Tax incentives for those over the age of 50 have also come to the fore in the government’s move to end the country’s workforce crisis. Labor Pensions Secretary Mel Stride wants to encourage people to get back into the workforce to boost the economy.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said the upcoming white paper will “shape” the government’s approach.
He added:
“He said there are different things we’re looking at, but it’s clearly the budget to talk about these kinds of things.
“We will publish a Health and Disability White Paper in the coming months, which will be based on consultations with people with disabilities and health conditions and will help shape our approach.”
Employment lags pre-pandemic levels despite a severe labor shortage.
One option under consideration by ministers is to encourage employees over the age of 50 to return to work by offering a full income tax exemption for six months to a year.
About 565,000 more people had no economic activity in December than at the start of the pandemic.
The minister considers the current system used to assess eligibility for sickness benefits to be “a malicious incentive to prove the extent of your illness” and will consider abolishing it. I’m here.
Instead, it can be replaced with a process that asks the claimant to indicate what work can be done.
But the new system does not allow perfectly healthy people to claim sick pay while working.
Sunak said last week that the government was considering various measures to tackle inactivity, and that the welfare system was part of that effort.
James Taylor, director of strategy for disability equality charity Scope, said:
“Performance assessments have served no purpose, and year after year we continue to appeal to poor decision-making with high levels of success.
“For too long, people with disabilities have been forced to fight for support in a hostile system that causes overwhelming anxiety and stress.
“Governments need to restore confidence in the system and undertake major reforms.
“People with disabilities need welfare systems that work from the start and treat them with fairness, dignity and respect.”
“People shouldn’t put too much faith in changes in the benefit system that will lead to the return of those who left during the pandemic,” said Thorsten Bell, CEO of Resolution Foundation Think Tank.
“People who have been out of the labor market for a long time are very unlikely to come back,” he said.
