Rishi Sunak has launched another assault on benefit claimants (Picture: Downing Street/Flickr)
Facing extinction at the general election, Rishi Sunak has launched a bitter attack against people on benefits, disabled people and those too ill to work.
He claimed benefits have become a “lifestyle choice”—as if millions voluntarily accept a bare existence in poverty conditions.
Sunak may never be in a position to implement his “welfare reform” plans because he won’t be in office much longer. But his speeches drive up suspicion and hatred of those who are deemed the “undeserving poor”.
And Labour often either echoes or directly follows some of the worst Tory assaults.
Sunak knew exactly what would follow his announcement. The Daily Express newspaper, for example, headlined its report, “Rishi Sunak unveils new five-point plan to crack down on UK’s benefits scroungers.”
The Sun’s follow-up story was, “BENEFITS BUSTS New benefits fraud squads will arrest and fine even more welfare cheats, Rishi reveals in crackdown plan.”
Sunak denounced “a generation of young people who sit alone in the dark before a flickering screen watching as their dreams slip further from reach every single day”.
This is a government that hands out billions to its mates in contracts and cuts tax for the rich and big business.
And then it tries to blame the poorest for the lack of funds for the NHS and schools.
The Tories, wallowing in sleaze and corruption, want more sanctions and more misery for working class people.
The one hope is that Sunak said “to treat benefit fraud like tax fraud”.
If the way the wealthy are treated is any guide, that means it won’t be investigated at all.
The total amount of unclaimed benefits in Britain is now £23 billion a year,
Overall, 8.4 million people could be missing out on an average of £2,700 per year in rights-based benefits, the research by Policy in Practice found.
The social policy and analytics firm said money was going unclaimed because of a lack of awareness about available support, the complexity claimants face in navigating the system, and the stigma surrounding benefits.
Universal Credit remains the biggest unclaimed benefit (£8.3billion) followed by Carer’s Allowance (£2.3billion), Pension Credit (£2.2billion) and Child Benefit (£1.7billion).
In terms of locally administered benefits that are going unclaimed, council tax support (£3.4billion) remains top of the list followed by Housing Benefit for pensioners (£1.3billion), free school meals (£231million) and the Healthy Start scheme (£132million).
Benefit fraud, including errors, is officially estimated at £8 billion a year.
The five specifics Sunak outlined were:
1. Toughening up the work capability assessment (WCA), a government test that lays down what conditions people must meet to receive benefits. The government has already said it will make it harder to pass the WCA, but Sunak pledged he wanted “hundreds of thousands of benefit recipients with less severe conditions will now be expected to engage in the world of work.”
Increasing numbers of sick people are due largely to soaring NHS waiting lists, with 7.54 million people waiting for routine treatments.
2. A crackdown on fit notes. The Conservatives have tried to replace the sick note—which says you are too ill to work—with the fit note, which says what work you can still do with support. This has not met their bullying aim.
Around 94 percent of fit notes still sign people off work completely. So the Tories hope to stop GPs issuing fit notes altogether and give the job to people who may not even be medically qualified.
It’s easy to see that their remit will be to tell people they can work, and to remove their benefits if they can’t.
A “consultation” on the fit note process will run until 8 July—just in time to produce a nasty policy for the general election. Sunak is tackling a non-problem.
Sickness absence rates, while currently up on pre-pandemic levels at 2.6 percent, remain well below the rates seen in the 1990s (such as 3.1 percent in 1995).
And although a lot of his diatribe focused on mental ill-health, which is a growing issue for long-term sickness and those out of work entirely, the Resolution Foundation says “it is a declining reason for short-term sickness absence from work (down from 11 to 8 percent between 2019 and 2022)”.
3. Claimants forced from their present benefits and pushed quicker on to Universal Credit (UC)—and work requirements increased
All “migration notices” from benefits such as tax credits will now be sent by the end of December 2025. This often sees people miss out.
Analysis by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) of tax credit migration cases between November 2022 and March 2023 indicates that 28 percent did not claim UC at all and had their legacy benefit payments terminated.
The rules around UC and work should also be tightened according to Sunak. Instead of nine hours, “Anyone working less than half a full-time week will now have to try and find extra work in return for claiming benefits.”
In addition, “Anyone who doesn’t comply with the conditions set by their Work Coach such as accepting an available job will, after 12 months, have their claim closed and their benefits removed entirely.”
That’s a way to herd people into low paid jobs, and to lower wages more generally.
4. Personal Independence Payment (Pip) will no longer always be a cash benefit and fewer people will be eligible.
Pip is a benefit for people who are under pension age and need help with daily activities or getting around because of a long-term illness or disability.
The Tories want to target claimants with mental health conditions in particular.
Sunak says that instead of receiving money people can “lead happier, healthier and more independent lives through access to treatment like talking therapies or respite care”.
The government wants to see more medical evidence required to substantiate a claim with a limit on “the type and severity of mental health conditions that should be eligible for Pip”.
5. The Department for Work and Pensions will be even more like the police. Sunak promised “new powers to make seizures and arrests. And we’ll also enable penalties to be applied to a wider set of fraudsters through a new civil penalty.”
The DWP will be able to search claimants’ homes, seize possessions such as computers and mobile phones, arrest claimants and impose fines.
The DWP has recently posted job listings for up to 25 “covert surveillance officers”.
Labour launched its own nasty plan on Saturday, saying it would “scrap the Tories’ shoplifter’s charter that encourages the police not to investigate thefts under £200.
“And we will bring in a Community Policing Guarantee, with 13,000 more neighbourhood police and PCSOs to crackdown on shoplifting and keep the public safe.”
This repressive move will see desperate people taking food and other items for themselves and their children hauled off to the courts.
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