How to Watch UK TV Channels Outside of the UK? I'll give you a simple trick that will explain how to watch UK TV channels live abroad. Now you can watch all of your favorite UK TV programmes while you are away from home without VPN with 1Fakt.com
A record number of people are now claiming disability benefits for anxiety - with 250 handed the benefit every day under Labour.
Almost 650,000 people were claiming Personal Independence Payments (PIP) for anxiety and mood disorders in July, according to new research.
More than 44,000 people have been handed PIP for mental health since the general election last year - equating to almost 250 people every day under Sir Keir Starmer.
Meanwhile almost a million benefits claimants will be £2,500 better off than those working a minimum wage job by 2026, the research by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found.
An economically inactive claimant on universal credit for ill health who receives the average housing benefit and PIP will get about £25,000 - more than the £22,500 a full-time worker on the national living wage is expected to earn after paying income tax and national insurance.
The think tank said the figures show ‘rising numbers of young people combining different benefits to provide an income in place of work’.
Ben Gregg, senior researcher at the CSJ, said: ‘Abandoning young people to sickness benefits only increases the isolation feeding their struggles. It is neither kind nor helpful.
‘The Government can and should redirect funding to tackling the root causes of mental ill-health.’
He added that work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden is ‘saying all the right things about getting young people into work, but the Government must turn warm words into action’.
There were 60,000 16 to 24-year-olds receiving PIP for anxiety, depression and mood disorders in July, with an additional 1,407 under 25s awarded the benefit that month, the think tank found.
Almost a million under 25s are not in either in work or training, with over half citing ill-health. There are 50,000 fewer young people on company payrolls since April alone, according to HMRC.
The CSJ has called on ministers to urgently ‘close the gap between work and welfare’ and get more young people into jobs before they are ‘locked out of opportunity for decades to come’.
The think tank has proposed a plan - backed by former ministers Lord Blunkett and Jeremy Hunt - to withdraw universal credit health and PIP from 1.1 million people with milder anxiety, depression or ADHD to save £7.4billion by 2029/30.
It has also proposed an effective tax cut for employers hiring young people who are not in employment, education or training that it says would get 120,000 under 25s into jobs.
Earlier this month Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data showed that 3.83 million people were claiming PIP in England and Wales at the end of July - up by almost 100,000 since Labour’s welfare reform climbdown.
The Prime Minister was forced to abandon plans to trim the benefits bill by £5billion at the start of July following a major revolt by Labour backbenchers.
The proposals to tighten PIP eligibility were shelved pending a review by welfare minister Sir Stephen Timms - despite an official forecast revealing that, without reforms, the number of PIP claimants will soar from 3 million to 4.2 million by the next election.
The Government’s own forecast predicted that the cost of PIP payments will rise from £21.8billion to £34.1billion by 2029 and could lead to the collapse of the benefits system if changes are not made.
A Government spokesman said: 'We are reforming the broken welfare system by shifting our focus away from welfare and onto work, skills, and opportunities – especially for younger people.
'That is why we are rebalancing Universal Credit to reduce the perverse incentives that encourage ill health, while also investing an extra £45million in the youth guarantee trailblazer, £3.8billion in employment support and £688million on mental health services to help get young people back into employment.
'We have also commissioned an independent review from Sir Charlie Mayfield aimed at helping the government and employers better support those with ill health who may be at risk of falling out of work to stay in employment.'
It comes as the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the UK must tackle its status as ‘the sick man of the G7’ if it wants to grow the economy as long-term sickness is ‘hobbling’ growth.
About 7 per cent of the workforce is out of work due to long-term sickness - compared to just 3.5 per cent in Japan - costing £130billion in lost economic output, a figure which does not include welfare payments.
In a new report the BCC is calling for ministers to ‘halt the rising tide of sickness’ by reforming the fit-note system and introducing a wage subsidy scheme to help young people with long-term health conditions to get into work.
Shevaun Haviland, director general of the BCC, said: ‘Sickness absenteeism is a growing concern. The UK has more than nine million people who aren’t working with one third of them suffering from long-term health conditions.
‘This is a devastating loss of potential - for these individuals, the businesses that need them and our local economies. If the government is serious about growth, then we must turn the tide on this loss of talent.’