THE current Labour government of red Tories has doubled down recently on its propaganda against those people claiming benefits in the UK. 

These reactionary comments range from Starmer’s pledge in the Sun to be ruthless in his cuts to benefits, to Reeves making inflated claims in the same paper that spending on benefits has “spiralled out of control.” 

In the same interview with the Sun Reeves bragged that Labour is “introducing the biggest welfare fraud and error package in recent history.”

The implication is clear: those claiming benefits, including those workers on low wages claiming elements of universal credit, are an undeserving burden on the British economy. 

In the “golden days” of the Victorian era they at least maintained a distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor. Under Starmer’s Labour all people who claim benefits are clearly in the undeserving poor category and should be made to suffer ever greater poverty all to help “turbo charge” economic growth.

The neoliberal reactionaries in charge of our government are ignoring evidence that spending on benefits actually benefits the economy. 

Research by Pro Bono Economics and the anti-poverty group Z2K has found that the economic value of providing benefits far outweighs the cost to the public purse. Their report More than Money: the Lifelong Wellbeing Impact of Disability Benefits found that the £28 billion cost of benefits is greatly offset by the £42bn in annual economic benefits.

Pro Bono Economics CEO Matt Whittaker in a recent interview with The Independent said: “Disability benefits provide crucial financial support for millions of people, helping to offset the extra living costs that many disabled people face in their day-to-day lives. But we now know that they do so much more: boosting the mental wellbeing and life satisfaction of recipients to a level well beyond the cash cost of delivery.”

Ayla Ozmen, director of policy and campaigns at Z2K, told The Independent: “These findings show that the narrow focus on the rising cost of disability benefits misses the bigger picture. 

“The report reveals that disability benefits actually provide a boost to the economy: spending on disability benefits should be seen not as a drain on public finances but as an investment in economic growth.

“Instead of focusing on how to make short-term savings by reducing financial support for disabled people, the government needs to recognise the wider economic gains of disability benefits and instead concentrate on ensuring support is available to everyone who needs it.”

He adds: “Removing or reducing hundreds of pounds of vital financial support for disabled people would have a devastating effect. Already over 88 per cent of low-income households on disability benefits can’t afford the basics, including food, energy costs, prescriptions and transport to medical appointments. Further cuts will inevitably push people deeper into poverty and leave people in worse health.”

You don’t have to have an economics degree to realise that driving the poorest sections of society further into poverty will merely increase the costs to the already struggling NHS and social services and have severe economic consequences for a country heavily reliant on consumer spending. 

Of course, it does not have to be this way. Starmer could avoid any austerity measures by taxing the ever increasing wealth of the super rich or by not sending £3 billion a year to of the most corrupt governments on Earth in Kiev.

Starmer could tell the Bank of England to stop its quantitive tightening programme, which involves selling bonds at a loss which it bought to finance the government during the 2008 global financial crisis, estimated to cost the Treasury an eye-watering £96bn over the next four years. 

A new report by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) states that since 2022 losses on these bond sales have already cost the Treasury £45bn! Its research further estimates that stopping the active sale of bonds and just letting bonds roll off the bank’s balance sheet as they reach maturity could save £13.5bn a year. 

In the press release which accompanied the report NEF economist Dominic Caddick said: “The Bank of England’s decisions having such large fiscal implications at a time where the Chancellor wants to be fiscally tight is clearly not helpful.

“Furthermore, the losses the central bank make are gains for the private sector, funnelling billions of public money into commercial banks and the financial sector.’’

The deep cuts to benefits and other repressive measures, such as sanctions during the 2010-2024 period of Tory misrule, directly led to the deaths of many poor and disabled people. A fact which the UN disability committee stressed in its damning 2024 report into the UK. 

It seems that the current Labour government has no qualms about causing massive suffering to millions of people with its pro-rich agenda. Now more than ever the trade unions need to mobilise in support of the fightback against this attack on working-class people.

Dr Dylan Murphy is a member of Huddersfield Unite Community branch. He writes in a personal capacity.