Labour’s “Get Britain Working” strategy will only make things worse. Here’s why | Iain Porter

IIf you are someone with a disability or long-term health condition who loses their job, the system designed to help you get and stay in a job isn’t working. Disabled people’s experiences of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are often characterized by distrust, fear and negativity. Those who have tried to find work have spoken of structural and cultural barriers built into the system. These can include stressful and humiliating assessments, the gnawing fear of sanctions and a lack of positive engagement from the DWP, which provides poorly tailored employment support.

The Labor government promised to take a fundamentally different approach in its Get Britain Working white paper published earlier this week. Speaking on the paper, Keir Starmer said it was time to end the culture of “blaming and shaming” people who don’t get the support they need. Then, in the same breath, he promised to “cut” the country’s “spiraling” benefits law as part of his government’s efforts to get more people into work. This harmful rhetoric threatens to sabotage the government’s attempts to reset its relationship with sick or disabled people. While the White Paper signaled the government’s ambitions, these will be undermined by cuts to benefits planned for next year.

It is clear that a new approach for people with health problems is urgently needed. A record 2.8 million people are currently unemployed due to long-term illness. Crises in our NHS and social care services, as well as inflexible workplaces, are making people sicker, which is one of the reasons so many are currently unable to work. It was therefore right that the White Paper focused on tackling the root causes of this crisis, including health interventions such as: Expanding access to mental health support and additional capacity to reduce NHS waiting lists in certain areas and supporting employers to recruit and retain people with disabilities.

But the government does not seem to understand that Britain’s hollowed-out social safety net is becoming a barrier to those finding work. As long as benefits remain poor, people will continue to struggle – and this will hinder their ability to return to work. Without an adequate safety net, a setback such as job loss can be difficult to cope with. Finding and applying for a job is nearly impossible if you spend all your time and energy trying to stretch your tight budget to the point where you can afford the basics. The stress of not knowing whether you will be able to afford your next meal or the health impacts of living in a cold home with no heat make it all the more difficult to pursue suitable work opportunities.

Currently, the principle of support for people who are unemployed, including those with health problems or a disability, is completely inadequate. Nearly nine out of 10 low-income families in which someone receives a health insurance benefit go without basic necessities. Compared to all working-age adults, they are three times more likely to be unable to afford to keep their home warm.

Instead of strengthening support for the unemployed, the government is more willing to further weaken it. In the budget, Rachel Reeves committed to making £3 billion worth of savings through health and disability benefits, as planned by the Conservative government. Labor has said this will be done in a different way than proposed by the previous government, but has not elaborated on how. Disabled people will now have to wait until the spring to find out where these savings will be made.

Instead of tightening the wording of benefits, we need to recognize the role our social security system plays in a fair and compassionate society that rightly helps people when they fall on hard times. A more fundamental reorientation of our employment support system would take into account the fact that the level of income support for the unemployed, whether or not they have a disability or health condition, is now so low that it itself constitutes a barrier to work.

The bigger problem is this: the only sustainable way to reduce spending on unemployment benefits is to reduce the need for them and ensure that people have access to good jobs and the services that enable them to live healthy lives. The Labor White Paper partly recognizes this, but misses the opportunity for an even broader reset. If a healthy nation and a healthy economy are truly two sides of the same coin, then our social security system must support people’s health and well-being by giving them enough to live on.