Welfare has become a lifestyle choice under Labour

The Chancellor, John Healey, recently said that he would reduce the welfare budget but in “a Labour way”. Many suspected he meant “not at all”. But it might turn out to be worse than that: early indications are that ministers’ big plan to cut the benefits bill is to increase expenditure on other things. Welfare spending is already unsustainable and official projections on its future trajectory are grim. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that it will climb £79bn to £431bn by 2032.

This is crowding out spending on essential areas such as defence, placing an intolerable burden on people in work, and contributing to Britain’s growing debt problem. Andy Burnham has said that the Government is “working flat out” to get the welfare bill down. Part of Labour’s strategy is expected to be revealed in the long-awaited review by Alan Milburn , the former Labour health secretary, into youth unemployment. But Mr Milburn’s review is thought to point to higher spending on job-support measures in Germany and Denmark, and suggest that Britain follows their example.

This could see the Government increase spending by up to £6bn, on the assumption that it will eventually bring welfare bills down. The Left likes to call this “investment”, but what if the desired returns fail to materialise? Employment support and back-to-work schemes have a chequered history of success. Given that the Government does not appear to be considering cutting benefits up-front to fund these schemes, there is every chance that the taxpayer could be left paying more.

Part of the problem is the Government is focusing on the wrong question. Mr Milburn is right to say that it is a “moral and economic crisis” that more than one million young people are neither in employment, education or training. But Britain does not lack jobs, despite Labour’s hammering of employers. The country is still importing thousands of foreigners every year to fill vacancies. Britain’s problem is a benefits system that too often rewards indolence.

For too many, welfare has become a lifestyle choice. The expectation that people should take responsibility for themselves has been eroded by a Left-wing consensus that sees the state as being in loco parentis. Today more than 600,000 households now receive welfare payments greater than the average worker’s post-tax salary of £32,200. That is immoral. No amount of money from Labour will be enough to fix a system that makes being paid not to work an attractive option .