By the end of this Parliament, working-age benefit spending is projected to be £30billion a year higher than in 2024/25. That sum alone exceeds the annual cost of reversing last year’s increase in employer National Insurance contributions.
State of Dependency contends that welfare reform cannot succeed in isolation but must sit within a broader programme of productive investment.
Ben Gregg, the CSJ’s Head of Welfare, said: “For decades, governments have tried to compensate struggling regions for economic decline rather than reverse it, using welfare to numb the pain instead of providing a reason to hope.”
Mr Gregg added: “A Britain where everyone has a stake in prosperity is one where good jobs and thriving towns are within reach of every community. That is not achieved by writing a cheque and forgetting about people. It comes from investing in these places and removing the barriers that stop businesses doing the same.”
The report itself describes welfare as “the anaesthetic that has kept areas of the country numbed during two decades of economic failure.”
It argues that poor local economies generate low pay, ill health and joblessness, and that benefits address the symptoms without tackling the underlying conditions.
The resulting expenditure, it warns, squeezes out the very investment needed to revive regional economies.