{"id":692597,"date":"2026-07-15T07:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692597\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T07:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:41:10","slug":"labour-must-stop-just-writing-a-cheque-for-benefit-claimants-says-mcfadden-unemployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692597\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour must stop just writing a cheque for benefit claimants, says McFadden | Unemployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour must stop \u201csimply writing a cheque\u201d for health and disability benefit claimants and will provide more job support instead, the work and pensions secretary has said.<\/p>\n

Pat McFadden said the government was preparing to launch a renewed effort at welfare reform with a focus on encouraging more people with health conditions to get into work and off benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe government fulfils its responsibilities simply by writing a cheque. I think we owe people more than that,\u201d he told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, for people who can never work, the system must always be there for them, and it always should be. But for those who could work, or could change their situation, then we\u2019ve got to help them do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a visit to a jobcentre in south London, McFadden signalled that welfare reform could form the backbone of Labour\u2019s response to two landmark government-backed reports.<\/p>\n

Ministers are awaiting the final recommendations from Alan Milburn\u2019s report into youth worklessness and Stephen Timms\u2019s review of disability benefits. However, both have already highlighted deep-rooted problems with the welfare system and urged the government to take action.<\/p>\n

In its interim report published last week, the Timms review<\/a> concluded that the personal independence payment (Pip), claimed by nearly 4 million people in England and Wales, was \u201cnot working\u201d and suggested bold and radical proposals were needed to overhaul it.<\/p>\n

In late May the first phase of the Milburn review<\/a> urged a \u201cwhole system reset\u201d involving welfare, schools, and employers to tackle a big increase in the number of young people out of work or education to more than a million.<\/p>\n

McFadden, who commissioned both reviews, said work was under way on the government response in anticipation of the final reports this autumn. \u201cEven before they\u2019ve reported, I\u2019m already speaking to the Department for Education [and] the Department for Health. We\u2019re going to have to respond to this as a government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my job to put together a plan, a proposal, [that] changes the question of the welfare state from simply asking, \u2018what benefits are you entitled to?\u2019, to asking, \u2018how can we help you live the fullest life?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

McFadden has previously hinted<\/a> that Labour could stage a fresh attempt at overhauling the welfare system after the government was forced into a humiliating partial U-turn to avoid a backbench rebellion over a \u00a35bn package of cuts.<\/p>\n

Ministers are grappling with tight constraints on the public finances, including a rising welfare bill amid spiralling health-related benefit caseloads, as well as growing pressures to spend on defence.<\/p>\n

Questions are mounting about how Labour plans to respond before the expected arrival of Andy Burnham as prime minister next week, including about the makeup of the Makerfield MP\u2019s cabinet.<\/p>\n

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McFadden has been floated by some Labour MPs as a candidate to be chancellor, who suggest that he should be picked over Ed Miliband as a safe pair of hands amid jitters in the financial markets. Others are calling for a more radical shift to help Labour overturn dismal opinion poll ratings, with time running out before the next general election.<\/p>\n

Suggesting that he was focused on his current job, the work and pensions secretary said welfare reform would still be a priority for Burnham. The prime minister-in-waiting has also signalled a desire to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an agenda for all seasons,\u201d McFadden said. \u201cBecause the Labour party should always believe in opportunity and work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news comes as the government announced that it was now supporting 100,000 people on the highest level of health-related benefits \u2013 limited capability for work and work-related activity \u2013 through its Pathways to Work scheme, which provides no-strings attached support for claimants to help them gain more confidence to engage in the jobs market.<\/p>\n

Meeting work coaches and people with health conditions who had been supported by the scheme at Kennington jobcentre, McFadden said the programme showed that Labour needed to approach welfare reform by offering people more employment support.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to invest in the support,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the past, people have been signed off [on benefits] and written off. That has \u2013 as we\u2019ve heard from this morning\u2019s group \u2013 often led to people feeling isolated, depressed, their condition becoming worse, not better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour must stop \u201csimply writing a cheque\u201d for health and disability benefit claimants and will provide more job…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-692597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}