Labour’s fixation on getting people back to work is short-sighted and misses the bigger picture
Plus: The Spring Statement untangled, our View from the North, and a man who spent 18 years on benefits gives his first-hand perspective on the welfare cuts.
In her Spring Statement this week, Rachel Reeves pledged to get people back into work. Seemingly at any cost.
The hope is that brutal cuts to the welfare budget – including to the health element of universal credit and personal independence payment [Pip] – will incentivise people to re-join the workforce.
Reeves has said the government is investing £1 billion to help people back into work with what she called “personalised employment support”.
What is missing from the government’s plan is the fine detail on exactly how this money will be used to support people – many of whom have disabilities or long-term health conditions – back into the workplace. Even more conspicuously absent from the Chancellor’s statement was any acknowledgement of why millions of Brits are currently out of work and relying on benefits to survive. Worse still, the implication that the existence of benefit payments is the biggest obstacle to a return to employment gaslights everyone grappling with legitimate circumstances that prevent them from joining the workforce.
Most who rely on welfare want to be in work – people like Cieran who spent 18 years on benefits due to ill health and has now returned to employment – and providing support to enable them to achieve that is crucial. But strong-arming people back into work by leaving them with no other option is not only callous, it will also likely backfire.
This is where Reeves has failed to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. It is five years since the pandemic forced us all out of office and wrecked our collective mental health by means of isolation, instability and grief on an unprecedented scale. The possibility for a reckoning of workplace culture has faltered and faded, and employers are now quietly stripping away flexible policies. There has been a 25 per cent increase in anxiety and depression since 2020, while people are waiting 18 months for mental health treatment, and health inequalities have widened.
“Labour can’t simply put the onus on unemployed people to fix the problem – ‘be healthier, find a job, figure out how to live on less’ – they must instead look at the social conditions that have led to this crisis and pour their resources into tackling the causes, not just the symptoms.”
On top of the drawn out consequences of the pandemic and the subsequent mental health implications, we are also still dealing with a brutal cost of living crisis, and a crisis of social care that is making life harder for people in every area, every demographic, almost every section of society, with the most vulnerable and marginalised communities always taking the biggest hit.
Even if Labour somehow manages to cajole a large proportion of the unemployed back into jobs – how will they fare? The focus seems entirely on getting people in the door, not about helping them stay there, or even better – enabling them to thrive in work.
Currently, bereavement leave is only offered at an employer’s discretion, statutory maternity pay is one of the lowest among comparable countries, and more employers are forcing workers back into the office full-time. Sick pay is also set to be slashed as part of the “watered down” Employment Rights Bill, with MPs warning this month that the bill risks creating exploitation loopholes. These factors all exacerbate workplace stress, which will be disproportionately felt by those living with disability, long-term health conditions, or caring responsibilities. We can’t expect people to return to work and stay there without addressing the real issues that shut them out of working in the first place.
“Labour is the party of work,” Reeves pronounced in the commons this week. If that’s true, then her party must focus its attention more closely on the working conditions in this country. They must incentivise employers to make workplaces more flexible, more equal, and more compassionate towards its workforce.
But employers are too busy dealing with the additional pressure from the national insurance hike – Employer National Insurance contributions will rise from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent, with three in five UK businesses saying this coupled with the rise in minimum wage will reduce their ability to make new hires this year. Companies have warned this will undermine the government's goal of increasing numbers in work.
About a quarter of the working age population – around 11 million people – do not currently have a job. This is unsustainable and something needs to change urgently. However, Labour can’t simply put the onus on unemployed people to fix the problem – ‘be healthier, find a job, figure out how to live on less’ – they must instead look at the social conditions that have led to this crisis and pour their resources into tackling the causes, not just the symptoms.
Otherwise, all that will happen is a kind of boomerang effect. People who are forced into work will struggle. They may lose their jobs, or become more unwell. The risk is that more people will become disenfranchised. People who, with the right support, could have returned to employment, will be more likely to take on the belief that they are incapable of working, when really it is a hostile workplace culture and a lack of social support that has failed them.
This week, The Lead is untangling the Chancellor’s Spring Statement.
Rachel Reeves set out a fresh set of cuts to government spending and no tax raises, blaming a reduction in projected economic growth. The government has firmly ruled out tax rises and relaxed borrowing rules, leaving little room to cover the financial shortfall.
There have been ample warnings from left-wing and anti-poverty thinktanks about the implications of Labour’s spending cuts. But what are the up-sides? And what are the long-term projections?
Zoë Grünewald digs into the detail to set out clearly exactly what was said, and what it all means for ordinary people.
Council tax is broken
Earlier this week, we sent you Ella Glover’s eye-opening feature (and video) on the regressive tax that sees the most expensive areas of the country paying significantly less than the poorest areas.
We asked Chris Webb, MP for Blackpool South, for his thoughts on this stark regional discrepancy, and he came back to us just after we had published. So we can share his comment now:
“The need for council tax reform has never been clearer. Rich councils collect far more from higher band properties and business rates than places like Blackpool, yet struggling areas are forced to hike council tax to the maximum just to make ends meet.
“Labour is tackling this with a three-year settlement for councils, but what we really need is a fair, progressive new council tax system that ensures those with the broadest shoulders pay their fair share.”
Thanks for reading our weekend edition. In case you missed it, Tiger-Lily Snowden wrote a powerful piece about her experience of living with ME, a chronic illness that robbed her of her teen years. Hope in the form of a new government action plan was short-lived, as it was revealed that the plan didn’t include any additional funding. Tiger-Lily unpacks what this means for people living with this illness.
Don’t forget we’re on TikTok now. Add us to your morning scroll with Ella Glover’s exploration of council tax – as she wanders around some of Knightsbridge’s most opulent mansions (with some of the lowest council tax bills in the country).
We will be back in your inbox on Tuesday, until then have a great weekend. Thank you for reading.
Ed, Zoe, Luke, Sophie, Natalie and The Lead team