Rishi Sunak has said he wants to slash the benefits bill to fund his plans to abolish national insurance for workers. The Prime Minister warned last week that the current system was not working properly.
The Government has already announced sweeping reforms to the so-called work capability assessment (WCA) that determines whether people are fit for work. However, most of the changes will only begin in the next parliament.
Deven Ghelani, director of Policy in Practice, said: “The Government is genuinely trying to shift their tone but in some respects the damage is done.”
Mr Ghelani said inadequate support for people looking for work or waiting for treatment for health conditions combined with the fear of facing sanctions had created “incentives to try to escape” the current back-to-work regime by seeking more generous benefits that do not have work conditions attached.
The report added: “People who would otherwise be treated and back at work are finding themselves pushed into economic inactivity and a reliance on disability benefits.”
Policy in Practice said welfare reforms during the 2010s spearheaded by former Chancellor George Osborne had resulted in a “steep tightening of work requirements” that forced more lone parents to look for work in particular.
This drove a sharp increase in the number of people facing work requirements from 767,000 in 2015 to 1.2 million by 2019.
The researchers at Policy in Practice added: “The post-pandemic trend is markedly different. We see an increase in the number of people not subject to work requirements.
“The pandemic led to a permanent growth in the DWP caseload too, meaning more people are now supported by the welfare system.”
