Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is courting “Scrooge” comparisons by wheeling out an old Tory attack line against benefit claimants – at Christmas.

The line is that benefit claimants refuse to look for work:

The Department for Work and Pensions could stop your payments next year – if claimants refuse to look for work. Ahead of Christmas, a renewed warning from the DWP has been circulating with claimants tasked with more strident attempts to get into work next year.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride warned: “These back-to-work reforms strike at the heart of the quid pro quo that defines the contract between the state and the individual. The government will provide you with the support you need to move into work but if you fail to keep your side of the bargain, if you refuse to engage or ignore available job opportunities, we will stop your job benefits.”

Experience suggests this may be a renewed attempt to force jobseekers into employment that pays less than they would receive on benefits – making a mockery of the claim that work is the best way out of poverty.

But who actually refuses to look for work? Very few people. If there is a glut of jobs that aren’t being filled, it’s probably because they simply aren’t worth taking.

Then again, the Tories have been making big speeches that employers should offer more pay to workers. If anything comes of that, they may see jobless figures falling.

But if they want to save money – or take money for the government – then they should be cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion rather than benefit fraud. And that is something the Tories will never do.

Source: DWP warns millions of benefits will be halted ‘if you refuse’

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