{"id":769495,"date":"2026-09-13T16:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T16:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/769495\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T16:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T16:28:14","slug":"dwp-benefits-fury-as-labour-admits-200000-uk-families-pocket-more-in-tax-handouts-than-the-average-working-briton-earns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/769495\/","title":{"rendered":"DWP benefits fury as Labour admits 200,000 UK families pocket more in tax handouts than the average working Briton earns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Labour has admitted that 200,000 families in Britain rake in more in benefits per year than the average hard-working Briton.<\/p>\n<p>With taxpayers already forced to pay up for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gbnews.com\/news\/migrant-hotels-labour-shuts-asylum-accommodation-mapped\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">migrant housing<\/a>, councils <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gbnews.com\/news\/flag-row-raise-the-colours\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tearing down the nation&#8217;s flag<\/a>, WFH civil servants&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gbnews.com\/news\/work-from-home-civil-servants-energy-bills\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">heating bills<\/a> and more, it has now emerged that they are also funding above-average lifestyles in Britain.<\/p>\n<p>Just days ago, Lord Truscott challenged Labour to reveal exactly how many benefit recipients &#8220;earn&#8221; more than the national average wage.<\/p>\n<p>And DWP minister Baroness Sherlock has now answered.<\/p>\n<p>For the financial year ending 2025, she said, there were 200,000 families in the UK who claimed more than \u00a339,039 in &#8220;state support&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>This includes tax credits and all benefits, including Universal Credit, the state pension and Personal Independence Payment (Pip).<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s more than the entire population of Bournemouth, Peterborough, or Bolton.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our welfare system is so out of touch it pays those on benefits more than those who go out to work,&#8221; Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately told The Sun.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"55043\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"18eef9c88119335ce50c7db36007af6d\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202000%201333'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/helen-whately.jpg\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Helen Whately\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Our welfare system is so out of touch it pays those on benefits more than those who go out to work,&#8217; Helen Whately said<\/p>\n<p> | GETTY<\/p>\n<p>                BRITAIN&#8217;S BENEFITS BILL &#8211; READ MORE:<\/p>\n<p>        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"cf8e0\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"94068359a2231d69d11403e4c45c0191\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%205000%203155'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/putin-and-xi-jinping.jpg\" width=\"5000\" height=\"3155\" alt=\"Putin and Xi Jinping\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Andy Burnham promised not to overlook &#8216;social security&#8217; despite threats from Russia and China<\/p>\n<p> | GETTY<\/p>\n<p>But Andy Burnham defended how taxpayers are made to pay five times more for benefits and welfare than for the defence of the nation.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the UK spent just \u00a362billion on its core defence budget, covering the nuclear deterrent, all branches of the Armed Forces and more.<\/p>\n<p>Taxpayers were made to pay out \u00a3334billion for welfare in the same time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, we do everything to support our national security &#8211; but it cannot come at the expense of social security,&#8221; he thundered in the Commons.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This side of the House will not be forced to choose between the two,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gbnews.com\/politics\/kemi-badenoch-abolish-inheritance-tax-weak-labour\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kemi Badenoch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"dc38d\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"911293bd03b15955283937c7db5c4036\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202000%201330'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/kemi-badenoch.png\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1330\" alt=\"Kemi Badenoch\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The Labour Party has become the Welfare Party,&#8217; Kemi Badenoch has warned<\/p>\n<p> | PA<\/p>\n<p>But the Tory leader accused him of saying &#8220;the quiet part out loud&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Labour Party has become the Welfare Party,&#8221; she wrote in the Mail. &#8220;The first duty of Government is defence of the country, not paying more benefits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Labour&#8217;s Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has in the past openly admitted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gbnews.com\/politics\/pat-mcfadden-peter-mandelson-benefits-messages\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">how &#8220;every meeting I have is &#8216;who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others'&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Though in response to criticism of Baroness Sherlock&#8217;s reveal, the DWP said it was pushing to &#8220;end the culture of people being signed off and written off&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year, the amount of people receiving awards over \u00a330,000 was under two per cent of the total,&#8221; a spokesman said. &#8220;We&#8217;re reforming welfare to end the culture of people being signed off and written off.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour has admitted that 200,000 families in Britain rake in more in benefits per year than the average&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,2222,50,6039,229,56,44208,54,55,7160],"class_list":["post-769495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-money","tag-news","tag-pip","tag-politics","tag-uk","tag-uk-politics","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-universal-credit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769495","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=769495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}