Frances Ryan warns 'scrounger' rhetoric risks framing UK benefits debate
The Guardian columnist says Iain Duncan Smith's State of Dependency sets the tone before the Timms and Milburn reviews, and urges Labour to offer a more compassionate system.
At a glance
- Frances Ryan says Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice report State of Dependency frames the coming UK benefits debate.
- The report identifies 3,400 areas where more than half of working-age people receive out-of-work benefits, the columnist writes.
- Ryan says reviews due next month on Pip and jobless young people could reshape welfare, and urges Labour to resist punitive cuts.
In an opinion column for The Guardian, Frances Ryan argues that Britain's next round of welfare reform is being framed by right-wing "scrounger" rhetoric, and that Labour should challenge it rather than absorb it.
Ryan points to State of Dependency, a new report from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the thinktank of former Conservative minister Iain Duncan Smith. She writes that the study identifies 3,400 local areas where more than half the working-age population receive out-of-work benefits — described by its authors as "economic opiates" — and includes an interactive postcode map, styled in the yellow and black of a road hazard sign, that lets the public check whether their neighbourhood is a "welfare hotspot".
She frames the report as a gauntlet thrown down before two government reviews expected next month: the Timms review of personal independence payments, which pay for some of the extra costs of disability in England and Wales, and the Milburn review of young people who are out of work. Almost 1 million young people are not in education, employment or training, she notes, and the disability benefits bill is rising in cash terms.
Media pressure before the reviews
Ryan argues the right's influence does not depend on holding office, pointing to its reach across Britain's media. She cites the Times launching a "welfare inquiry" into the impact of the benefits "crisis" on public finances, a Daily Mail proposal to radically means-test Pip, and a Telegraph piece suggesting that having a disability is becoming "cool". She also notes Nigel Farage's announcement of a Reform TV studio in Westminster, with Reform's proposed £50bn in benefits cuts likely to supply content.
The column highlights a CSJ section comparing claimants with workers, arguing that someone on minimum wage would have to work six days a week to match the "security, cash and ease" a disabled person receives from a package of state benefits, and notes the report says about 1.4 million foreign nationals receive working-age benefits.
What Labour could do
Ryan writes that no recommendations have been confirmed, but that Whitehall sources suggest possible plans to scrap a key part of universal credit for under-25s and replace it with a multi-billion pound package to move people into work.
She argues Andy Burnham, who has presented himself as unafraid of large-scale change, could break with the convention that the benefits system only ever becomes more punitive. Her suggestions include more evidence-based assessments and fewer appeals, ending the use of public money to pay private companies, dropping unnecessary reassessments for lifelong disabilities, and investing in mental health support, NHS waiting times, Access to Work and employer attitudes to disabled candidates.
Source: The Guardian Business.
Questions and answers
- What is the State of Dependency report?
- It is a study by Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice that says it exposes Britain's worklessness crisis, identifying 3,400 local areas where more than half of working-age people receive out-of-work benefits.
- What are the Timms and Milburn reviews?
- Two government reports expected next month: the Timms review of personal independence payments, which pay some extra disability costs in England and Wales, and the Milburn review of young people who are out of work.
- What changes does Frances Ryan suggest for disability benefits?
- She proposes more evidence-based assessments with fewer appeals, ending payments to private companies, dropping unnecessary reassessments for lifelong disabilities, and investing in mental health, NHS waiting times and Access to Work.
