Reader’s letter: Benefits system needs an overhaul

I read in the Times newspaper (November 4 edition) that a benefit claimant can actually get more money by being signed off sick than actually seeking a job.

There is surely a problem with the incentives to fund work.

Alison McGovern, the minister over-seeing the benefits system, only states the obvious.

I have always said that there are too many people claiming benefits from the state.

The obvious answer is to give them less money.

Of course there will be the usual outcry about discrimination against the needy.

The current cost of sickness benefit payments is £65bn this year, and projected to hit £100bn by the end of the decade.

The Labour government needs to do a lot of thinking about how to reform the welfare system, before setting out plans next year.

There are 3.3m claiming incapacity because they are deemed “too ill to work”, up to a million since covid-19, and that total is expected to hit 4.1m by the end of this parliament.

I personally know men who have not worked since the 1970s. Just too bone idle.

If the Labour government are serious about this issue, an immediate lowering of benefit payment is obviously called for.

The Tories are equally guilty just as the Labour in encouraging this idleness.

One of the reasons for the rising numbers is that on incapacity benefit, you get more than Job Seekers Allowance, and with fewer conditions.

Will Starmer and co actually do anything to solve this problem?

I will not hold my breath on this one. — C. HOBBY, Newark.