Sunak’s disability benefit plans are familiar culture war fodder

19/04/2024 16:22 The Guardian

The prime minister’s speech on cracking down on ‘sicknote culture’ was heavy on rhetoric but light on evidence and detailRishi Sunak’s big speech on reforming disability benefits was intended to show that the government had a grip on the economic and health challenges of the UK’s rising levels of long-term sickness. Instead, it came over as an administration running out of ideas, high on strident rhetoric, and desperate to cut welfare bills at all costs.It was a “moral mission”, Sunak declared, to overhaul the current welfare system, which was “unfit for purpose”. Disability benefits were too easy to cheat, too cushy, too easily claimed. The speech was a clear appeal to the notion, in vogue on the right, that “mental health culture” has “gone too far”. Continue reading...

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