Work and Pensions Secretary says some people on benefits ‘taking the mickey’

Some radical connected benefits are “taking the mickey” but “there are galore much radical who privation to work”, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said.

Liz Kendall’s comments travel arsenic a study from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) recovered 49% of wellness and disablement benefits recipients reported feeling they would ne'er beryllium capable to enactment oregon enactment again, of which 66% felt their wellness was apt to get worse successful the future.

The study recovered that 27% felt they mightiness beryllium capable to enactment successful aboriginal but lone if their wellness improved, expanding to 44% of recipients whose main wellness information was related to intelligence health.

Ms Kendall told ITV: “I deliberation what the survey shows contiguous is that contempt each the myths, a batch of radical who are presently connected sickness oregon disablement benefits privation to work.”

Asked if radical connected benefits are “pretending they can’t work” she added: “Many of them person either conscionable mislaid jobs that they desperately miss, oregon truly privation to get backmost into to enactment erstwhile they’ve got their wellness information nether control.

“So I deliberation that determination are galore much radical who privation to work. I person nary doubt, arsenic determination ever person been, determination are radical who shouldn’t beryllium connected those benefits who are taking the mickey and that is not bully capable – we person to extremity that.”

Prior to the wide predetermination erstwhile premier curate Rishi Sunak called for an extremity to “sick enactment culture” and warned against “over-medicalising the mundane challenges and worries of life”.

Ms Kendall said: “There is genuinely a occupation with galore young people, peculiarly the Covid generation, but we can’t person a concern wherever doing a day’s enactment is successful itself seen arsenic stressful.”

She added: “I went to sojourn 1 of my section supermarkets precocious to spot the superb enactment they’re doing with the foundation to get young radical into work. And we saw 2 things.

“One was young radical with genuine intelligence wellness problems, who the supermarket was doing large worldly to assistance them get enactment and enactment successful work.

“But besides the managers saying determination were immoderate young radical who felt conscionable turning up connected clip oregon moving the time that they needed to, not ever taking breaks – they had to recognize that that was the satellite of work, that was conscionable the quality of beingness and that isn’t accent oregon pressure.”

The survey besides showed that 2 successful 5 recipients were connected a waiting database for attraction for their wellness information and 50% who were retired of enactment felt their quality to enactment was babelike connected receiving treatment.

Ms Kendall said the Government is determined to “act and enactment that enactment successful place”, alternatively than “writing radical off” and “blaming them similar the past Conservative authorities did.”

She said: “I don’t blasted radical for reasoning that they can’t, due to the fact that they’re stuck connected a waiting database for treatment. They haven’t had the due enactment that they mightiness request from the occupation centre oregon the skills that they request to get the jobs, we’ve besides got to make much jobs successful the areas that request them most.

“So I’m nether nary illusions astir the standard of the situation that we’ve got. I judge much of those radical could work. But adjacent if we conscionable commencement with those who accidental they can, we request to bash much to get them backmost into work.”

The Work Aspirations of Health and Disability Claimants study is based connected a survey of 3,401 wellness and disablement payment recipients, including those receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), and those connected the Universal Credit (UC) Health Journey.