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Political Commentator Piers Pottinger has hit out at Labour's "absolutely preposterous" benefits system, following a drop in sanctions for those flouting the rules.Speaking to GB News, Mr Pottinger declared the Government are "completely unable to do anything" about the benefits system, because they're all "completely tied up in knots in their own party".FULL STORY HERE.
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start with this story in The Telegraph, benefit sanctions falling under Labour, showing that
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far fewer people claiming universal credit are now having their payments docked to comply
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with the rules. Yet another failure for the taxpayer. Yes, well, it is. Yes, that's true. The question, of course, is why it's all happening. So at
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the moment, we've got a situation where there are 3.7 million Brits who are unable to work
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So, therefore, that's the reason they're not being sanctioned. That's up from 2.67 million when your lot left office
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So, yes, there has been a huge increase. And the question really has to be why that is happening
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So, it's not about really sanctioning people, because if they're not required to work, there's no sanctions anyway
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Why can't they work? Is it because doctors are over-diagnosing? Is it because NHS waiting lists are too long
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What are the reasons? Now, Labour got this wrong when they were doing the disability benefit cuts
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because they were trying to save money, but they weren't doing a proper review
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to find out what's wrong with the benefit system. Stephen Timms is now doing that
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leading the review after the backbench rebellion. If he comes back with some answers about, basically
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are we getting sicker? What is going on? What is happening? Well, it's clearly not
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we're getting sicker, and you said 3.7 million who are unable to work
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I would rephrase that. It's 3.7 million who say they're unable to work
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Well, designated unable to work. The fact is it a million more people in a year under Labour now claiming to be unable to work The other staggering statistic is that one in 20 people
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only one in 20 people who've been out of work for a year, ever go back to work
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So 19 people out of 20 never go back to work. But we can't carry on like this
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Now, is it any wonder that illegal immigrants see this country as a soft touch
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It's absolutely preposterous. And because Labour is completely unable to do anything about the benefit system
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because they're all completely tied up in knots in their own party
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it shows that the benefit system, which everybody knows needs an overhaul
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is simply not going to get done. And it's going to make Rachel Reeves' position even worse
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with more and more people unemployed. But we agree with the overhaul
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I mean, another staggering statistic is that... Where is it here? Oh, yes
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For those looking... The people who have to look for a job
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as a condition of receiving their benefits fell from 1.65 million to 1.6 million over one year as well
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That's half a million people less being asked to look for a job
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What you want to do is ask why. Why? No, just because it's three quarters of people
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now have no conditions tied to their welfare. And I think a lot of people will be asking
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as to why that has increased. What is it? Is it ideological
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Many people will say this is ideological. Well they can do But I mean quite clearly there are an awful lot more people who are sick And the point I making is I don think that necessarily true though
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Well, all right, but... They're claiming they're a sick, of course, yes. Well, claiming, but they've actually been..
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It's called malingering. Well, not if they've been officially signed off sick for long-term sex
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Yes, but do you know how you claim benefits for mental health complaints
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It's now a phone call, not a face-to-face. It should be face-to-face
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It should be, but it's not. And because you can essentially download a script from the internet
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or watch a video on TikTok, you know exactly what triggers to present
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to say that you're anxious, depressed, suicidal, all these things. And then there's no incentive for the DWP official to say
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oh, hang on a minute, I'm not sure, because they get paid for finishing claims
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The whole system is rigged against the taxpayer. It's rigged against any kind of sanctions
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and it's just in favour of letting people get away with it. This is a problem of liberalism. It's taken over your party
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Which is why you need a review. This is my point about when there were simply docking payments
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from the disabled, that was the wrong way of going about it
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The right way of going about it is a proper review of welfare benefits
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We're in agreement. I agree that welfare benefits do need to be reviewed
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Yeah, but, I mean, you say we need a review. I mean, this is the wonderful way, isn't it
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that the Labour government kick everything into touch, create another unnecessary quango and review something
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because they have no idea what to do about it themselves. No, until you've actually found out what the problem is..
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Why don't they know what the problem is? Because the previous government didn't know either
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This has got worse by one million people in a year That incredible So the answer is to do a proper review to find out what the problem is But isn it just obvious what the problem is We gone soft and our whole liberal culture
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will not impose sanctions on anybody. It's exactly the same, actually, that's caused the problem with Ukraine and Russia
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We are completely allergic to enforcing any kind of boundaries because we don't like to see people suffer
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But if you don't have boundaries in society, people behave badly. I agree with you
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The whole thing, I agree with you, but do you not think we need to find out? I think we know
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Do we know? Bring back face-to-face appointments. Don't allow endless benefits for mental health
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I'm on your side there. And make sure that you can never get in as much on benefits as you can in work
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It seems to me as well that this whole topic of benefits has become very toxic in the Labour Party
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I genuinely think the government is struggling and will struggle with its backbenchers on this issue
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I mean, they've already lost a key battle on this, which is going to save the taxpayer nothing
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I think they've lost the battle on winter fuel allowance. And anything that comes down to spending, it seems, Nigel
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that Labour just can't seem to grip their backbenchers and go, listen, we need you to support us on this
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because the left of the party is very strong now. It doesn't help with an old guard like Kinnock of old piping up
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and Gordon Brown, both of them interfering and making ludicrous socialist claims
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that what they need to do is something even more ridiculous when they can't afford it
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This government cannot afford to do anything at the moment because all they are trying to do
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is be able to pay the interest on their overborrowing. It is absolutely..
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I mean, that's how bad a crisis this country is in economically
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The Brown argument is about taxes, that we do know that taxes will have to rise in the budget
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so therefore... Because of the mismanagement of Rachel Reilly
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