Pat McFadden said Labour must stop “simply writing a cheque” for health and disability benefit claimants and put more job support at the centre of welfare reform. The work and pensions secretary made the case during a visit to a jobcentre in south London, where he said the system should do more for people who could work or change their situation.
He said he did not believe government fulfils its responsibilities simply by writing a cheque, and added that the system must remain in place for people who can never work. For those who could work, or could change their situation, he said Labour should help them do that.
McFadden and the welfare reviews
McFadden signalled that welfare reform could shape Labour’s response to the final recommendations from the Milburn review and the Timms review, both of which he commissioned. The government is waiting on Alan Milburn’s report into youth worklessness and Stephen Timms’s review of disability benefits, with work already under way on the response.
He said he was speaking to the Department for Education and the Department for Health as that response is put together. He also said the plan should change the question from asking what benefits someone is entitled to, to asking how the state can help them live the fullest life.
Timms review on Pip
Last week, Timms’s interim report said the personal independence payment was not working and that bold and radical proposals were needed to overhaul it. That leaves Labour facing a policy choice that reaches beyond benefit payment levels and into the support offered to claimants who may be able to move toward work.
The practical issue for those claimants is not just whether support continues, but how it is structured. McFadden’s comments point to a system that would keep help in place for people who cannot work while putting more weight on job support for those who can.
Milburn and Timms this autumn
Milburn’s first phase review in late May urged a whole system reset involving welfare, schools and employers, and said the goal was to tackle a rise in the number of young people out of work or education to more than a million. McFadden said the government response is being prepared in anticipation of the final reports this autumn.
The policy pressure is sharpened by a rising welfare bill, spiralling health-related benefit caseloads and growing demands on public spending for defence. McFadden has also previously hinted that Labour could try again to overhaul welfare after a partial U-turn over a £5bn package of cuts. For claimants, the immediate question is whether Labour turns the promised job support into a narrower benefit test or a broader redesign of how help is offered.
