Laziness has become the new British disease
How did Britain get here? A nation which once prided itself on its ability to graft is now waist deep in a worklessness crisis, with record numbers saying that they are too sick to even consider a job. The answer, to paraphrase Hemingway, is: gradually – then suddenly.
In a report released this week, Blair-era Labour grandee Alan Milburn lambasts a decade of failed public policy, which has led the UK to a situation where work – even looking for it – often no longer pays. But, as with much that ails this country, worklessness has soared since the pandemic, with the number ballooning by almost 800,000 since 2019.
Some 5.6 million people are now on out-of-work benefits, with analysis by The Spectator finding that, over the next four years, the number on disability benefits is set to rise by 1,000 a day, every day. We’re the only G7 country whose employment rate has still not returned to 2019 levels, and one of only two where economic inactivity is higher than pre-Covid.
So no, Rachel Reeves does not have the toughest in-tray of any newly-installed Labour minister, however much she may mistakenly complain about inheriting the “worst set of circumstances since the Second World War”. That honour falls to the Work and Pensions Secretary, Liz Kendall. She will likely spend the next half-decade – if she lasts that long: the Tories had eight people in the post in as many years – wading through treacle. Judging by the row over the two-child benefit cap, whatever Kendall attempts will be as unpopular with her colleagues as it will be with the out-of-work.
It would be comforting to think that our fiscal situation may force Labour into radical welfare reform. But does anyone truly believe the party will massively tighten the rules, to guarantee that those able to work – even part-time – are incentivised to do so? Will stronger sanctions be imposed on benefits claimants who do not seek employment? Will Kendall be willing to means-test disability payments?
The Pensions Secretary may intend to increase our employment rate to 80 per cent (it has never surpassed 74 per cent), but how will this sit with Angela Rayner, whose “new deal” involves regulations on businesses that will discourage hiring and dampen productivity? And how can it be reconciled with our fixation on “good” work? Milburn writes of people wanting to “take a job aligned to their skills, interests and circumstances”, with the implication that some think work is optional. If the conditions are deemed inconvenient, therefore, should people not bother?
The Conservatives knew welfare was a ticking timebomb but only tinkered around the edges with schemes that mostly seemed to involve “life coaches” and castigating early retirees. Now it is being suggested that GPs – those same workers who are threatening to see fewer patients in an effort to strongarm Labour into increasing funding to practices – lead the charge in getting patients back to work. This isn’t bold reform, it’s straw-clutching.
The Tories were powerless in the face of two cataclysmic trends. The first is surging mental ill-health and the risk that we are pathologising ordinary human emotions. The second is the shift in attitudes towards the importance of work. There is scant indication Labour will do any better on either.
Stigma against worklessness largely disappeared around four decades ago, but the lockdowns extinguished the last glowing embers. Benefit dependency is no longer a source of shame or disappointment; more than half of Britons are now net recipients of state largesse.
Pre-election opinion polls found that more people wanted fiscal headroom to be diverted towards higher spending on public services than they did tax cuts. A study last year, which ought to have been the source of collective national embarrassment, found that while in France and the US the vast majority said that work is important to them (94 per cent and 80 per cent respectively), in the UK just a quarter agreed.
Whisper it, but Britain is in danger of viewing worklessness as almost a moral imperative. Businesses are viewed with hostility, bosses as “unscrupulous”. Hard-working, well-remunerated, private-sector workers aren’t to be commended for their aspiration but denounced as “greedy” and unwilling to “pay their fair share”.
We are losing sight of why our welfare system exists: to provide a safety net for the most vulnerable. Having millions out of work is a tragic waste of human potential. But Labour is unlikely to have the courage to do anything meaningful about it.