Health benefits system ‘financially unstable’, peer warns
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The health benefits system has been described as “financially unsustainable” as a Lords committee called on ministers to reform the system. The chairman of the cross-party Economic Affairs Committee has written to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall warning that “urgent action is needed to address the rising social and financial cost”.
Lord Bridges of Headley also said that “tackling” the issue “must be a top priority for the Government”. Last year Ms Kendall said that people who “can work, must work” when she announced a “get Britain working again” plan aimed at returning some of the 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness to the workplace.
After a short inquiry into why spending on incapacity and disability benefits has increased since 2013, in the letter to Ms Kendall, Lord Bridges said the committee received “no convincing evidence” that an increase in health benefits is down to “deteriorating health or high NHS waiting lists”.
“The danger is that people have incentives to claim health-related benefits; and, once in receipt of them, have neither the incentive nor support to find and accept a job,” he added. Lord Bridges urged the Government to “accelerate its plans to reform health-related benefits” and warned that if it does not set out a plan to tackle the issue “this growing area of welfare spending will remain a challenge for the forthcoming Spending Review”.
