Five things for Cameron to Remember

ViewsJune 25th, 2012

As Cameron is tipped to make even more draconian announcements about “welfare” later today, Victoria Winckler points out five facts to remember.

The most costly element of the “welfare” bill is pensions, not Income Support for lone parents or Housing Benefit. Pensions and related benefits for pensioners account for two-thirds of social security benefits (£96.6 billion out of a total spend of £147.6 billion in 2009/10).
Income-related benefits, those reviled by the Government as ‘something for nothing’, account for less than a third of the benefit bill, at £47 billion.
A substantial number of benefit claimants are working. About a third of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claimants are in employment and more than three-quarters of families claiming Child and/or Working Tax Credit are households where someone is working. They claim because their earnings are low not because they are scroungers or lazy.
Relatively few people claiming benefit claim for a long period. Only 1% of Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants have been claiming for more than 12 months. A much higher proportion (80%) have been claiming Incapacity Benefit / Employment and Support Allowance for more than 12 months, as would be expected from a benefit intended to support those too sick or disabled to work.
Estimates of the cost of tax avoidance vary considerably but the Tax Justice Network suggests it costs the UK £69.9 billion. Is it a coincidence that the statement about benefits is coming after a week of unprecedented focus on tax issues?

Most important of all, though, is that benefits are there as a safety net. Any one of us, later today, could be in a road accident or be made redundant or have a family member diagnosed with an illness so that they need our care. Our income would suddenly stop, so unless you have considerable savings (and very few people do) or wealthy family to help out, you too could be a ‘benefit scrounger’ by next week.

Victoria Winckler is Director of the Bevan Foundation.

Sources:

Department for Work and Pensions Benefit Expenditure Tables http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/index.php?page=expenditure

Department for Work and Pensions statistics on Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit
http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=hbctb

HMRC Personal Tax Credits Provisional Statistics http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtc-quarterly-stats.htm

IB/ESA and JSA duration of claim statistics via NOMIS
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/