Why Labour risks repeat of winter fuel row over cuts to disability benefits

UK Government is right to look for ways to make savings to the benefits bill and get more people into work, but it must ensure the system is fair, decent and moral

Given the rising social security bill, Labour is quite right to look for ways to make savings. However, it will need to be considerably more careful than it was when introducing means-testing of winter fuel payments for pensioners.

The failure to adequately provide for those who just missed out caused a major backlash from across the political spectrum and, if today’s announcement on health and disability benefits is similarly misjudged, Labour could face a damaging rebellion from its own MPs.

There are structural reasons why the benefits bill is rising. For example, Emma Congreve, deputy director at the Fraser of Allander Institute, noted that our working-age population is getting older and experiencing a greater number of age-related conditions as a result.

She also pointed to suggestions that the cost-of-living crisis had prompted people to make claims that they had not in the past “when they did not feel they needed the extra income”. These are people who are not “gaming the system” but simply claiming money to which they are entitled.

Keir Starmer needs to ensure the disability benefits system is fair (Picture: Leon Neal) | Getty Images

Long-term solution

That said, welfare is supposed to be a safety net for those who lose their jobs or are unable to work for medical reasons, not part of ordinary life. It seems farcical that people earning up to £80,000 can receive child benefit – particularly when the two-child cap means a third or fourth child born into a poor family suffers deeper poverty through no fault of their own.

The long-term solution to the benefits bill problem is to create a society in which everyone who can work is able to get a job that pays enough to live on. In-work poverty is one of the scandals of our times. Politicians must encourage the creation of good, well-paid jobs, and try to improve the conditions of those exploited by the worst excesses of the ‘gig economy’.

In the meantime, with the UK economy struggling and unfilled job vacancies a problem, Labour needs to find ways to get more people into work. However, particularly in relation to disability benefits, they must take care to be fair, decent and moral in their treatment of the country's poorest and most vulnerable people.