More than 2.4million Britons are receiving incapacity benefits with no requirement to seek work, official figures have revealed.
An analysis by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) showed a huge surge in the numbers claiming higher rates of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC) in recent years.
In 2018 there were 1.6million people receiving those benefits without a requirement to look for work or prepare for work. This rose to 2.4million in 2023.
DWP found that around a third of the increase in those on the higher rates of incapacity benefits were due to changes in the welfare system, changes to the state pension age, or because of Britain’s ageing population.
But officials acknowledged the majority of the large increase in claimants who don’t have a requirement to seek work was not explained by these factors.
Ministers have previously admitted there is a problem with claimants getting ‘stuck’ on incapacity benefits.
Experts have estimated that existing claimants can be thousands of pounds per year worse off if they move into part-time work – or they can earn more by stopping work and applying for health-related welfare.
The DWP analysis was published as the Government revealed it had breached the welfare cap by £8.6billion.
More than 2.4million Britons are receiving incapacity benefits with no requirement to seek work, official figures have reveale
An analysis by the Department for Work and Pensions showed a surge in the numbers claiming higher rates of Employment and Support Allowance or Universal Credit in recent years
The analysis was published as Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall revealed the Givernment had breached the welfare cap by £8.6billion
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall confirmed the forecast overspend in a written statement to MPs, adding ‘no action’ was taken by the previous Tory administration to prevent it.
The welfare cap was introduced in 2014 in a bid to limit the amount spent on certain social security benefits and tax credits, such as disability living allowance, child benefit and pension credit.
The Government has established a new welfare cap for this Parliament and Ms Kendall said DWP will outline a plan to ensure spending is on a ‘sustainable path’.
The Conservatives said they had pledged at the general election to reduce welfare spending by £12 billion, adding Labour ‘appears to be set on a different course’ with a ’42 per cent potential increase’ in the welfare cap over the next five years.
In a written ministerial statement, Ms Kendall said: ‘The Office for Budget Responsibility has made a formal assessment that the previous government’s welfare cap and margin for 2024/25 is on course to be exceeded by £8.6 billion and is therefore not met.
‘Under the terms of the Charter for Budget Responsibility, I am required to lay a paper before the House proposing measures to reduce spending to within the level of the cap or to explain why the breach is considered justified.
‘The forecast breach, due in particular to expected higher expenditure on Universal Credit and disability benefits, is unavoidable given the inheritance from the last government.
‘The likely scale of the eventual breach has been known since March 2023. No action was taken by the previous administration to avoid it.
‘Whilst this Government has already shown that it will not shy away from difficult decisions, this breach could only have been addressed through implementing immediate and severe cuts to welfare spending. This would not have been the right course of action.
‘The forecast breach underlines the previous government’s failure to control welfare spending and failure to bring forward genuine reform to get more people into work.’
