Reform has announced plans to crack down on Universal Credit, with an initial focus on 660,000 non-UK citizens who are not in employment. According to Reform, approximately 1.3 million non-UK citizens currently claim the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefit, of whom around 660,000 are not working.
IFS analysis on potential savings
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has responded to the announcement, stating that the amount of money saved by barring non-UK citizens from benefits would depend on how many of them respond by claiming citizenship. The IFS made these comments in reaction to Robert Jenrick's announcement of the plans on Monday.
Jenrick's call for welfare reform
Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said: “By 2031, health and disability benefits will cost £110bn a year: £3,600 for every family in the country. This is not an epidemic of broken backs and lost limbs. Since 2002, the share of working-age people claiming for mental and behavioural conditions has tripled. This is not generosity. It is suicidal empathy. Nor is it what the welfare state meant to be.”
He added: “William Beveridge, architect of the post-war welfare state, called “idleness” one of the five great giant evils the system was meant to tackle. And yet, our political class pussyfoots around tackling the problem for fear of the backlash – it’s pure cynicism. To me it’s a moral crisis. And it needs to change. In the words of Beveridge, this is “a time for revolutions, not for patching”. And yet, for 10 years, ministers of both parties have patched and patched and patched again.”
Criticism of existing proposals
Mr Jenrick also criticised the Government's own review, noting that it concedes PIP no longer works, yet when Labour attempted even modest savings last summer, its backbenchers forced ministers to gut their own bill within days. He said: “The Conservatives, who presided over most of this growth, now propose to trim it at the edges. Their ideas are paper thin, literally – two pages, that could have been written on the back of a fag packet. It’s tragic that this emergency is being neglected in this way. Nigel Farage and I are not prepared to do that.”
