UK residents claiming unemployment and incapacity benefits with PIP can be paid up to £25,000, more than the take home pay of a British worker on the national living wage.
This is according to research from the Centre for Social Justice think tank, which noted that full-time workers on minimum wage currently take home around £22,500 per year, less than those on universal credit with average housing support and the highest rate of personal independence payments (PIP).
It is estimated that around 2 million workers in the UK earn a minimum-wage take home pay of £22,500, meaning some of those on benefits are being paid more than they would in an entry-level job.
The Centre for Social Justice pointed to rising health and disability benefits as a major driver of inflating benefit claims, noting that an unemployed single parent with PIP for anxiety and a child with ADHD could receive up to £36,900 in benefits. That is over £14,000 more take-home pay than a worker on national living wage.
This disparity between benefits claims and take-home pay could persist even after proposed government reforms, the think tank said. It called for a new approach to welfare, where those with less severe mental health conditions and ADHD receive cash payments and are redirected into treatment.
“Before lockdown, we had the lowest numbers of workless households since records began,” said Centre for Social Justice Chair Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
“However figures from the Centre for Social Justice show how damaging Covid was and that, since then, the scale of the disincentive to work has grown dramatically.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch today called for foreign nationals to be banned from claiming disability and sickness benefits in a bid to curb the country’s growing welfare bill.
This comes after the Labour government’s initial proposals to tighten criteria around disability benefits and reduce the welfare were met with strong backlash from the party backbenches, with MPs threatening a rebellion over the changes.
This forced the government to make a number of concessions to placate rebelling MPs, with the a watered-down version of the bill finally being passed in early July.
Amongst the concessions was an agreement that any changes to PIP would only be introduced after a review and that the higher health-related rate for existing universal credit claimants would not be frozen.
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