The UK has the worst safety net for the unemployed in north-west Europe
Viewers have taken issue with a statement by Tory MP Chris Philp who claimed that the UK’s benefits system is ‘very generous’, in an interview this morning.
Speaking to Sky News on the steep rise of shoplifting, the Policing Minister was asked if he had any sympathy for people stealing for food. He argued that there was “no excuse” because the UK’s benefits system is “very generous”.
Philp said: “We have a very generous benefits system, we’re spending well over £100 billion on working-age benefits, they went up by 10% in April this year they’ll go up by another 6 or 7%. National Minimum Wage has just gone up by around 10%. There is no excuse at all for any criminal activity, including shoplifting.”
However, people were not impressed at being told by a politician, who’s current net worth is around £3 million, that the benefits system is ‘very generous’.
One X user responded: “Here is a challenge for Chris Philp – try living on ‘generous’ UK benefits for a month and then report back.”
Another wrote: “Clearly living in his own bubble. How disconnected from reality. The rental prices, bills have risen to unmanageable levels, the benefit system is completely inadequate.”
According to OECD data, the UK has the worst safety net for the unemployed, lagging behind most European countries. The UK provides its citizens with benefits support equalling 17% of previous in-work income, compared to 90% in Belgium, or 78% in Norway or on the lower end of 54% in Ireland. The rate is lower than every Northwestern European country.
Whilst the UK is one of only four high-income countries that has seen a large fall in its overall Welfare Benefit Generosity over the past forty years.
Research from the Joseph Roundtree Foundation has found that 61% of working-age adults in poverty are where at least one adult is in work, whilst nearly three-quarters of the 3.8 million people in destitution receive benefits, highlighting a failure of social security to support those struggling.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation also found the number of children in destitution in the UK has nearly tripled since 2017, to around one million. The organisation called it a “shameful” rise with a surge in the number of people struggling to meet their most basic needs.
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward, focusing on trade unions and environmental issues
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