The Department for Work and Pensions has come under fire from former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who described its policies as 'so absurd it barely seems real'. Duncan Smith, the architect of Universal Credit, claims that soft Labour Party government perks and weak rules are 'fuelling a return to dependency' while taxpayers foot the bill.
Call for Tighter Rules
Duncan Smith has called for the DWP to 'tighten' payouts for mental health conditions, arguing that this could save an eye-watering £7 billion for the welfare department. He pointed out that mental health is driving sickness benefit claims, with 1.6 million Work Capability Assessment decisions for mental and behavioural disorders since 2022.
Rising Costs
Writing in the Telegraph, Duncan Smith warned: 'More than four million people are now claiming benefits without being required to look for work – 3,000 new sickness claims daily, largely driven by soaring mental health claims.' He added that health-related benefits are on course to hit £100 billion by the end of the decade, exceeding the current defence budget.
'An economically inactive claimant with benefits topped up by health and housing payments can now receive the equivalent of a pre-tax salary of more than £30,000,' he said. 'That means one quarter of the workforce – some six million full-time workers, according to the Centre for Social Justice – has post-tax earnings lower than many benefit claimants.'
Proposed Solutions
Duncan Smith urged that mental health claims should be tightened to more severe cases, saving £7 billion, and that some of this money should be used to provide NHS therapy instead. He also called for the benefit rules and conditions he introduced to be 'switched on again' and for taxes hurting employers to be reduced to prevent youth unemployment soaring.
