RACHEL REEVES We cannot keep footing the bill for jobless Britain – so I will bring forward a plan to cut sickness benefits in weeks
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/33002678/rachel-reeves-benefits-spring-statement/
by JayR_97
RACHEL REEVES We cannot keep footing the bill for jobless Britain – so I will bring forward a plan to cut sickness benefits in weeks
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/33002678/rachel-reeves-benefits-spring-statement/
by JayR_97
46 comments
Classic Red Tories – Their rich donors threaten them against raising taxes on the rich, so they’ll make the sick and disabled pay instead.
Thousands died under the last wave of sickness cuts, people declared legally fit for work when they weren’t, people who committed suicide thinking they weren’t going to survive without sickness benefits, people who couldn’t make ends meet or money stretch long enough.
Like the Winter Fuel Allowance cuts, people will die from these decisions – and the Labour government know it but don’t care because their free money means more to them than people’s lives.
Member when labour were left wing and not just tories in red ties.
It is written by Reeves herself (or her assistant) as a piece for the Sun on Sunday.
*Where the previous Conservative government dithered and delayed over the difficult choices, I won’t. I will not hesitate to make the right decisions in the best interest of working people. Nothing demonstrates this difference in approach more than how we tackle the country’s spiralling benefits bill.*
*Next week, I will expose how the Conservatives lost complete control of the benefits bill – with a project overspend of more than £8 billion and no action taken to address that. £8.6 billion is triple the amount we spend on Britain’s asylum, border, visa and passport agencies. Sun on Sunday readers will agree, as a country we cannot keep footing the bill for the spiralling numbers of people out of work.*
*The UK is the only major advanced country whose employment rate has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. We’ve got 2.8 million people not working due to bad health. 420,000 more households are predicted to claim Universal Credit health benefits by the end of the decade. Nearly one in eight of young people across the country are not in education, employment, or training.*
*Where the Conservatives failed to act – this Labour government will. Next week I will tell the country that when it comes to our welfare system, I will not hesitate to act, as we have done to restore the public finances.*
Writes more Tory than a Tory would.
Maybe this cartoon isn’t far off the mark [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jan/23/ben-jennings-rachel-reeves-economic-growth-cartoon](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/jan/23/ben-jennings-rachel-reeves-economic-growth-cartoon)
So how do you prefer your Tories, with a blue or red tie?
Are these Socialists? Provides a piss poor health service and then complains people are off sick??
The problem with getting even half of the 2.8 million people off the sick and into work is the complete and utter lack of 1.4 million jobs.
Jobless Britain? Businesses are currently cutting thousands of jobs per month off the back of their policies (I think it’s mostly engineered to pressure them, but still) as well as presumably mostly freezing new hires.
Where are the jobs exactly? They literally never even mention it and neither do the captured journalists who work for capital rather than the people. Something has to give…
Just an idea, how about going after the tax evaders, big businesses that should be paying their dues for trading in the country or is that something so disgusting cos we need more billionaires for trickle down Reganomics?
It was a nice 12 seconds thinking things might be different
Disgusting of them to go after the most vulnerable people in society. Rachel is vile.
I was wondering when they were going to resort back to the “jobless scroungers” angle. Done with illegal immigrants already?
Everything but ~~texting~~ taxing the rich..
you know what will hurt the economy?! Accelerating homelessness, sickness and a lack of any sort of quality of life allowing you to get back on your feet!!!
Animals!
Fairly sure that sickness benefits are currently so small that most people can’t live on them anyway. Anyone on them must be getting topped up by another income in the family, living with friends/family, company paying sick pay or whatever.
Hard to see that cutting a bit off that benefit will encourage anyone back to work. Most likely it just sends a few more people into hospital when they can’t afford to eat any more.
Perhaps try fixing the NHS and actually making people *less sick* as a way to solve that problem?
It’s not really a political issue, it’s a mathematical issue. The UK is not rich enough to foot the bill. Not suggesting that people should be neglected, but Reeves is making a rational point.
Horrible cunts. As usual they are going to use a sledgehammer approach to cut benefits of those that really need it to attack those that dont.
