The Tories must get serious about welfare reform

You can’t fault Mel Stride for trying. Conscious that our current levels of worklessness are neither sustainable nor likely to win the Tories plaudits at the next general election, the Work and Pensions Secretary has been proposing a range of wild and wacky solutions. In February, it was reported the government would be expanding ‘midlife MOTs’ to get the unemployed under-50s back to work. In July, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) policy generator was at it again, encouraging doctors to refer patients to life coaches rather than sign them off sick. 

Now we’re getting the stick: new reforms would see people who refuse take on work placements or to engage with job centre staff having their Universal Credit and other entitlements, such as dental care, stopped.

The reforms will be met with predictable howls of outrage, but this crackdown is overdue. State support ought to exist for those who cannot work, not those who cannot be bothered to work.