants can still end up receiving thousands.
Around 2m employees in the UK earn a minimum wage take home pay of £22,500.
This comes as 47 Labour MPs rebelled against the government on Wednesday evening to vote against the welfare bill – despite further concessions from Starmer to the soft-left of his party.
The CSJ’s policy director, Joe Shalam, credited Labour ministers with “tackling the perverse incentives that have crept into the welfare system since Covid”.
He added: “Too many people are trapped in a cycle of dependency and wasted potential.”
“By tightening eligibility for mental health benefits and investing in therapy and employment support, ministers can save public money and transform lives. The Timms Review must be brought forward to Autumn, there is no time to lose.”
This language echoes the disability minister Sir Stephen Timms, who said that reform is crucial to undo the “severe work disincentives in universal credit”.
Kemi hits out at benefits claimants
Kemi Badenoch is set to give a speech hosted by the CSJ early this afternoon, where she is expected to slam the “ticking time bomb” of the UK welfare state.
The Conservative leader will describe Britain as “a welfare state with an economy attached”.
And in one of her relatively few major interventions on policy of her leadership so far, Badenoch is set to call for sickness benefits to only be available for “more serious conditions”.
Badenoch will paint the government as “beholden to left wing MPs” and criticise the current state of welfare spending as “not fair” on working people.
“It is not fair to spend £1 billion a month on benefits for foreign nationals and on handing out taxpayer-funded cars for conditions like constipation.”
In a wedge with Labour and Reform, the Tories are pushing to keep the two-child benefit cap – a policy introduced by the previous government, and initially given reluctant support by Starmer before support was dropped.