Why are people living on benefits going unchecked? - Jayne Dowle

Welcome to the great benefits swindle, a world where two million people living on benefits go unchecked, with the authorities having no idea whether they’re seeking work, still suffering from qualifying health conditions, or sitting on the sofa all day playing on their phones.

Sounds harsh? It is. Whilst many people have no recourse but to rely on welfare payments to keep body and soul together - people with serious, debilitating mental or physical illness or injury, or extreme caring responsibilities that preclude holding down a job, for example - it is becoming abundantly clear that there are millions of others who simply milk the system for everything they can get. And the rest of us work and pay taxes to fund their life choices.

This observation, shared by many, is not political, but practical. It cuts across any voting allegiances and contributes to a dangerous - and growing divide - in our society. The benefits bill also threatens to bankrupt a country desperately seeking ways to pay to protect itself in an ever-more dangerous world.

The cost of Pip (Personal Independence Payment) alone, a benefit intended to support those who need help with everyday tasks such as washing and dressing, is forecast to double over the next decade to £41bn.

This is more than twice the budget of the British Army, according to research undertaken by The Times’ new Welfare Inquiry, which will investigate the UK benefits system for the next six months.

The newspaper has set out to uncover the truth, helping to show government ministers the way forward when it comes to enacting promised potential reform.

At the same time, the Centre for Social Justice, an organisation which aims to tackle the root causes of poverty and social breakdown, has published its own landmark report, State of Dependency, chaired by Conservative MP and former Work and Pensions Secretary, Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

Its research finds that almost 900,000 people in England and Wales are living in areas where more than half of working-age adults are claiming out-of-work benefits. The report identifies 3,369 ‘welfare hotspots’ across England with concentrations of worklessness otherwise concealed by national and regional estimates.

The hotspots, comprising around 250 residents on average, are collectively home to 860,000 people – a population larger than Leeds.

Almost all of the ‘top 10’ local authorities containing the largest number of welfare hotspots are in the north of England, except Birmingham, leading the field with 166 neighbourhoods where out-of-work claimant numbers exceed half the estimated working-age population, and Nottingham (53). Three such local authorities are in Yorkshire; Sheffield has 82 welfare hotspot neighbourhoods, Bradford 81 and Rotherham 54.

As Sir Ian Duncan Smith says, “Britain is now living with levels of worklessness that would once have been treated as a national emergency.”

Duncan Smith argues that “leaving millions of people in left-behind areas without the purpose, security and dignity that come with employment is neither compassionate nor sustainable”. This report, he believes, proves beyond doubt that welfare reform is urgent.

And here lies the challenge for Andy Burnham. He is being told from all sides that welfare spending needs to be addressed, that the problem of multi-generational worklessness is ruining the fabric of communities and that our country risks becoming the basket case of Europe, even as he seeks to move closer to the Continent.

The Times has spoken to primary school teachers who report that children now openly aspire to be on welfare for the rest of their lives. And has found that the number of five-year-olds put down for disability benefit has nearly doubled in five years, most of the rise being ascribed to behavioural issues.

More than 120,000 teenagers with autism, ADHD and depression are also claiming disability benefits, at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £1bn a year.

Yet Burnham knows only too well that when the former Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall sought to take the first steps towards reform last year, she faced a huge backbench rebellion.

No Prime Minister - and certainly not Andy Burnham - wants a repeat performance. So perhaps instead of committing his course to propping up welfare and tinkering around the edges, he needs to take a step back and look at work instead. Until the value of work, both morally and financially, can be improved, any government is fighting a losing battle over benefits.