Labour has moral duty to get sick into work, MPs say

The government has a “moral duty” to help long-term sick and disabled people to work if they can, Labour MPs have said, as ministers plan to reform welfare.

The Get Britain Working group of 36 Labour MPs said the country faced “hard choices” to overcome a “crisis of economic inactivity”, in a letter to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.

The letter comes before Kendall is expected to set out changes to the welfare system, aimed at cutting the benefits bill.

The chancellor has earmarked several billion pounds in draft spending cuts to welfare and other government departments ahead of the Spring Statement.

There is unease over the plans within the party, with Labour MP Rachael Maskell warning against “draconian cuts” that risk “pushing disabled people into poverty”.

Maskell told the BBC she had picked up “deep deep concern” among Labour MPs.

She said: “I look in the past at what Labour has achieved in this space and believe that we can hold onto our values, ensure that we’re helping people and not harming people.”

Speaking at a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday evening, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “We’ve found ourselves in a worst of all worlds situation – with the wrong incentives – discouraging people from working, the taxpayer funding a spiralling bill, £70bn a year by 2030.

“A wasted generation, one-in-eight young people not in education, employment or training, and the people who really need that safety net still not always getting the dignity they deserve.

“That’s unsustainable, it’s indefensible and it is unfair, people feel that in their bones.”

A number of MPs leaving the meeting said they had been satisfied with the prime minister’s words.

One said they accepted that welfare reform had to happen and were reassured that he had said it had to be done with Labour values and through the dignity of work.

However, another said constituents were frightened and needed to know that support would be there.

They said there had been little recognition that reducing benefits like the Personal Independence Payment, which help people keep their independence, had the potential to push up costs.

In a letter to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, a dozen charities have argued there is “little evidence to suggest cutting benefits increases employment outcomes”.

The charities – including Disability Rights UK, Citizens Advice, Scope and Sense – urged Reeves to “think again about cuts to disability benefits”.

They said: “There are disabled people out of work who want to work given the right support. And for some disabled people, work isn’t appropriate.

“Changes to welfare must start here. Not with cuts.”

But ministers are worried about the surge in the number of people claiming benefits since the Covid pandemic and the cost to the taxpayer.

As of January, 9.3 million people aged 16 to 64 in the UK were economically inactive – a rise of 713,000 since the pandemic.

The Department of Work and Pensions says some 2.8 million people are economically inactive because of long-term sickness.

Last year, the government spent £65bn on sickness benefits and that figure is forecast to increase by tens of billions before the next general election.

Some of the reforms to the welfare system have already been announced and include plans to use 1,000 work coaches to help the long-term unemployed into work.

In its letter, the Get Britian Working group said the cost of worklessness among the long-term sick and disabled “goes far beyond economic necessity”.

“It is a moral duty,” the letter said.

The letter said the group – most of whom were elected for the first time at last July’s general election – was formed to “press for fundamental change to our welfare system to support work”.

“We believe reforming our broken system is not only necessary, but also a truly progressive endeavour,” the letter said.

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said too many people were being signed off sick.

He said the benefits system needed to be made tougher and suggested it was too easy for people to get welfare payments.

“I think it’s gone far too far and it is costing us billions and billions of pounds a year,” he said.