Dithering Starmer must put welfare of ailing UK first

THE SICKNESS bill is spiralling out of control. It is set to rise to £100billion by the end of the decade. That is one-and-a-half times the defence budget. At this rate it will soon be a national emergency.

- By Helen Whately

Just as we said during the election, Labour arrived in Government without a plan to deal with it. They have spent the past nine months talking about the problem without coming up with any answers.

Those months of dither and delay while they figure out what to do have already cost the taxpayer £7billion and counting.

This week we will finally hear what Keir Starmer has to offer the country on welfare. But I’m not holding my breath.

What I have heard to date falls far short of the much-needed radical reform to make sure those who can work, do work. It’s too little, too late.

Why too late, you might ask, when the election was just last year? Because proper welfare reform is hard and takes time. And every day that passes the problem gets worse.

Since Labour came into power almost 2,000 people a day have signed up for sickness benefits. Once on benefits, few people ever come off. So that’s millions of people spending the rest of their working lives not working. Right now, it’s 2.8 million and counting.

Worse still, the rise is fastest among young people. So just at the age when someone should be starting out at work, instead they are signing on.