Badenoch announces Tory review of which conditions qualify for benefits | Benefits
The Conservatives have begun a policy review aimed at reducing the scope and cost of the welfare system, with Kemi Badenoch saying the “age of diagnosis” for “low-level mental disorders” was quickly making it unaffordable.
While it is up to the review to propose specific policies, the Conservative leader suggested some payments could be time-limited, saying one element would look at “at what stage support should come and how long it should last”.
She also suggested the possibility of ending the use of relative poverty as an indicator of deprivation, saying this does not take into account whether people are better off if the economy grows.
Speaking at an event in central London, Badenoch said that as part of the party’s “campaign to get Britain back to work”, she and three other members of her senior team would next year look at “the most difficult and complicated aspect of work and social care in this country”.
While Badenoch said this would be done with medical experts and labor “to make sure we get it right,” one of the main refrains of his speech was that increasing the number of people receiving benefits for physical and mental problems was unaffordable.
This was, she said, particularly true for “low-level mental health issues” such as ADHD.
“A lot of people don’t know the extent of the problem,” she said. “Many people don’t know how serious the situation is. Quite simply, our health insurance system was not designed to meet the age of diagnosis we currently live in.”
Badenoch said the Conservatives would significantly reduce the eligibility requirements. “We’re going to look at conditions that states consider benefits disabilities,” she said.
“We will all face physical and mental problems at some point in our lives, but at a time when one in four people now identify as disabled, it is clear that we will now have to draw the line on what health problems the state can support.
She said the changes would be needed to help the UK better absorb what she called “shocks” to the economy – using Brexit as an example alongside Covid and the financial crisis.
Badenoch suggested moving away from measuring poverty in relative terms (those receiving less than 60% of median income).
“It’s not a measure of poverty at all,” she said. “This is a bad measure, because in a booming economy, as incomes rise, more people may be considered living in poverty, even if their real income increases.
“We need something better. I have long said that Britain risks becoming a welfare state with an economy attached.”
In his speech and subsequent media Q&A, Badenoch repeatedly framed rising social spending as partly the product of choice and abuse of the system, saying many people turn down jobs “because they think those jobs are beneath them.”
But she rejected the idea that expressing a diagnosis age and what she again calls a “benefit budget street” could stigmatize people and appear mean-spirited. “I think politicians should always be careful with language, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what I said,” she responded.
“We spend so much time trying not to upset people, or not to say anything that might upset people, that we end up creating a system that is unusable. I won’t apologize for the language that I use. I’m actually very careful with my language, but I use language that will get through.”