I’m worried for my dad. He retires this year so they can’t attack his ESA but he relies on PIP and if they end up taking his money for some dumb voucher system or ‘pick from a catalogue of things you need’ he is screwed.
Labour have constantly been targeting the young and vulnerable like they need to out Tory the Tories.
Could we hear how they are going to retrieve some of the missing billions from COVID PPE scams/fraud and investigate what went on with that and how genuine companies couldn’t get a look in, or that they will close transfer loopholes that allow companies to not pay tax on income earned in this country and a concerted effort to go after very wealthy tax cheats as well as cutting down on corporate welfare.
They also need to speak to Tony about hiring a few spin doctors because this cruel Tory look isn’t doing them any good. A bit of effort to not look like a bunch of utter wankers would be nice.
How’s that going to happen when there aren’t enough job openings?
This is the Labour that destoryed the Tories? They’re never getting voted back in. Reform or Torries for the next 14 years after this shit show. Great! I’ll go back to voting Greens never to vote Labour again.
Before the election I said Starmer and Reeves were Blairites 2.0 and no one believed me.
Ah yes, reduce benefits and make the people in areas where there are literally very few or no jobs do what exactly? In fact overall less jobs since she increased NI. All it takes is something like Nissan to close down in Sunderland as they find it way cheaper to build a new factory abroad and you suddenly have thousands (about 6000 I think) households that reply on benefits. There are not 6000 empty job positions. Not hat the current government could care less.
Like does in the increase in NI really make up for the extra benefits being paid out to the people made jobless?
We owe 100% of GDP.
Putin’s tanks are on Europe’s borders and our conventional forces are the weakest in ninety years. The NHS crumbling. Roads are crumbling. The welfare budget is totally out of control.
And there are far too many people not working.
The difficulty is what to do about it all.
The only way that I see to get out is to do what FDR did in 1930 – massive civil build projects, which will stimulate industry too. Generate more corporation tax and plow it into debt reduction.
The fact that the UK is the only advanced economy not to achieve pre-Covid employment figures, suggests she’s right.
I loathe the current labour mob with most of my fibres, but regardless of who did what and when, the UK is over represented by work-shy benefits claimants.
There are systematic reasons behind this – whose that know the system have zero incentive to work etc. but the fact remains it’s an unsustainable situation. Innocent people will get caught up in it – which is a shame, but unfortunately decisions have to be made to cut the benefits bill and restore some semblance of productivity to the UK economy.
If she’s going after people who genuinely can’t work then that’s actually really bad.
If she’s going after the people who just claim sick benefits saying they’re depressed because they can’t be arsed to work then fair play 👌
Come at me with your downvotes 🤣
Most of our benefits bill goes to people in work and pensioners.
If you want to slash it, you stop subsiding poverty wages by making employers pay liveable wages, and you stop the triple lock.
You don’t go after the already risible statutory sick pay.
This is a Labour party in name only.
Serious question: are Labour voters happy with this? Reddit would call the Tories evil for this
Headline is misleading. Article mentions nothing about cuts. It’s about skills training, devolved decisions to local areas and fraud detection.
It’s an interesting question about why the sickness rate is so high.
If it’s because people are lazy scroungers, as some people say, then pressure might help.
However if there’s a lot of people who are genuinely ill from the pandemic (either physically with long covid and post viral syndromes or psychologically) then they need treatment rather than job pressure.
And the same is true for stress, is it really that surprising that if you offer young people an absolutely economic wasteland where there’s no chance of getting ahead that they’re stressed and miserable? Wouldn’t it be better to try to actually fix the system so that people could have economic prospects worth fighting for?
It all feels really bizarre at the moment like things are so gridlocked we can keep making minor moves to treat symptoms but we can’t really have a serious conversation about the underlying disease.
The Tories failure to address the countries health issues over the last near 20 years is coming home to roost.
So many sick waiting for treatment, a young mental health crisis, there needs to be something done.
If you really want to help, fix primary care, fuck off social media companies from this country and put an emphasis back onto communities
The thing is, it *cannot* be true that so many people are totally unable to work. I know some taking benefits who are just too lazy.
Can’t disagree that it needs to be stopped.
Just sounds a bit desperate to be honest. Going after the people who can least fight back. Meanwhile, there’s shed loads of money sloshing around out there.
