Claiming benefits is a ‘lifestyle choice’ for some, says Keir Starmer

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/15/starmer-claiming-benefits-is-a-lifestyle-choice-for-some/

by JayR_97

25 comments

  1. I know I’m going to get downvoted to hell for this, but he’s not wrong

  2. > The phrase “lifestyle choice” was used prominently by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, and was deployed by Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride and ex-chancellor Jeremy Hunt during last year’s general election

    Great company to keep

  3. I mean I would agree, I know plenty of people that use it as one, I ain’t the smartest person in the world though so I don’t see how you get to the people where they have no issues with out impacting the genuine ones especially when if imagine it’s going to get harder to tell the difference with everybody being sacked or made redundant as they like to call it for the normal jobseekers side of it

  4. I know it’s not popular to say but it’s kind of true. I have a friend who has been on benefits since I’ve known him (20 years). He knows how to play the system and has done all that time. He lives in a better place than I do (I work full time driving a bus), seems to have more money than I do on a day to day basis. He’s always telling me that he shouldn’t be allowed to but since he is, he does.

  5. I don’t think people realistically claim otherwise. The issue is that the narrative is often used to justify painting the group with a broad brush. ‘You see it’s fair if we’re tougher on benefit claims, cos you see, even if some of the good ones get caught, it’s worth it if we catch some bad eggs.’

    If the death penalty is ever applied to someone wrongfully, then the state murdered that person. The same applies here.

    The question that should be asked is if it’s a necessary evil to allow some abuse of the system for the greater purpose of helping those with no other option to keep their dignity. Also you REALLY don’t wanna be in the same camp as Ian Duncan Smith on this one.

  6. So is not taxing those with the most money, wonder which costs the state more money.

  7. He’s right, but there’s an entire political establishment bureaucracy, including him, that has spent a lifetime doing it as well

  8. coming from the guy who gets his pockets loaded with cash for looking out for his industry pals.

  9. Labour’s Tory cosplay is a nice distraction from their lack of long term vision and success on the “growth” mission. 

  10. It always has been but the methods of cracking down on this effect people that claim legitimately too much and compared to the amount lost to tax evasion and some of the dodgier avoidance schemes it’s a drop in the ocean.

  11. While likely true, the Prime Minister saying this EVERY WEEK is extremely harmful to genuinely disabled people like myself.

  12. It’s a view that makes me squirm because I still think that rich people hoarding money is the bigger issue, however we have to be honest and acknowledge that some people are playing the system.

    I know someone who is pretending to be disabled and knows exactly how to play the system. In fact there’s so much wrong with her it’s a miracle she’s still alive. Then her partner who used to work suddenly became disabled too after they moved in together. Bad back etc.

    It frustrates me when I see people say that anyone calling out that sort of behaviour must be ableist. No. Some people are arseholes who do what they can to get out of working. Calling out their shit isn’t going against actual disabled people, it’s stopping them from taking away money and resources from those who actually need it.

    I know another couple too who are very annoyed that job seekers made them pick up some part time jobs. They wanted to spend their time not working looking for jobs they actually wanted. But why should our tax money fund them while they do so?

  13. Going after the poor again a la tory eh Kier, instead of addressing all the corrupt wealth that pulls all the strings and has created a media that only allowed you into power because you’re leader of the tory B team?

    It’ll all go wrong for you, then we’ll end up with Farage or even worse.

    No cojones Kier, because you’re nothing but a career politician and about as left of centre as Inane Duncan Smith. 

  14. We literally just had someone quit because she’d only be £70 a month worse off on benefits

  15. Fabulous we’re back to blaming disabled and vulnerable people, who’d have guessed this would happen

  17. What about doing some work in exchange for your benefits. I know many people who are n the estate and smoking whatever and bitching about their nosey neighbors. They’ve no intention of getting a shit minimum wage job and why should they? In the other end the elites are bleeding us all dry.

  18. I have not seen another party actively trying to ruin themselves so quickly. Is there anyone/thing left that they have not started a war on? Don’t answer that actually. I don’t want them getting ideas.

  19. I’m a Labour voter and he’s spot on. I don’t think over ever seen a single illegal immigrant, but what I do see on a daily basis is the socioeconomic cancer that is dole dossers and their 5 kids. Never had a job, never have any intention of having one. I’d love a “one in, one out” policy where we take in a grateful net contributor from a war torn country and boot out a useless sponge 🧽

  21. I have family members involved, and they are very open about it. Aunt has never worked, claiming for various mental health issues. Has a house and so does her partner (both live together), they alternate between which one they stay at. Her son has had around 5 children or so with his girlfriend who claims benefits for depression, and he manages to not work as her ‘carer’. Although he also does actually work as a joiner which of course he doesn’t declare.

    My aunt and her friends visit several food banks around the local area. My mother visits my aunt every so often and they even asked her to go in after them to get more. Obviously she refused.

    Before anyone suggests their conditions could be real – I know these people. They very openly put *significant* effort and planning into the assessments and interviews.

    It might not be as prevalent as some try to suggest, but it’s absolutely happening and doesn’t seem all that difficult to do. *These* are the people Starmer is talking about. Not wheelchair-bound Dave who maybe *could* do a WFH job if he received the correct training and support.

    No, he means the other sort who have had hundreds of thousands thrown at them over the years, who are *still* taking everything they can even from the food banks.

    It’s not helpful to pretend they don’t exist. All we’re doing is making it harder for our real claimants to get the support and respect they need.

    What we really need to know is how many are doing this? What is the cost?

    But I can’t see any possible way of actually knowing. I truly hope the number is small.

  22. As a working man, I do not care.

    The problem is tackled from the wrong angle. Instead of looking to make people’s conditions so unbearable that they jump into the fire, why not take a look at the pan?

    Ensure that at minimum, a full time job is enough to meet the cost of living with change leftover for a social life. Improve job security and working conditions. Address the housing crisis.

    Provide people with the right incentives and they will be happy to put in a shift.

  23. Thing is he’s not wrong, I love on a council estate and see people who claim benefits but could easily work as you see them around the estate doing cash in hand work

  24. Fuck me – is this all we’re gonna get for the rest of our lives.

    Yes people in the comments – we know ‘this is kinda true’

    It’s more than kinda true – it is true.

    But it isn’t nearly the biggest problems we have, billionaires are gutting the economy by not paying back into it

    This is just pure distraction tactics – every party does it every time

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