A growing number of Britons are on disability benefits
The government’s attempts to cut the welfare bill miss the bigger picture
In a community centre in Northampton, a town in central England, a group of mental-health patients are learning how to navigate the benefits system. A young mother with psychosis wants to know how a new job will affect her payments; a man with severe anxiety struggles to support his autistic son. Their guide to the welfare state, an ex-adviser to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), is sympathetic but slips unthinkingly into jargon. “Forgive me if I speak in TLAs,” he says.
Britain’s welfare state can be impenetrable to claimants. It is also immense: no government department spends more than the DWP. This year spending on social security in Britain is expected to pass £300bn ($376bn), the equivalent of 11% of GDP. It is forecast to reach £350bn by 2028.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "The costs of benefits"
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