Show notes.
Why Britain isn’t working. How the benefits system became a danger to the economy and a battleground for Labour. By Will Dunn.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the government had spent almost £100bn – more than three times the defence budget – on the furlough scheme, which paid nearly 12 million people not to go to work. Half the country’s remaining employees had moved to working from home.
The UK is the only G7 economy in which labour force participation hasn’t yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels. The more workless people the UK has, the more fragile our economy will be, and the fewer choices we will have in an unstable world.
The mental health statistics also support Bill Wells’ picture of a country that has focused on university education at the expense of school leavers. Four out of five young people who aren’t working due to ill health have no qualifications beyond their GCSEs.
Cuts as reported by The Times.
Finally, I apologise for the camera shot. I’m reading while podcasting.