A Labour government should be focused on getting people into work. Good work. Gainful employment. Cutting benefits doesn’t do that.
Jesus, they are tone deaf. We didn’t vote for more austerity and another government using the Tory handbook. We voted for change.
Blame the poor people instead of the rich bleeding us dry what a suprise.
Translation: “We are spending too much and the sick must foot the bill!”
Well what did they expect from an airborne vascular pandemic? People said this would happen, the rush to return to normal has left millions disabled or dead.
Casual reminder that Labour introduced the ‘atos’ assessment style when they were last in office (2008), they have history of attacking the sick and disabled
Sainsbury’s – cutting
Morrisons – cutting
Asda – in death throes
Tesco -tbc
Can do this all day…
Point being…
About these folk: *where* are we putting them to work?
Can this joker please just fucking tax the rich. We can’t keep footing the bill for their shareholders and tax evasion!!!
I get 300 a month uc and then 100 for my rent , I already go sometimes without food I’m a bit worried
Friendly reminder to read the article and not just the ragebait headline.
She’s not talking about cutting sick pay, but she did unfortunately use the word ‘cut’ within a half mile of the words ‘sickness benefits’ which gave the Sun licence to write this headline.
All that being said, I’m not sure I agree with, or see the point in, her plans around removing driving licences, and I haaate the idea of the government just reaching into your account to take money. Even money you owe. That’s one slippery slope I’d like to throw a few towels on right now please.
So they say 2.8 million people don’t work due to bad health, I’m not being funny but if hypothetically speaking they managed to get all 2.8 million people working, where are the jobs??
Its bad enough as someone in full time employment trying to get a higher paying job elsewhere, as the job market is absolutely rubbish atm.
Instead of demonising people who are ill, how about you actually do something about things like the triple lock where its just not viable long term?
Maybe address why more people are off work (increased workload, decreased morale, net losses of wages) instead of punishing people for already being punished.
Imagine individuals who have been long-term disabled and out of work for a decade or more, only to have their benefits cut and be forced to confront the harsh reality that no one will employ them. The government plans to introduce reforms that will make it much harder for disabled people to claim benefits. The Office for Budget Responsibility revealed that, while 450,000 new claimants would be over £400 a month worse off due to these changes, only 15,400 would find employment by 2029. In other words almost 97% of those affected would be worse off.
Take a look at the UK Jobs sub—people with degrees and experience struggle to get a foot in the door, and that’s without a disability. It’s easy to say that people need to get into work, but when you’re seen as unreliable or have additional needs due to a disability, and there are no jobs to be had, what’s actually going to happen in this situation?
But they’re sick. That’s the point.
And many of them have mental illnesses that make them entirely unsuitable or unreliable for most jobs.
It’s funny how Labour has “the balls” to cut social spending, but not to tax the wealthy.
I wish the Lib Dems more support as people realize Labour is just a different face for the tradition of austerity in the UK since Thatcher that is more about top and bottom than left or right.
PS Tax stock buybacks you cowards!
https://www.libdems.org.uk/news/article/share-buyback-tax-scheme
So, I have Crohn’s disease and Fibromyalgia. I wake up every day in pain. I go through every day in pain. I rely on a combination of immunosuppression, pain releif and antidepressants (aimed at the Fibro, so a lower dose).
It took me 6 years of being declined for health benefits. The worst out of them all was being told that although they agree I am extremely sick and vulnerable, they do not feel I am entitled as my mental health was too postive – I actually have the letter confirming it in these exact words.
What am I to do when these supposed changes happen? As much as I would like to be a functioning member of society at the ripe old age of 29, it is beyond my ability. It took me long enough to be accepted for the help I am getting now, being both PIP and LCWRA. It finally gave me the means to look after myself and not have to worry (as much).
I understand that they’re trying to crack down on benefit fraud. I understand that there are people abusing the system. However, it can’t slip my mind that too many people in my situation are going to be thrown under the bus by people uneducated on the severity of certain conditions.
It would be nice to have details on this plan that also focus on ensuring the people rightfully deserving the help needn’t panic. I’m almost positive that we will not receive this.
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